Thousands march in Mexico City to protest gay marriage and gender ideology

Thousands of Mexicans marched on the streets of Mexico City on Saturday to protest against the proposed amendment to legalize gay marriage. Marchers were also protesting the planned implementation of sex education inspired by gender ideology.

City officials estimated that about 20,000 people participated in the protest called "March for the Family." The march organizers and church officials say that about 400,000 to 450,000 gathered at the event.

Protesters were chanting and carrying signs with slogans like: "You can see it, you can feel it, the family is defending itself," "Biology, not ideology" and "The family, united, will never be defeated."

The organizers have written a manifesto declaring their opposition to gender ideology.

"We manifest our profound disagreement with gender ideology; an ideology that, lacking an objective foundation, seeks to impose itself in the laws, in schools, in families, in the media," the organizers wrote, adding, "Gender ideology claims to be the defender of diversity, but it doesn't support plurality, and therefore it doesn't permit criticism nor dissent; it discredits, slanders, and persecutes."

Pope Francis has voiced his support for the march on Sunday. "I join willingly the bishops of Mexico in supporting the efforts of the Church and civil society in favor of the family and of life, which at this time require special pastoral and cultural attention worldwide," the Pope said during his weekly blessing.

Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights issued a statement a day before the march, claiming that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples violates the principle of equality.

Over one million people participated in a related protest held on Sept. 10. LGBT groups have organized a counter-protest but there have been no reports of any clashes.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who considers himself as a Catholic, announced the proposal to legalize gay marriage last May. His party, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), reportedly fell to minority status when it was defeated in the elections in June. Some believe that Nieto's embrace of the homosexual agenda is the cause of his party's defeat.