The last 12 years of fighting for same-sex marriage and adoption rights
In early 2010, Mexico City (former Federal District) became the first federal entity to allow same-sex marriages in Mexico. The long-awaited reform started a slow process to allow equal marriage in the whole national territory, nonetheless, it was a complicated path. During the end of 2015, only four other states had also accepted equal marriage reforms (Quintana Roo, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Nayarit). During that time, the central government started an initiative called “marriage without discrimination” that was rejected and heavily criticized by the conservative opposition and the Catholic church.Nonetheless, in the next three years, 11 states had court rulings in favor of equal marriage rights. Some entities had higher opposition to the changes, but the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) put pressure by presenting actions of unconstitutionality against those states with federal discriminatory laws against same-sex couples. Finally, on December 31st, 2022, equal marriage became legal in Guerrero, the last entity to accept what is now a national right. From 2010 to 2021, the number of same-sex marriages in Mexico went from 689 to 4,341 and has been constantly increasing except for 2020, most probably due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Even though almost 60 percent of Mexicans believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children, it is only legal in 11 out of 32 states. The state legislation has seen low to no progress in several places. Still, the adoption process in Mexico is a long and complicated one for every type of family. In 2020, only five adoptions by same-sex couples were registered in Mexico - that is around 0.2 percent of all adoptions in the country.
Discrimination, citizen initiatives, and visibility
There is a total of over 315,000 transgender and transsexual people in Mexico, and as of February 2021, only 13,025 had made official changes to their documents to update their names and gender, which is only around four percent. Transsexuals are one of the most discriminated groups in the Aztec country, as around 72 percent of the population think that there is little to no respect for transsexual rights. The discrimination ranges from being called names in the streets, to not getting the same opportunities as the rest, or even to physical violence. In March 2022, the group named “Coalición Mexicana LGBTTTI+” presented the citizen initiative for the inclusion of trans and non-binary citizens in public positions, mainly due to the discrimination and lack of gender perspective in the Federal Law of Employment.As years go by, hundreds of demonstrations happen in Mexico both to celebrate Pride and to demand equal rights. One of the most famous is the Mexico City Gay Pride, which has occured each year during June since 1979 in the Mexican capital. But it is not the only one, and it seems that every time there are more celebrations throughout the national territory in many different forms.
