Same-sex couples have been able to marry in Mexico since 2009, when the country’s capital became the first city in Latin America to pass marriage equality laws. But in recent months, a well-organized and well-funded backlash has emerged, claiming credit for derailing a presidential proposal to entrench marriage equality in the country’s constitution. [...]
Part of the problem is that marriage equality has never been enshrined in national law and remains subject to a patchwork of overlapping state and federal legislation: it is only explicitly legal in 10 of the country’s 31 states and Mexico City.
In 2015, the supreme court ruled that any law restricting marriage to heterosexual couples was “discriminatory”, meaning that state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage can be successfully circumvented with a court injunction.
Surveys show the country split on same-sex marriage – a poll in the newspaper El Universal showed 49% opposed and 43% in favour – although there is still strong opposition to gay couples adopting children. [...]
The campaign was supported by both evangelical Christians and the Catholic church, which regularly lobbies for policy changes on “social” issues – such as abortion bans – while staying silent on other issues such as drug war violence, which has claimed nearly 200,000 lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment