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Mexico high court upholds Mexico City same-sex adoption law

By Ann Riley

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Mexico [official website, in Spanish] ruled 9-2 on Monday to uphold [press release, in Spanish] a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples. Justices in the majority found that same-sex adoptions do not violate [El Universal report, in Spanish] the Mexican Constitution [text, PDF], which, regardless of the familial structure, provides equal protections to heterosexual couples, single mothers, divorced parents, grandparents and same-sex couples. The majority explained that it would be discriminatory to find same-sex couples less capable parents than heterosexual couples. Attorney General Arturo Chavez [official website, in Spanish] challenged the law on the basis that it violated the rights of adopted children, denying them protections from discrimination and guarantees to a traditional heterosexual family model.

Last week, the court ruled 9-2 that same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive] performed in Mexico City must be recognized nationwide [JURIST report]. The court found that although Mexico's 31 states are not required to allow same-sex marriages to be performed in their jurisdictions, they must confer marital rights to same-sex couples married in Mexico City. Earlier this month, the court ruled 8-2 that Mexico City's same-sex marriage law is constitutional [JURIST report]. The law, passed last year [JURIST report], was challenged by Chavez, who had argued that allowing same-sex marriages violates the guarantee of familial integrity under the Constitution. The court rejected this argument, finding that the constitution did not specify what constituted a family and found that the regulation of marriage licenses was a state function. In December, Mexico City's legislative assembly [official website, in Spanish] approved the same-sex marriage law. The legislation allows for marriage, adoption, inheritance and other economic and social rights. The provision also seeks to end discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 17, 2010 (boomark / email).