Same-sex marriage in Sonora

Amparos

An important recognition case was filed in 2013. A male same-sex couple married in Mexico City in July 2012. They returned to Sonora and attempted to enroll as a couple in the Social Security program, Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers of Sonora. They were denied admittance on 8 October 2012 and filed for an injunction (amparo 2564/2013) with a court in Culiacán, Sinaloa. On 9 October 2013, the court granted the injunction holding that the human right to form a family without discrimination had been violated.^[1]

In early May 2014, a female couple from the municipality of San Luis Río Colorado were denied a marriage license by the Civil Registry. On 26 May 2014, they filed an injunction in the Fifth District Court of the Fifteenth Circuit in Mexicali.^[2] A hearing was held on 17 September 2014.^[3][4][5] The couple received a favorable ruling on 22 October 2014.^[6][7][8] Their wedding was scheduled to take place at the Civil Registry of Luis B. Sanchez on 13 February 2015,^[9] but was held in a private home with the consent and participation of registry officials.^[10]

A second lesbian couple applied for a marriage license on 11 August 2014. They were refused and subsequently filed an injunction.^[11] The injunction was granted in February 2015.^[12]

On 1 May 2015, six couples filed injunctions after being denied marriage licenses from the Civil Registry in Hermosillo.^[13]

As of 1 September 2016, 26 same-sex couples (20 of whom were lesbian couples and the remaining 6 were gay male couples) have sought injunctions to marry in Sonora. All of them have been granted by the courts.^[14]

On 5 April 2017, two women married in the city of Nogales, making them the first same-sex couple to marry in the city.^[15][16] A second same-sex marriage occurred in Nogales in late April 2017.^[17] The first same-sex marriage in Guaymas was held on 8 April.^[18]

By June 2017, 23 same-sex marriages had been performed in the state. Of these, 15 took place in Hermosillo and the remainder occurred in Nogales, Guaymas, San Luis Río Colorado and Puerto Peñasco.^[19] Some couples, who had been granted injunctions, had yet to marry.

32 same-sex couples married in the state from May 2015 to November 2017.^[20]

Legislature

An initiative to allow same-sex couples to marry was delivered to the state's Congress by former Labor Party candidate for governor, Miguel Angel Haro Moren, in January 2010.^[21] The proposal was rejected in February 2010 and the state filed a constitutional challenge against imposing laws of the Civil Code of the Federal District, concerning same-sex marriage, upon Sonora.^[22]

In September 2017, all political parties in the state agreed to begin analyzing a proposed same-sex marriage bill. The bill's main sponsor said he was hopeful it would be accepted.^[23]

Decision by the Director of the Civil Registry

On 11 May 2016, the Director of the Civil Registry of the State of Sonora, Martha Julissa Bojórquez Castillo, announced that same-sex couples could begin marrying in the state without the need for an amparo (ie: court order). More than 12 court orders had been granted to same-sex couples in Sonora prior to the decision, more than the 5 necessary to make the state's offending provisions in the Civil Code null and inoperable.^[24]

Almost immediately after the aforementioned decision, the civil registrar of the municipality of Navojoa announced that same-sex couples would still have to be granted an injunction to be able to marry in the municipality. He claimed that because the Congress of Sonora had not yet changed the law, an amparo was still necessary.^[25]

Following Mrs. Bojórquez Castillo's decision, many members of Congress announced their support for amending the Family Code.^[26]

• Lisette Lopez Godinez, deputy from the National Action Party said:

"The truth is that being a topic that has already been approved nationally, it is up to us to make it conducive"

• Javier Villarreal Gamez, deputy from the Institutional Revolutionary Party said:

"It (same-sex marriage) is linked to the right to happiness that we all have and we have to give that legal certainty"

• Juan José Angulo Lam, deputy from the Party of the Democratic Revolution said:

"You have to raise it and harmonize the Family Code so there are no contradictions"

On 18 May 2016, Governor Claudia Pavlovich Arellano ordered all civil registries in the state to stop marrying same-sex couples. She said that the Civil Code of Sonora is very clear on what marriage is and that the state would continue to follow those laws (even though the articles in the Civil Code that are denying marriage rights to same-sex couples have already been declared inoperable and unconstitutional). She added that civil registries may still marry same-sex couples only if they are granted an injunction beforehand.^[27]