"Congratulations Mexico!"

Although America loves to claim leadership in expanding and protecting human rights, when it comes to GLBT rights, America would do well to follow the leadership of its neighbors and allies in the world...

From PinkNews

Mexico: Supreme Court Casts Out Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

December 6, 2012


The Mexican Supreme Court today made a unanimous ruling which could signal the beginning of equal marriage rights across the entire country.

The ruling by the court has not been officially announced yet, however the advocates of equal marriage who started the case, have said that this decision “opens the door to equal marriage in the whole country”, reports After Marriage.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of three couples wishing to marry in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The court ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage is discriminatory, and that it is unconstitutional. The decision was partly based on a ruling from February, in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decided that governments couldn’t discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation.

The court already ruled in 2010, that same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City, where equal marriage is already legal, would be recognised throughout the country.

Today’s ruling could set a precent which would see the removal of any remaining equal marriage bans, in other states.

This decison by the Supreme Court does not mean an immediate end to some limitations of the definiton of marriage as one man and one woman, as the court does not have the power to do so, however Alex Alí Méndez Díaz, the lawyer who brought the case, said it represented the beginning of the end for equal marriage bans.

Today’s ruling could also have international repercussions, as courts in other Latin American countries which recognise the Inter-American Accord on Human Rights could follow this precedent. Not only that, but the Inter-American Court could  be more likely to recognise universal marriage rights.

Three couples in Chile have already begun a case to remove the ban on equal marriage there.

Almost 400 same-sex couples married in Mexico within the first six months of the law permitting same-sex marriage coming into effect. The law also allowed gay couples to adopt.

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