MEXICO’S SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF GAY MARRIAGE

Mexico could be moving closer to national marriage equality after its Supreme Court ruled that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional.

On Wednesday afternoon, the court ruled unanimously in favour of three same-sex couples who wish to get married in the southern state of Oaxaca.

It disputed Oaxaca’s definition of marriage as being for “the perpetuation of the species” and said that this “violates the principle of equality.”

The verdict will allow the couples to marry in that state and, while not immediately affecting the rest of the country, could have a nationwide impact on the issue.

Writing on Facebook, Alex Ali Mendez Diaz, the law student who took the three couples’ cases to the Supreme Court, said that “all the sleeplessness, stress, and the hours invested for my brothers and sisters in this struggle have been worthwhile…”

He added that “…it gives me much joy that I can now return to Oaxaca to a slightly more egalitarian state.”

Same-sex marriage is already legal in Mexico City and the state of Quintana Roo, the courts having previously ordered other states to recognise gay marriages performed in these two regions.