Mérida, Yucatán —”Consensus could not be achieved” to pass a law formalizing gay marriage in Yucatán, declared Celia Rivas Rodríguez, the president of the board of government and political coordination of the Congress.
A bill quietly making the rounds of the LXI legislature would have required quick progress before the new Congress takes charge on Sept. 1.
Representatives of the next legislative body should address the issue, she urged.
While not backed by law, same-sex couples in Yucatán have a loophole. They must petition the court to get married in the state, and the court is required to grant the request. But until the state passes a liberalization of the marriage laws, gay and lesbian couples have to go through this one extra hurdle.
The bill’s prospects in the next Congress is uncertain; it is not even clear who all the representatives will be. Some election results are still under analysis in the electoral courts.
The marriage equality bill fell short of the 17 votes it needed in committee.
The next Congress will have 30 days to form new committees, and five days to decide proposals held over from the previous legislature.
“That’s why it was very important for us that such issues, such as equal marriage, be in the corresponding commissions. It will already be the subject of the next legislature,” Rivas Rodríguez said.
When asked if the Commission of Constitutional Points and Governance, as well as Justice and Public Security, could continue to hold sessions to approve the initiative in this period, Rivas Rodríguez insisted that “time is very tight, very short.”
Same-sex marriage is the law in Mexico City and in the states of Baja California, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nayarit, Puebla and Quintana Roo, as well as in certain municipalities in Querétaro.
Legislation to allow same-sex marriage is pending in almost every other state.
Source: Desde el Balcón
