In a historic step, a judge in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico ruled on Tuesday that the prohibition of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The LGBT community in Mexico is overjoyed with the decision as it means that LGBTs will likely be allowed to get married all across the country.
Mexico’s Supreme Court found that marriage inequality not only contravened Article 1 of the Mexican Constitution, which explicitly condemns discrimination against sexual minorities, but that it breached Article 143 of the National Civil Code. These landmark rulings come as a response to a civil rights suit brought by 39 LGBT Mexicans.
‘It is time to modernise our laws and our institutions have to adapt … because we are being overtaken by new circumstances,’ said Clarivel Rivera, Director of Oaxaca’s Vital Records Department. In the light of this good news for Mexican LGBTs, the government is now expected to change the country’s laws to accommodate all forms of same-sex marriage.
Same-sex ceremonies already take place in states such as Quintana and the federal district of Mexico City, while elsewhere LGBTs can join equivalent “civil union schemes”. Mexican LGBTs now feel that the next step must be to ensure that all states recognise all kinds of same-sex relationships.
