Last August, Yucatán’s legislature passed a bill making same-sex marriage the law of the land.
But activists in Yucatán say that marriage between two people of the same sex is still being discriminated against.
“After nearly four months of the passing of Yucatán’s marriage law, things have not really changed as authorities are dragging their feet when it comes to implementation,” said César Briceño, of the collective Todas las Familias en Yucatán.
According to a strict reading of the law, authorities in Yucatán have up to 180 days to implement new legislation. But activists insist that making the new law a reality is not technically complex and that stubborn factions within the government are stalling for time.
If authorities in Yucatán were to fail to fully implement the new marriage equality by late February, they would be liable to legal action on the part of the federal government.
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The fight for marriage equality has been a decades-long uphill battle in Yucatán.
In 2015, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prevent people of the same gender from marrying. However, several jurisdictions including Yucatán took several years to ratify the decision.
Even before last summer’s ruling, it was already technically possible for same-sex couples to marry in Yucatán using a legal recourse known as an amparo, or an order of protection. However, obtaining this legal protection costs between 5,000 and 8,000 pesos — a considerable sum for most in Yucatán.
Just Monday, Zacatecas became the 25th state in Mexico to ratify marriage equality thanks to votes from representatives from Morena, the PRI, and PRD — with most of the votes against coming from the traditionally conservative PAN.
