Mexicans Kiss Off Smooching Ban

Town's effort to ban kissing sparks passionate national protests
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 14, 2009 5:27 AM CST
Mexicans Kiss Off Smooching Ban
Bartenders in Guanajito are working on a recipe for a margarita-type drink that would be called "the beso," Spanish for kiss.   (Shutterstock)

Outraged Mexicans joined forces—and lips—to kiss away a city's efforts to ban public smooching, the Los Angeles Times reports. Guanajuato's law drew national ridicule and protesters soon started kissing en masse in front of city hall. Newspaper columnists and politicians lined up to defend the kiss as a treasured national institution.

The city council, which said it had been trying to stamp out Olympian feats of fondling rather than plain old kissing, repealed the law within days and declared Guanajuato the "Capital of the Kiss" but it did little to cool the passionate national protests. Officials in Mexico City are hoping a Valentine's Day kiss-a-thon in the city's main plaza will make it into the record books. (More kiss stories.)

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