Same sex marriage legal across Mexico after final state updates civil code

Lawmakers in Mexico’s northern state of Tamaulipas voted to legalize same-sex marriages Wednesday night, making Mexico the ninth country in Latin America to fully recognize same-sex marriages.

The measure to amend the state’s Civil Code passed with 23 votes in favor, 12 against, and two abstentions, with activists both for and against the measure shouting at one another from the public balconies.

A day earlier, lawmakers in the southern state of Guerrero approved similar legislation, which came less than a week after the eastern state of Tabasco also legalized such unions.

While the legislation has passed, it remains unclear when exactly officials will officially authorize courts to start granting marriage licenses.

On Twitter, Mexico’s Supreme Court President Arturo Zaldivar welcomed the vote, writing: “The whole country shines with a huge rainbow. Live the dignity and rights of all people. Love is love.”

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, but it took several years for many states to revise legislation.

Still, same-sex marital rights remain unequal: only 17 of 31 states and Mexico City allow same-sex couples to adopt. And Mexico’s leftist president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has remained largely silent on social issues like LGBTQ-rights, with his MORENA party forming alliances with many well-funded “pro-family” Christian groups.

Gay-rights activists are also making big strides in the United States this year. According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, this is the first year that at least one openly LGBTQ candidate has or will appear on a ballot in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

More than 1,000 candidates have run or are running for office this year, an 18.1% increase from 2020, the Victory Fund reports.