At least seven LGBT couples traveling
with a caravan of asylum seekers participated in a symbolic mass
wedding ceremony on Saturday.
According to The Telegraph, the
couples married after the caravan of thousands arrived at the
U.S.-Mexico border town of Tijuana.
Video from the ceremony shows one
couple, Pedro Nehemias Pastor de Leon from Guatemala and Erick
Alexander Duran Reyes from Honduras, exchanging wedding rings and
sharing a kiss.
“This is a dream come true, because
in our countries you don't see this and we always wanted it and today
we have this opportunity and we are very happy, really happy,”
Nehemias Pastor told the paper in Spanish.
The migrants are fleeing violence in
Central America. According to Amnesty International, El Salvador,
Honduras and Guatemala are facing murder rates three to eight times
higher than what the World Health Organization defines as epidemic.
“We decided to join [the migrant
caravan] because there's a lot of discrimination and a lot of poverty
in our towns,” said Duran Reyes in Spanish.
It could take months for the U.S. to
process the thousands of migrants arriving from Central America.