Same-sex marriage in Mexico

Same-sex marriage is legally recognized and performed throughout Mexico since 2022.^[1] On 10 August 2010 the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ruled that same-sex marriages performed anywhere within Mexico must be recognized by the 31 states without exception, and fundamental spousal rights except for adoption (such as alimony payments, inheritance rights, and the coverage of spouses by the federal social security system) have also applied to same-sex couples across the country.^[2] Mexico was the fifth country in North America^[a] and the 33rd worldwide to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.^[3]

Only civil marriages are recognized by Mexican law, and all proceedings fall under state legislation.^[4] On 12 June 2015, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the federal constitution. The court's ruling is considered a "jurisprudential thesis" and did not invalidate any state laws, but required judges and courts throughout Mexico to approve all applications for same-sex marriages, and any marriage law that that was changed and did not recognize same-sex marriage would be declared unconstitutional and invalidated.^[5]

By October 2022, Mexico City and all Mexican states had legalized same-sex marriage, either by legislation, executive action, or Supreme Court order.^[1]^[6] However, marital rights are not necessarily equal when it comes to adoption: only 22 of the 31 Mexican states, plus Mexico City, have civil codes that allow same-sex couples to adopt, though in other states same-sex couples can adopt through the court system under jurisprudence established by the Supreme Court. In 4 of the 31 Mexican states, marriage licenses are issued to same-sex couples despite not being allowed under state law; they may take more time to process or be more expensive than licenses for opposite-sex couples.

Same-sex civil unions (Spanish: sociedad de convivencia, pronounced [sosjeˈðað ðe kombiˈβensja])^[b] are legally performed in Mexico City and in the states of Campeche,^[8] Coahuila, Michoacán,^[9] Tlaxcala and Veracruz.^[10] From 2013 to 2016, they were also performed in the state of Colima, but were replaced by same-sex marriage legislation.^[11] They were also performed in Jalisco beginning in 2014, but the law was struck down on procedural grounds in 2018.

History

On 9 November 2006, after several years of consideration, the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City approved a civil union law called Ley de Sociedades de Convivencia. It was the first such law in Mexico, soon followed by the northern state of Coahuila in January 2007.

In late November 2009, the leading party in the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), announced that it was introducing an amendment to the Civil Code to legalize same-sex marriage in Mexico City, a project endorsed by the local Head of Government, Marcelo Ebrard, but strongly opposed by the second-largest political force in the country, the right-of-center National Action Party (PAN) and the Roman Catholic Church. The bill found support from over 600 non-governmental organizations, including the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) and Amnesty International. On 21 December 2009, Mexico City became the first Latin American jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage. The law became effective on 4 March 2010.^[12] On 5 August 2010, the Supreme Court voted 8–2 to uphold the constitutionality of Mexico City's same-sex marriage law.^[13] The Court later ruled on 10 August 2010 that Mexico City marriages are valid throughout the entire country.^[14]

On 28 November 2011, the first two same-sex marriages occurred in Quintana Roo after discovering that the state's Civil Code did not explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage,^[15] but these marriages were later annulled by the Governor of Quintana Roo in April 2012.^[16] In May 2012, the Secretary of State of Quintana Roo reversed the annulments and allowed for future same-sex marriages to be performed in the state.^[17]

A 2012 Oaxaca case was pivotal in opening the door to legal same-sex marriage in every state in Mexico, through the recurso de amparo process. Using international decisions, whose verdicts serve as legal precedent in Mexican courts, such as the protections in the Atala Riffo and Daughters v. Chile case,^[18] the U.S. cases Loving v. Virginia and Brown v. Board of Education and Mexico's own anti-discrimination laws,^[19] the Supreme Court ruled on 5 December 2012 that: 1) Laws limiting marriage to one man and one woman, or for the purposes of perpetuating the species, violate federal law requiring that they "correspond to all persons without any distinction" and 2) That such laws are unconstitutional on the basis of discrimination by sexual orientation and usurpation of the right, not only of the individual but also the couple's right, to form a family.^[20]^[21] The ruling did not directly overturn the impugned laws, but established that marriages obtained by injunction (amparo) can be performed in any state, regardless of whether the state Civil Code has been changed.^[22]

A landmark decision, issued on 29 January 2014, was the first injunction for marriage recognition in Puebla. The case involved a same-sex couple who legally married in Mexico City in 2012 and filed for spousal benefits with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in the state of Puebla, but were denied.^[23] Because the complainant died during the injunction process, a lower court had dismissed the case, but the Supreme Court granted the injunction and ordered recognition of the marriage by both the state of Puebla and the IMSS. The injunction required IMSS to extend benefits it offered to married heterosexual couples to same-sex couples anywhere in Mexico who are married or in civil unions.^[24]^[25]