Excessive PDA is something I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of, but if you’re in Latin America it’s something you just have to live with. On the metro, on the bus, on the street corner, there’s a whole lot of fajándose going on. But that has come to an end — in fact any type of kissing has come to an end — in the Mexican city of Guanajuato:

A controversy has broken out in Mexico after the city of Guanajuato, in the center of the country, decided to penalize couples who kiss in public with jail time.

The municipal law was approved on Tuesday by city hall — its majority politicians from the conservative Partido Acción Nacional (PAN)- and according to Guanajuato’s mayor Eduardo Romero Hicks, is part of a campaign to encourage “good habits”.

According to the PAN mayor, prolonged kisses in public make children feel ashamed and for this reason the law will stipulate a fine or up to three days in jail.

Makes children feel ashamed? If anything it might gross a few adults out (or cause just the opposite reaction) but kids? And since when are city ordinances made with a kid’s level of embarrassment in mind? If that were the case, half of the outfits I see kids wearing would be outlawed.

In addition to the kissing ordinance, there are a few other things the city wants to ban. According to BBC Mundo “saying bad words, asking for money and selling in the street” is banned, and there will also be fines for those who “perform obscene touching in public spaces.”

This all sounds like a huge joke, but it isn’t. The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was the irony of it: without a doubt, Guanajuato’s main tourist attraction is a street called “El Callejón del beso”, and couples come from all over the country to kiss there — in public!

Via / BBC Mundo

Images via Krista76 and danygaral on Flickr