Mexico's Supreme Court Strikes Down Marriage Ban in Western State

The Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that the family code restricting marriage to opposite sex couples in the coastal state of Sinaloa is unconstitutional, according to the Washington Blade.

"The contested provisions are clearly discriminatory because the relationships in which homosexual couples engage can fit perfectly into the actual fundamentals of marriage and living together and raising a family," the court said in a written statement. "For all of those relevant effects, homosexual couples can find themselves in an equivalent situation to heterosexual couples, in such a way that their exclusion from both institutions is totally unjustified."

Mexican LGBT rights activists welcomed the news: "...[The ruling] creates conditions for the free exercise of sexuality within the framework of human rights," activist Ana Lidia Murillo Camacho told the Blade.

Murrillo further said that, with the ruling in favor of marriage equality, the court has sent "...a message that reminds society and its institutions to strive for a democratic state with human rights."

Mexican couples of all gender configurations have been able to marry in the country's capital of Mexico City for half a decade. Last year, the state of Coahuila state also got marriage equality.

According to one sources cited by The Blade, peculiarities of Mexico's federal judicial system means the decision is just one part of a puzzle that requires another 140 rulings -- five from each of the country's remaining 28 states with marriage bans -- to make marriage equality nationwide.