Mexico Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

When a country does something as momentous as – Oh, I don’t know – overturning a ban on gay marriage then there’s usually some kind of fanfare:

• People parading in favour of gay marriage
  
• People protesting against gay marriage
  
• Parliamentary debates, amendments, press conferences...
  
• Religions piping up with warnings of an
  apocalypse…

Generally speaking, we know that something is a foot. 

This week Mexico overturned a ban on gay marriage with the legislative equivalent of a shrug. The court has ruled that the definition of marriage – as being between a man and a woman – is unconstitutional.

With marriage no longer being a necessary predicate to procreation, it’s easy to see why a ban can be considered discriminatory. If a man and a woman can get married when neither want children, then the same has to be true for gay couples, too. 

In recent years, certain Mexican courts have been granting injunctions so that same-sex couples can marry even in jurisdictions where the law forbids it. That's why Mexico has always been something of a special case: same-sex couples could marry in some places but not all.

Now, following the latest ruling, these injunctions will be available throughout the country and judges will be constitutionally bound to give them out. 

It doesn't make gay marriage legal in the traditional sense, but it's a pretty impressive work-around.  

With 80% of the Mexican population identifying as Roman Catholic, the overturn was probably only ever going to come as a result of constitutional scrutiny. 

As you might imagine, the Church has responded to the news in its typically clear-headed fashion. Mexican Archbishops have been busy performing a mass exorcism to stave off the ‘satanic infestation’ of homosexuality and gay marriage. 

Needless to say, it hasn’t worked yet.