By Andalusia Knoll Soloff
Ana Scarlett Vargas was assigned male at birth, but she said she knew she was a girl at just 7 years old. At 13, she started performing in drag shows, impersonating the Mexican actress Laura Leon, in the tourist city of Acapulco where she was raised.
During one performance, she was shocked to find her father in the audience. "I prefer you dead, than as a fag," she recalled him saying, before beating her. Vargas left home shortly after and became a sex worker at 15 to support herself and send money home for her 14 siblings.
Now, more than two decades later, Vargas is still impersonating Leon. Most recently, however, she did so on stage at her own wedding, which was held Saturday at a central plaza in Mexico City. Vargas and her now-husband joined 140 other LGBTQ couples to tie the knot in a collective wedding organized by Rainbow Caravan, a Mexico City government campaign aimed at eliminating discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
On the same day, Vargas — along with 30 others — legally changed the gender marker on her government-issued ID to represent her gender identity, not her sex assigned at birth. Read more via NBC
Mass wedding in Mexico City marks decade of same-sex marriage
Mexico City: The Mexico City government marked 10 years of the legal recognition of same-sex marriage by holding a mass wedding, which saw the participation 140 same-sex couples.
Legal recognition of same-sex marriages entered into effect in March 2010 in Mexico City, the first region of Mexico to reform its civil code, reports Efe news.
“We acknowledge that it has not been easy to gain these rights, but we are moving towards a free society and promoting inclusion, respect and equality,” Civil Registry chief Manuel Becerra said on Saturday during the celebrations.
Since the legalization, 13,134 same-sex unions have been registered in the capital, of which 6,997 were gays and 6,137 were lesbians, the legal services department of Mexico City said on Saturday.
After the reform, states such as Coahuila, in the country’s north and Quintana Roo in the south eastern region, have changed the civil codes to allow sam-sex unions. Read more via IANS