Mexico transgender couple marry and push law

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A couple who both changed their sexmarried on Saturday in Mexico's first transgender wedding, asthe traditionally conservative country loses some of itsinhibitions.

Mario del Socorro, formerly Maria, and Diana Guerrero, whoused to be Jose, held an austere ceremony for friends andrelatives in a community centre.

The couple said they hoped media coverage would pressureMexico's Congress to pass a proposed law that would let peopleget sex change operations in public hospitals and then be ableto change their names and genders in public records.

"When you are applying for a job and your documents don'tcoincide with what you look like, you just don't get hired.It's that simple," said del Socorro, 55, who is balding with awispy goatee and stands several inches shorter than his newbride.

Lawmakers behind the transgender proposal are challenging aswath of conservative customs in largely Catholic Mexico, andin recent years they have been gaining momentum.

In 2006, gay civil unions were legalized in Mexico City andthe northern state of Coahuila.

Lawmakers in the capital last year legalized early-termabortions and approved a law allowing terminally ill people torefuse treatment.

The Catholic Church has strongly criticized all of thesemeasures.

Del Socorro and Guerrero got married under their pre-sexchange names because the law allowing gay civil unions does notgive partners the same benefits as a traditional marriage.

At the ceremony, guests cheered the teary-eyed groom andbeaming bride as they cut two tall wedding cakes before a crowdof journalists.

Members of the bride's Catholic family said the coupletried for months to find a priest that would marry them in achurch.

"At the end of the day, it's a marriage between a woman anda man, so what's the problem with blessing this union in theeyes of God?" said the bride's sister, Flor Guerrero.

(Additional reporting by Michael O'Boyle; editing by JasonLange and Mohammad Zargham)