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News > Latin America

Mexico Passes Same-Sex Marriage

  • Equal marriage is now legalized nationwide in Mexico.

    Equal marriage is now legalized nationwide in Mexico. | Photo: Reuters

Published 15 June 2015
Opinion

The outcome makes Mexico a trailblazer in Latin America where the practice is only legal in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

After months of rulings that say restricting marriage to heterosexual couples is discriminatory, the Mexican Supreme Court has legalized same-sex matrimonies nationwide.

Though not yet enshrined into the law, the effect of the numerous rulings in favor of equal marriage has had the same effect.

At the end of last week, the Supreme Court published in the weekly judicial paper (Semanario Judicial de la Federación) that the new legislation is obligatory across the nation, and that “to try to link the requirements of marriage to sexual preferences of those who can enter the matrimonial institution with procreation is discriminatory, and unjustifiably excludes marriage access to homosexual partners that are situated in similar conditions to heterosexual partners.”

RELATED: Celebrate Sexual Diversity

Victor Manuel Aguirre, 43, and Victor Fernando Urias, 38, were, with the help of the supreme court the first homosexual couple to marry in Baja California.

“With many setbacks, love triumphed after all,” Aguirre told the New York Times.

The outcome puts Mexico ahead of the United States in terms of LGBT rights, where equal marriage is only legal in a limited number of states, and marks it as a trailblazer in Latin America where the practice is only legal in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

The National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination called the news a “historical advance.” In 2009 same-sex civil partnerships were passed in Mexico City, Coahuila and Quintana Roo.

WATCH: Imaginary Lines: Ireland legalizes same-sex marriage

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