Same-sex marriage in Chiapas

Legislative action

Various LGBT activist groups delivered documents to the executive and legislative branches of government and the State Board of Human Rights on 15 February 2012, recommending amendments to the marriage laws of Chiapas to comply with federal anti-discrimination provisions.^[1] On 29 November 2013, Diego Cadenas Gordillo, acting as a human rights activist, sent a bill to legalize same-sex marriage and reform the Civil Code and Civil Procedure of the state.^[2][3] The proposal was rejected on 13 December 2013, citing that "popular initiatives" must be supported by 1.5% of the electorate, or 50,500 voters.^[4] On 3 January 2014, an injunction was filed before a federal judge because of the refusal of Congress to act on the initiative.^[5][6] The judge denied the injunction against the Civil Code and an appeal was filed with the Twentieth Circuit Court.^[5] In November 2014, activist and lawyer Diego Cadenas Gordillo filed a request for formal intervention by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR), claiming that the state Legislature, Governor Manuel Velasco Coello, nor the State Commission of Human Rights had responded to the discriminatory laws banning same-sex marriage in Chiapas.^[7]

After clashes between the Mayor of Chilón and religious groups in January 2014,^[8] activists filed a complaint with the National Commission on Prevention of Discrimination (Conapred).^[9] On 27 March 2014, Deputy Alejandra Ruiz Soriano from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) filed an initiative to amend 19 articles of the Civil Code and 15 articles of the Code of Civil Procedure, to incorporate the concept of marriage as "the free union of two people for the community of life, where both respect, equality and mutual aid are sought." In addition, it also standardized the concept of cohabitation, disregarding a person's sexual preference.^[10]

A new same-sex marriage bill was presented to the Chiapan Congress in May 2016.^[11] According to Unidos Diferentes Asociación Civil (UDAC), a local LGBT advocacy group, the same-sex marriage bill was taken off the agenda several times and not voted upon due to the actions of the president of the local Congress, Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar. Additionally, UDAC has said that the bill does not address the issue of adoption for same-sex couples.^[12]

Amparos

On 25 September 2014, a collective injunction for the legalization of same-sex marriage was filed.^[13] On 3 March 2015, 51 couples won the right to marry as the state's Civil Code was deemed unconstitutional by the SCJN.^[14] On 26 March 2015, a document sent from the Chiapan Congress was publicised and denounced the ruling and asked for a review stating in their brief that same-sex marriage was unnatural while making comparisons of homosexual relationships to incest.^[15] The Chairman of the Board of Congress later denied the filing of the review stressing that only he has the power to make the request and insisting that he never signed any document regarding the issue.^[16] However, on 16 April 2015, the media revealed that the state's Judicial Council website received the request on 23 March 2015 and had already assigned a number to the case.^[17]

In December 2015, a lesbian couple was able to marry in the capital city of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez.^[18][19] In July 2016, the Second District Court, based in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, granted another amparo to a same-sex couple. The Court declared articles 144 and 145 of the Chiapan Civil Code unconstitutional.^[20] In September 2016, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court declared various articles of the state's Civil Code unconstitutional for limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.^[21]

2017 Supreme Court ruling

On 6 April 2016, an action of unconstitutionality was filed before the Mexican Supreme Court.^[22][23] The action sought to legalize same-sex marriage in Chiapas, similarly to Jalisco (where the Supreme Court struck down that state's same-sex marriage ban in a unanimous ruling in early 2016). On 11 July 2017, the Court ruled that the man-woman definition of marriage in the Chiapas Civil Code was unconstitutional, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in the state and specifying that an amparo is not required.^[24][25] The first same-sex marriage ceremony celebrated in Chiapas following the ruling occurred in late July 2017, though the couple still married using an amparo.^[26] The Civil Registry began accepting marriage applications from same-sex couples on 30 October 2017. The first couple to marry (without an amparo) did so in San Cristóbal de las Casas that day.^[27]

Officials from the state later confirmed that same-sex couples are allowed to adopt.^[28]

Marriage statistics

From December 2017 to June 2018, more than 300 same-sex marriages were performed in Chiapas. Most of these marriages were carried out in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Tapachula and Comitán. Additionally, many couples came from other states (including from Tabasco, Veracruz and Oaxaca).^[29]