Mexico City Mayor Sues Catholic Cardinal Over Gay Marriage Accusations

Mexico City’s Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has filed a defamation lawsuit against Cardinal Juan Sandoval after the cardinal told the press that Ebrard had bribed Mexico’s Supreme Court justices to legalize same-sex marriage and gay adoption.

Sandoval made the allegations on Sunday during an event in Aguascalientes state. He also used a slur against gays while decrying the recent high court decisions that were called victories for the gay-rights community, as L.A. Times correspondent Tracy Wilkinson analyzes in this story. Church authorities were not backing down. Sandoval said Monday he would not retract his comments, and the archdiocese in Guadalajara later said it had proof of the allegations against the Supreme Court justices. Statements in support were issued from the archdiocese in Mexico City, while the Bishops’ Conference of Mexico also said it supports Sandoval. In the secular institutional corner, the Supreme Court censured Sandoval’s statements unanimously, and Ebrard issued a stark warning to the highest-ranking prelate of Mexico’s second-largest city: “We live in a secular state, and here, whether we like it or not, the law rules the land,” Ebrard said, according to La Jornada. “The cardinal must submit to the law of the land, like all other citizens of this country.”

Earlier this month Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages performed in the nation’s capital must be recognized in all 31 states. Last week the same court upheld the constitutionality of allowing gay adoption in Mexico City.