First modification:
Same-sex marriage is already legal throughout Mexico. This week, Guerrero and Tamaulipas became the last two of the country’s 32 states to approve it. The full conquest of this right in the Latin American nation comes after a long road that took more than 16 years. Thus, the country became the 34th in the world to legalize same-sex unions, but some activists claim that there is still a long way to go to claim the rights of people in the LGBTIQ+ community.
More than a decade passed for Mexico to give an integral Yes to same-sex marriage.
In 2006, the country’s capital recognized same-sex couples under the figure of coexistence societies and in 2009 it took the step forward as the first city in Latin America to legalize same-sex unions.
But it had fallen behind as a country in fully recognizing it. In the long process and in the midst of the legislative autonomy of their states in this matter, other nations in the region advanced in recognition: Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Cuba.
Since 2012 and progressively, other Mexican regions have been added, starting with Quintana Roo. The great legal accolade came in 2015 when the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation determined that Establishing marriage as exclusive between a man and a woman violates human rights.
Finally, Mexico put the last piece in the construction of that right on Wednesday, October 26, when the Congress of Tamaulipas, in the north of the country, approved the measure with 23 votes in favor, 12 against and one abstention.
“Today is a historic day for the LGBTIQ+ community and for Mexico. Today we and our families are more visible, more equal and we are a country with more justice,” said activist Enrique Torre Molina.
The approval occurred just one day after it was also confirmed by the Legislature of the state of Guerrero, in southwestern Mexico, with 38 votes in support, six against and two invalid.
A long-awaited sign of progress for a country known for high levels of gender-based violence.
In most nations, the pulse for equal marriage has been accompanied by the phrase “love is love” or love is love, but deep down it is about the vindication of the rights of human beings, experts point out.
“We seek to equate the figure of marriage with the conquest of the same rights that heterosexual couples have, that we be recognized as social and legal couples,” Ricardo Locia Hernández, activist and member of the LGBTIQ + Collective, explained to the local newspaper ‘El Universal’. Pride, from Guerrero.
Locia stresses that not legalizing these unions is like making the existence of that community invisiblebecause as couples they are left without legal protection or legal certainty.
“Knowing that we can share our rights as workers with our partners, such as housing loans (…) Being able to inherit to our partner the assets we have built and also the right to health that we have as workers,” he listed among the rights those who have access with same-sex marriage.
“Mexico demolishes a wall of discrimination”: the reactions after the approval of equal marriage
After the legal implementation in the last state that needed to endorse same-sex unions, activists, figures from the political scene and citizens in general celebrated the decision.
“As of today, no LGBTIQ+ couple will have to travel to another state to be able to get married, nor will they have to process an amparo and wait for its resolution. As of today, with the approval in Tamaulipas, the 32 entities recognize Equal Marriage,” said Senator Patricia Mercado, from the center-left party Movimiento Ciudadano.
For his part, Clemente Castañeda, coordinator of that political caucus, extolled that “Mexico demolishes a wall of discrimination and conquers one more right.”
Today Mexico breaks down a wall of discrimination and conquers one more right. With the approval of equal marriage in the Tamaulipas Congress, the 32 entities of the country are recognizing the legality of same-sex marriage. pic.twitter.com/WlNYf2FbQE
– Clemente Castañeda H (@ClementeCH) October 27, 2022
The president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Arturo Zaldívar, openly joined the voices of celebration. “The whole country shines with a huge rainbow (…) Long live the dignity and rights of all people. Love is love,” he said.
Also, with cries of “yes it could”, hundreds of people took to the streets to celebrate the final decision by the Congress of Tamaulipas.
However, some activists point out that the country still needs to advance in the approval of gender identity for transsexual people and even intervene legally to prohibit the so-called “conversion therapies”, which seek to “correct” the sexual orientation of people, so the path for the recognition of human rights continues.
With Reuters and local media
