Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto has filed a proposal to legalize gay marriage across the whole country, he said Tuesday (May 17).
The bill (link in Spanish) would amend the country’s constitution to guarantee that same-sex couples are allowed to get married anywhere in the country.
“I back the commitment of the Mexican government to combat all types of discrimination, including that which is motivated by sexual preference #WithoutHomophobia,” he tweeted, with the rainbow flag superposed over his Twitter profile picture.
Several Mexican states and Mexico City already allow gay marriage, and the country’s supreme court determined last year that state laws defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman are unconstitutional. But civil clerks in many jurisdictions have rebelled against the ruling and have tried to block petitions for marriage licenses, including in one case by insisting the couple first had to prove (Spanish) they were homosexual.
In Mexico, where Catholicism is the dominant religion, around half of the population opposes same-sex unions, but public support for it has grown in recent years, polls show (Spanish).
Congress still has to approve the law. If it does, Mexico would become the fifth country in Latin America to allow gay marriage.