Mexico City Officials
Defend Gay Rights

The booklet spells out 19 rights in areas such as education, health care, employment, free expression and free association, and lists contact information for non-governmental organizations concerned with human-rights abuses.

Jiménez said Mexico's 20-year gay struggle "has required [gays and lesbians] to come out of marginality and recognize that a large sector of society can come to be tolerant."

"This path on which the lesbian and homosexual community has walked away from self-marginalization is connected to the 1985 earthquake, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the 1988 elections' hope of democracy which has been renewed by the Zapatista uprising," she said.

Jiménez called the treatise "historical" because it marks the first time such a document was produced jointly with a governmental body.

Mexico City Ombudsman Luis de la Barrera, speaking at the unveiling, said it is wrong to discriminate against someone for making love in their own way.

He added that defending human rights involves paying attention both to abuse by authorities and to the concerns of unprotected social groups.

Tijuana Gay Plaza Safe Again

Following what the local gay paper called "hell raising" from gay activists, Tijuana, Mexico's gay plaza is once again safe from muggers.

Thugs began attacking homosexuals in Plaza Santa Cecilia in April after the municipal police withdrew officers assigned to the location at night.

But now, according to Frontera Gay, "three and sometimes more officers are being assigned to foot-patrol the plaza from dusk until dawn which has once again gotten rid of the gangs-of- muggers problem."

Home to three gay bars, Plaza Santa Cecilia is a diagonal pedestrian mall that runs from First Street and Revolution Avenue to Second Street and Constitution Avenue.

Tijuana, with a population estimated at up to 2 million, is 15 miles south of San Diego, California.