In the middle of the pride month, on June 14, the Congress of the Mexican State of Nuevo León, with 22 votes in favor, 10 against and 9 abstentions, approved the reforms to the state civil code that legalize marriage between people of the same sex.
With the amendment to articles 140, 147, and 148 of the state constitution, marriage will now be understood as the union between two people who have reached 18 years of age.
The decision to allow equal marriages came four years after the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruled in favor of the LGBTQI+ community and determined that the civil code of Nuevo León was unconstitutional in February 2019.
Legislator Jessica Martínez, one of the sponsors of the initiative, celebrated its approval.
“As LGBT people, one thing that we know for sure when we present initiatives is that we are going to get a no. But every once in a while we get a yes and that yes changes our world, it changes our lives, it is a yes that brings us closer to guaranteeing our dignity as people in a society that has historically despised us,” said Martínez in the Congress. She herself identifies as bisexual.
Members of the LGBTQI+ community, who were at the legislature’s headquarters, celebrated the decision, but pointed out that only “one historic debt” had been settled.
Jennifer Aguayo, head of the Movement for Equality, explained that “the issue is not whether two people of the same sex can get married in Nuevo León, but what it legally implies and that it was not reformed in the Civil Code.”
Aguayo further explained that gender diverse people face various issues such as enrollment of their children in school because the Ministry of Education does not acknowledge their families as legitimate.
Equal marriages are legal in Mexico. In November 2015, the SCJN declared unconstitutional all state civil codes that prevent same-sex marriages, however, several states have resisted reforming their law. In those states, in order to access the right, the couples have to file for legal protection. With the decision, Nuevo León became the thirty-first state to recognize the right to same-sex marriage. Of the total 32 states, only Aguascalientes is left to amend its civil code.
