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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto submitted a proposal to Congress Tuesday to legalize gay marriage nationwide, a battle that LGBT groups have waged since before 2009 when Mexico City legalized same-sex civil unions, becoming the first Latin America city to do so.
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The Mexican president attended an event to commemorate International Day Against Homophobia, where he signed initiatives in the presence of LGBT rights defenders to amend the Constitution and the national Civil Code so that same-sex marriages are recognized and legally protected.
Peña Nieto has become the first Mexican president to openly support gay marriage, which is especially significant in a conservative country where about 82.7 percent of the total population identify themselves as Catholics.
Same-sex marriage is legal in some states of Mexico, including the northern states of Coahuila and Quintana Roo. However, in other states same-sex couples have been banned from getting married.
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Last June the Supreme Court ruled that every civil state authority should "recognize marriage as a human right and that people can enter into marriage without any kind of discrimination." But the ruling didn’t carry a compulsory character for each state and couples across the country have had to sue in court in order to gain the right to marry.
Peña Nieto posted a picture of the official presidential residence of “Los Pinos” illuminated with the rainbow colors, or the gay pride flag. He also turned his Twitter profile photo rainbow-colored.
Even when the LGBT rights defenders applauded the position adopted by the president, they urged him to take real action on the issues of discrimination and hate crimes against the community.
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