Karina and Gabriela became the second same-sex couple to wed in the state of Oaxaca since a December 2012 Supreme Court ruling found the state’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional
Yesterday (22 December) Karina and Gabriela, whose last names have been omitted per their request, married in a private ceremony at approximately 3pm local time.
Alex Ali Mendez Dia, a lawyer for Oaxaca Front for the Respect and Recognition of Sexual Diversity, told Gay Star News the couple has been waiting two years to get married.
While the Oaxaca Front started strategizing along with three gay couples in August 2011 to combat the state’s ban on same-sex marriages using Mexico City’s marriage equality bill as a template, the Supreme Court did not rule Oaxaca’s ban unconstitutional until December 2012.
Mexico’s Supreme Court has also ruled same-sex marriages must be legally recognized in all 32 Mexican states including those that do not allow them to be performed in-state.
The first same-sex couple to marry in Oaxaca was a lesbian couple who tied the knot in a private ceremony on 22 March 2013.
Mendez Dia told GSN: ‘There’s still a feeling of discrimination in the rest of the country.
‘Couples still run a risk,’ he responded when asked why more same-sex couples on Oaxaca haven’t rushed to get married.
‘It’s still an environment very different from Mexico City,’ he added, pointing out many gay and lesbian couples prefer to wed quickly and without much hassle in Mexico City instead of waiting for the year-long process in Oaxaca.
‘We have no government resources to make a campaign so other same-sex couples can get married, but what we’ve done in Oaxaca, is happening in other places,’ Mendez Dia added.
The Oaxaca Front and other LGBTI rights groups, without state or federal support, turn instead to international human rights organizations to apply global human rights tests to their own legislation.
‘In a few years we’ll make this a reality for our country,’ said Mendez Dia.
by Jean Paul Zapata
Source – Gay Star News
