The Congress in the Mexican state of Sonora is now getting pressure from federal legislators to approve a measure allowing for same-sex marriages.
More than six months have passed since that measure was introduced in the state Congress, and since then it has been sitting in committee. And that caught the eye of the Mexican Congress’ Permanent Committee. It recently sent letters to states like Sonora whose laws run afoul of a 2015 Mexican Supreme Court ruling that found that same-sex marriage prohibitions are unconstitutional.
“State congresses are being urged to update the regulatory framework for marriage equality,” Sonoran Rep. Yumiko Palomares, the sponsor of the reform measure, told her colleagues this week.
In the Permanent Committee's letter, Sonoran representatives' federal counterparts wrote that "by defining marriage as a heterosexual union, several state laws discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, and therefore violate the equal rights enshrined in the Mexican Federal Constitution."
Despite the status of the measure and the state's conservative reputation, recent federal polling shows that nearly 70% of Sonorans approve of same-sex marriage, the highest rate in the country after Mexico City.