Same-sex marriage became legal in the Mexican state of Colima on 12 June 2016. On 25 May 2016, a bill to legalise same-sex marriage in the state passed the Congress of Colima and was published as law in the state's official newspaper on 11 June 2016 where it came into effect the next day.
Contents
Civil unions
On 4 July 2013, the State Congress approved an amendment to Article 147 of the constitution to formalized same-sex civil unions. Within 30 days, seven of Colima's ten municipalities approved the constitutional change. An appeal to the changes was filed and the Supreme Court of the Nation agreed in August 2014 to review it. Deliberations began at the Supreme Court in September 2014 to determine whether the new Civil Code which provides only "wedlock" for same-sex couples and "marriage" to opposite-sex couples is discrimination via sexual orientation. On 18 March 2015, a district judge declared that "separate but equal treatment is discriminatory" and unconstitutional. The decision also stated that section 201 of the Civil Code which defines gendered roles for men and women is discriminatory and reiterated that adoption open to heterosexual married couples must also be open to homosexual couples. Shortly after the ruling, a local LGBT rights group announced that it will help any couple who joined in a civil union to receive a marriage certificate. The state appealed the ruling and on 17 June 2015, the Mexican Supreme Court agreed that the "separate but equal" union laws were unconstitutional. The government has since announced that the civil unions will cease.
On 5 May 2016, Colima's Congress unanimously repealed their partnership law through reform of Article 147. All previous partnerships performed before the repeal of the civil union legislation will be recognised by the state and can be converted to marriage upon request.
Amparo
On 22 January 2013, the civil registrar of Cuauhtémoc received a request from a gay couple to marry. After a team of lawyers reviewed the petition on 27 February 2013, basing the decision on the declaration of the unconstitutionality of discriminatory laws, mayor Vizcaíno Indira Silva, from the municipality of Cuauhtémoc, granted the first same-sex marriage license in Colima. On 25 March 2013, a second same-sex marriage (and first lesbian union) occurred. A third same-sex marriage in Cuauhtémoc was held on 4 April 2013 for a lesbian couple and the registrar announced at that time there were 20 to 30 marriages scheduled on the calendar. On 9 June 2013, a male gay couple was granted an injunction to marry in Colima, making the state the second in Mexico to win the right to marriage via "amparo" (injunction).
On 14 June 2013, Rosa Lilia Vargas Valle, a judge of the Second District Court of the Colima State, ruled that the Colima Civil Code is unconstitutional in limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples.
Constitutional ban
On 4 July 2013, the State Congress approved an amendment to Article 147 of the Colimense Constitution, defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman thus constitutionally banning same-sex marriage (the amendment also formalized same-sex civil unions).
On 5 May 2016, the State Congress unanimously repealed Colima's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Paving the way for a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state to be approved.
Legislation
Following, the Mexican Supreme Court's ruling on 17 June 2015 declaring that a "separate but equal" treatment for same-sex couples is discriminatory and unconstitutional, PRD submitted a same-sex marriage bill to Congress. The bill would also allow same-sex couples to adopt children jointly.
A vote on the legislation was scheduled for May 2016. The bill was approved on 25 May 2016 in a unanimous 24-0 vote. It was published in the state's official journal on 11 June 2016 and came into effect on 12 June 2016.