A crowd of approximately 11,000 angry anti-gay protestors who call themselves “pro-family” gathered in Guanajuato on Saturday to protest Mexican President Pena Nieto’s proposal for same-sex marriage “without any form of discrimination.” The protestors ran into a bit of obstruction.
A 12-year-old boy stood in the middle of the street, hands out, in hopes of stopping the crowd—or at minimum, to make a statement. And he did. TowlerRoad.com reports:
Across Mexico over the weekend, thousands of “pro-family” groups protested against same-sex marriage as the country moves toward marriage equality. In one particular march in Celaya, Guanajuato, a 12-year-old boy was photographed in the middle of the street trying to block the march of 11,000 people from moving forward.
The photographer who captured the image, Manuel Rodriguez, says he thought the child was only playing at first. But later in an interview, the child said he understood what he was doing.
“I have an uncle who is gay and I hate the hatred.”
This photo is powerfully reminiscent of the 1989 image of a man (“Tank Man”) standing in front of a tank in protest in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
A good reminder that it was barely a year ago same-sex marriage/equal marriage was made legal in all 50 states in America. Prior to that, it was state by state. Mexico has 9 of their 22 states that have made same-sex marriage legal.
This courageous and remarkable child just helped bring awareness to LGBT rights in Mexico and around the world.