Merida, Yucatan — Same-sex marriage and abortion in Yucatan won’t be put before the public the way the Mayan Train or Mexico City airport were, a state lawmaker said.
In response to pressure from conservative associations, Milagros Romero Bastarrachea said the matter of gay marriage will come before the LXII Legislature next year.
The National Front for the Yucatan Family and Red Pro Yucatan, which has lobbied to keep marriage solely for heterosexual relationships, said both issues should be submitted to a citizen consultation.
The Mexico City airport was defeated, and the Mayan Train was supported, in recent consultations organized by the incoming president of Mexico.
Marriage equality and reproductive rights would require changes to the “Family Code,” laws meant to uphold family structures. But the changes would have to pass constitutional muster.
“Human rights can not be submitted to consultation, they are implicit in all people and we are going to defend them,” said Romero Bastarrachea. “It will be resumed in the next period because at the end of the year we have to attend to urgent matters such as the budget and what is needed will be released in the next period.”
Legislators “have to assert human rights” and the issue “is not a matter of beliefs, but of rights that correspond to all by the simple fact of existing,” she said.
Finally, he mentioned that there are no initiatives regarding abortion in the entity since it is not part of the legislative agenda. “It is not contemplated and there is no proposal about it,” the Movimiento Ciudadano party member said.
The legislature is made up on 25 deputies, 13 men and 12 women, that comprise seven parties: PRI, PAN, Morena, Movimiento Ciudadano, PVEM, PRD and Nueva Alianza.
With information from Desde el Balcon
