LGBT Rights in Mexico

LGBT Rights In Mexico

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights in Mexico have expanded in recent years, in keeping with worldwide legal trends. The intellectual influence of the French Revolution and the brief French occupation of Mexico (1862–67) resulted in the adoption of the Napoleonic Code, which decriminalized homosexuality in 1871. However, laws against public immorality (or indecency) could be used to prosecute homosexual acts. The age of consent, at which there are no restrictions for consensual sexual activities (regardless of sexual orientation), is 18. Mexican states have a "primary" age of consent (which may be as low as 12); sexual conduct with persons below that age is always illegal. Sexual relations between adults and teenagers are a legal gray area, with situational laws which are subject to interpretation.

As the influence of foreign and domestic cultures (especially from more cosmopolitan areas like Mexico City) grows throughout Mexico, attitudes are beginning to change—most-markedly in the largest metropolitan areas such as Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana (where education and access to foreigners—and foreign news media—are greatest). Change continues to be slow in the hinterlands, however, and even in large cities discomfort with change often leads to backlashes. Tolerance of sexual diversity in certain indigenous cultures is widely seen, especially among Isthmus Zapotecs and Yucatán Mayas. Since the early 1970s, influenced by the U.S. gay liberation movement and the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, a substantial number of LGBT organizations has emerged; visible and well-attended LGBT marches and pride parades have occurred in Mexico City since 1979 and in Guadalajara since 1996.

Political and legal gains have been made through the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), other leftist minor parties such as the Labor Party (PT) and Convergence and the centrist, long-governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). They include the 2001 amendment to Article 1 of the Federal Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation (under the vague term preferences), the 2003 federal anti-discrimination law, recognition of same-sex civil unions in Mexico City and the state of Coahuila, and same-sex marriage in Mexico City and Quintana Roo. Adoption rights have been extended to same-sex couples in Mexico City and Coahuila.