Mexico City, Mexico: Same-sex marriage has become legal across Mexico after the state of Tamaulipas became the last in the predominantly Catholic country to approve it, the local congress said on Wednesday.
The northern border state’s decision ends a 12-year journey to national marriage equality that began when the capital, Mexico City, became the first to celebrate same-sex unions in 2010.
The move was followed five years later by a Supreme Court ruling that the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, prompting changes at the state level.
“The Congress of Tamaulipas approved reforms to Article 132 of the Civil Code for the state to recognize the right to same-sex marriage,” the institution said in a statement.
“There are no first or second-class people, all people should have this right,” said local congresswoman Nancy Ruiz of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), which pushed for the reform.
Marriage equality has passed in seven more states this year — three of them in the last two weeks.
Five of Mexico’s 32 states where marriage equality has been established by court orders or governors’ decrees are still awaiting “legislative harmonization,” said political scientist and LGBTQ activist Genaro Lozano.
“But it’s already a reality all over Mexico. Thanks to all the activists and legislators who have supported it over the years,” Lozano wrote on Twitter.