Another Mexican State to Allow Same-Sex Marriage Michael K. Lavers - Washington Blade
go to original June 12, 2015

Alex Alí Méndez Díaz is a Mexican lawyer leading efforts to secure marriage rights for same-sex couples in his country. (Washington Blade/Michael K. Lavers)

The governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua has announced his administration would no longer prevent same-sex couples from marrying. Proceso, a Mexican newspaper, reported that César Duarte Jáquez’s announcement takes effect immediately.

Duarte’s announcement comes ahead of an expected ruling from the Mexican Supreme Court that Proceso said will order Chihuahuan lawmakers to decide the issue of marriage rights for gays and lesbians. The newspaper reported the decision will also require local authorities to compensate the 31 same-sex couples who had sought legal resource, known as an “amparo” in the Mexican judicial system, after they had been denied their request to marry.

Alex Alí Méndez Díaz, a lawyer who has spearheaded efforts in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples in Mexico over the last several years, on Thursday applauded Chihuahuan advocacy groups that challenged “their own state and its institutions” over the issue.

“The economic argument made more of a difference than the democratic argument of the state’s obligation not to violate human rights,” wrote Méndez on his blog after Duarte made his announcement. “This is a big step forward considering that only two years earlier the requirement of access to marriage in conditions of equality was a rather impossible demand.”

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