Young boy stands up to anti-gay marriage protesters

A twelve-year-old boy’s attempt to block an 11,000-strong anti-gay marriage protest in Mexico over the weekend has been lauded around the world.

A powerful photograph of the unidentified child has been featured by international media, after it was snapped by journalist Manuel Rodriguez at the protest in Celaya on Saturday and published online by Regeneracion.

It shows the boy standing in front of the approaching protesters, with his arms outstretched in an attempt to block them.

"I have an uncle who is gay and I don’t like people hating him,” the boy reportedly told Rodriguez later.

The protest was organised by the National Front for the Family coalition in response to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s proposed same-sex marriage reforms, which would see bans in 22 states overturned.

Last year, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled the state bans were unconstitutional, enabling same-sex couples to marry by filing individual legal challenges with a federal judge, the LA Times reports.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Mexico City and in nine out of 31 states.

The image has been compared to the famous 1989 “Tank Man” photograph, which depicts a protester standing before a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square, China.

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