Mexico president Enrique Pena Nieto vows to legalise same-sex marriage
The president of Mexico has promised to legalise marriage equality nationally.
Enrique Pena Nieto has announced plans to submit a proposal to Congress that wold recognise “the right to enter into marriage without any discrimination”.
Announcing the move Twitter account on International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, he “I signed reform initiatives to boost the #MatrimonioIgualitario is enshrined in the Constitution and the Federal Civil Code.
“These reform initiatives are modelled @SCJN criteria in favour of non-discrimination #SinHomofobia.”
In 2015, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for states to ban LGBT couples from marrying and urged states to legalise same-sex marriages.
Mexico City and the states of Coahuila, Quintana Roo, Jalisco, Nayarit, Chihuahua and Sonora have so far opted to legalise it.
However, many other traditionally conservative states have not changed their stance and same-sex marriage is still banned by local law.
Pena Nieto says he aims to amend Article 4 of the constitution to reflect the Supreme Court opinion “to recognise as a human right that people can enter into marriage without any kind of discrimination”.
Despite the launch of this progressive policy being celebrated by the country’s LGBT community, some church officials have criticised the plan and urged Congress to oppose the initiative.
Reverend Hugo Valdemar – spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City – said: “Marriage has some very concrete aims which, of course, two people of the same sex do not fulfil.”
If approved, Mexico will become the fifth country in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriages. Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and Colombia have already made it a constitutional right.
