AFP - Mexico City on Monday became Latin America's first municipality to approve gay marriage, an aide to a city lawmaker told AFP.
"It was approved overall by 39 votes in favor and 20 against, with five abstentions," said a spokesman for the bill's chief sponsor, assemblyman Davi Razu.
Spokesman Oscar Oliver said city legislators were now taking up a measure in the bill that would allow married same-sex couples to adopt children.
The new measure modified a civil union law already on the books in Mexico City, as in other Latin American nations including Uruguay and Colombia.
In Argentina the Supreme Court is to rule on a court-approved gay marriage that was challenged earlier this month.
Mexico City's gay marriage bill was fully backed in the Assembly by the city's majority leftist party, the Democratic Revolution Party, and opposed by the country's ruling National Action Party.
Before Monday's vote, Mexico City was among a handful of Latin American cities that allowed gay unions.
Mexico City, MexicoLawmakers in the municipality of Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, became the first to approve gay marriage in Latin America yesterday, despite opposition from conservative groups and the Catholic Church.

"It was approved overall by 39 votes in favor and twenty against, with five abstentions," said a spokesman for David Razu, the bill's chief sponsor. Razu proposed the bill to allow same-sex couples to have the same access as heterosexual married couples to social security and other benefits.

Some cities in countries in Latin America, such as Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador permit homosexual civil unions, Uruguay permits civil unions throughout the country as well as adoption, and last month a court in Argentina blocked a bill proposing gay marriage; the country's Supreme Court has yet to make the final ruling.

Spokesman Oscar Oliver said that the next step for the capital's lawmakers was to use a measure in the bill intended to permit adoption for same-sex married couples.