The Supreme Court of Justice has overturned a 2013 law in Campeche forbidding adoption by same-sex couples.
The country’s highest court ruled that the restriction was discriminatory and contrary to the best interests of children. The challenge to the ban was filed by the state’s human rights commission.
The state law was struck down in a 9-1 ruling.
Presiding Judge Luis Maria Aguila said the decision was made keeping in mind the protection of adopted children.
“I see no problem for a child to be adopted in a society of co-existence, which has precisely this purpose. Are we going to prefer to have children in the street, which according to statistics exceed 100,000? We attend, of course, and perhaps with the same intensity or more, to the interests of the child,” Aguila told TeleSUR.
The only judge to vote for the ban, Eduardo Medina Mora, a close friend of the president, said adoption should prioritize children, not those who want to adopt them.
In June, the high court also ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny marriage to same-sex couples — a ruling that came shortly before a similar one from the U.S. Supreme Court. Same-sex marriage is legal in Mexico City, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guerrero and Quintana Roo. All other couples must file injunctions against their states in order to legally marry.
A fight for adoption rights is a tougher climb in this largely Catholic country, where a 2013 poll found 52 percent of Mexicans supported same-sex marriage, but only 24 percent backed gay adoption. The church will not baptize children of same-gender parents.
Source: El Universal
