Same-sex marriage now legal in all of Mexico

The last state to delay legalising same-sex marriage in Mexico has finally voted for marriage equality, making it a reality across the whole country.

On Wednesday, 23 out of 37 lawmakers in the Tamaulipas Congress voted to approve an amendment to that state’s Civil Code which will allow same-sex couples to marry.

The traditionally conservative state of Tamaulipas was the last of Mexico’s 32 states to enact marriage equality legislation.

LGBTIQ activist Henry Torre Molina tweeted: “We knew it and now all of Mexico knows it: #LoveisLove”. He added: “Congratulations and THANK YOU to the people who fight for our love, our freedom, our equality and our families.”

Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ruled in June 2015 that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the federal constitution.

State laws banning same-sex marriage were not immediately invalidated by the ruling but required judges in each state to allow any same-sex couple that applied to marry to do so on a case-by-case basis.

While most states eventually amended their laws through legislation, executive order or court ruling to allow same-sex marriage, Tamaulipas held out until now to amend its Civil Code. The southern state of Guerrero also approved similar legislation a day earlier.

Arturo Zaldivar, President of the Supreme Court of Justice, welcomed the news that marriage equality was now the law throughout the nation

“The whole country shines with a huge rainbow,” he said on Twitter. “Long live the dignity and rights of all people. Love is love.”

In an opinion piece for Milenio published earlier this week, Zaldivar wrote:

“The truth is that reverse discrimination does not exist. Although there are stereotypes about heterosexual people or people with economic resources, in no case are they equal to the structural discrimination suffered by historically excluded groups in our country.

“To affirm otherwise is to deny the dynamics of power and privilege that prevail in our society, and that maintain second-class citizenship for many based on their gender, social status, ethnic origin, disability, sexual preference, among others,” he said.