Mexico: Court rules same-sex marriage bans ‘discriminatory’
Mexico’s highest court has called bans on same-sex marriage “totally unjustified”.
The court was responding to a petition for legal recourse submitted by a gay couple against state laws in Sinaloa which prevented them from marrying.
The Supreme Court said in a statement: “The contested provisions are clearly discriminatory because the relationships in which homosexual couples engage can fit perfectly into the actual fundamentals of marriage and living together and raising a family.
“For all of those relevant effects, homosexual couples can find themselves in an equivalent situation to heterosexual couples, in such a way that their exclusion from both institutions is totally unjustified.”
It is part of a battle to gain equal marriage across Mexico. Currently only some states allow it, and if more petitions and legal challenges are made to the court, it is expected to become legal throughout the country.
Ana Lidia Murillo Camacho, a Sinaloan LGBT activist, told the Washington Blade “It recognises [our] legitimacy and creates conditions for the free exercise of sexuality within the framework of human rights.
“The [Mexican Supreme Court] also sends a message that reminds society and its institutions to strive for a democratic state with human rights.”
The first gay couple married in Baja California earlier this year.
