LGBTQ rights in Mexico

LGBTQ rights in Mexico
Mexico wrapped in the rainbow flag colors
Status	Legal since 1871
Gender identity	Transgender persons can change their legal gender and name in Mexico City and 18 states
Military	Ambiguous, LGBTQ soldiers are in a "legal limbo". Officially, there is no law or policy preventing them from serving, and applicants are not questioned on the subject. In practice, however, outed LGBTQ soldiers are subject to severe harassment and are often discharged.
Discrimination protections	Sexual orientation protection nationwide since 2003 (see below)
Family rights
Recognition of relationships	Same-sex marriage legal nationwide since 2022
Adoption	Joint adoption legal in Mexico City and 21 states

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Mexico expanded in the 21st century, keeping with worldwide legal trends. The intellectual influence of the French Revolution and the brief French occupation of Mexico (1862–67) resulted in the adoption of the Napoleonic Code, which decriminalized same-sex sexual acts in 1871.^[1] Laws against public immorality or indecency, however, have been used to prosecute persons who engage in them.^[2][3]

Tolerance of sexual diversity in certain indigenous cultures is widespread, especially among Isthmus Zapotecs and Yucatán Mayas.^[4][5][6] As the influence of foreign and domestic cultures (especially from more cosmopolitan areas such as Mexico City) grows throughout Mexico, attitudes are changing.^[7] This is most marked in the largest metropolitan areas, such as Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Tijuana, where education and access to foreigners and foreign news media are greatest. Change is slower in the hinterlands, however, and even in large cities, discomfort with change often leads to backlashes.^[8] Since the early 1970s, influenced by the United States gay liberation movement and the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre,^[9] a substantial number of LGBTQ organizations have emerged. Visible and well-attended LGBTQ marches and pride parades have occurred in Mexico City since 1979, in Guadalajara since 1996, and in Monterrey since 2001.^[10]

On 3 June 2015, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation released a "jurisprudential thesis" in which the legal definition of marriage was changed to encompass same-sex couples. Laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman were deemed unconstitutional by the court and thus every justice provider in the nation must validate same-sex unions. However, the process is lengthy as couples must request an injunction (Spanish: amparo) from a judge, a process that opposite-sex couples do not have to go through. The Supreme Court issued a similar ruling pertaining to same-sex adoptions in September 2016. While these two rulings did not directly strike down Mexico's same-sex marriage and adoption bans, they ordered every single judge in the country to rule in favor of same-sex couples seeking marriage and/or adoption rights. By 31 December 2022, every state had legalized same-sex marriage by legislation, executive order, or judicial ruling, though only twenty allowed those couples to adopt children. Additionally, civil unions are performed in the states of Campeche, Coahuila, Mexico City, Michoacán, Sinaloa Tlaxcala and Veracruz, both for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

Political and legal gains have been made through the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution, leftist minor parties such as the Labor Party and Citizen's Movement, the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, and more recently the left-wing National Regeneration Movement. They include, among others, the 2011 amendment to Article 1 of the Federal Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.^[11][12]