Members of Mexico's LGBT community are pictured as they mark Pride month in Mexico City, Mexico, June 26, 2021. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
MEXICO CITY, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The congress of the Mexican state of Sonora voted on Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage, meaning that about three quarters of the country's regions have now made the practice legal.
Lawmakers in the legislature of Sonora, a large northern state that borders Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, approved the change in the law with 26 votes in favor and seven against.
On Wednesday, the central state of Queretaro, long regarded as one of the most conservative in the country, also approved same-sex marriage legislation in what Mexican media reported was the 23rd of 32 regions to do so.
The push for marriage equality and LGBT rights has gathered pace since Mexico City became the first region to legalize same-sex marriage in 2009.
Leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been at pains not to alienate socially conservative voters, but many activists in his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) are staunch supporters of socially liberal causes.
Writing by Dave Graham Editing by Robert Birsel
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RevolutionaryFix1581 on September 25th, 2021 at 00:47 UTC »
I’m 37. I believe I’ll live to see gay marriage be not just legal but boring. Normal. Common place. Uninteresting.
real_LNSS on September 24th, 2021 at 20:27 UTC »
The reason so many states are doing this now is because Supreme Court ruled that bans on it were illegal. This is the 24 out of 32 states that has approved it. The remaining 8 should happen failry quickly, in the next few months.
mistergosh on September 24th, 2021 at 19:48 UTC »
Sonora is an interesting state; it has a small population, a large territory, a unique culture that's quite different from that of Mexico City, and had a lot of political influence in the past.
Its culture has been in transition for the last couple of decades, with a more progressive and outward looking younger generation growing up alongside the old money families that still control a large part of the local economy and some deeply ingrained catholic moral values. It presents a mix of what is considered traditionally Mexican with some very Americanized traits.
As far as I remember, same-sex marriage has been legal-ish in the state for a few years now, but only through a peculiar Mexican legal mechanism called Amparo. This process makes it so that a local judge can provide a relief from a law to an individual. The individual has to make a case that a law is unjust and the judge has to agree. This can be later overturned by a higher court, but there is no obligatory follow up to this cases.
As such, there has already been a few, very few, same-sex marriages in the state, but they all have to go through a lengthy and expensive legal process to be approved.
The last time this change to the laws was proposed, voting didn't reach a majority because one of the elected officials internet connection malfunctioned. It was a narrow loss. This time around, two years later, only the conservative PAN congresspeople and two MORENA congressmen opposed the motion, making the vote 26-7. That's a pretty big swing.