The state of Zacatecas voted not to legalize same-sex marriage on Wednesday, when 13 of the 26 deputies voted no, 11 voted in favor and two abstained.
The Morena party, which has a small plurality in the Congress, supported the bill with the exception of Deputy Armando Perales Gándara. The two-deputy blocks of the Labor Party (PT) and the Social Encounter Party (PES) also split, with one voting for and one against the bill in each party.
Morena Deputy Mónica Borrego Estrada expressed her disappointment after the vote, blaming the outcome on party-line votes by deputies allied with Governor Alejandro Tello, a block made up of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN), the New Alliance Party (PANAL) and the Green Party (PVEM).
“I’m convinced that the truth won today, but lost to party-line votes, shameful votes by legislators from parties that are allied with Governor Alejandro Tello . . .” she said.
Borrego added that failing to legalize gay marriage puts Zacatecas behind the rest of the country and the world.
“International agreements approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations support the recognition of marriage equality as a mechanism to fight discrimination and intolerance on the planet,” she said.
The outcome of the vote sparked protest from members of the LGBT community who were gathered in the chamber, and applause from the National Family Front, a Catholic Church group that opposes same-sex marriage.
Such marriages were legalized by a 2015 Supreme Court decision. However, in Zacatecas and the 11 other states that have laws defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, same-sex couples must obtain an injunction from a federal court in order to be able to legally marry.
In the state’s municipalities of Zacatecas, Cuauhtémoc and Villanueva same-sex couples may get married without obtaining an injunction.
Zacatecas joins Yucatán and Sinaloa as states that have voted down proposals to legalize the practice this year.
Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp), Infobae (sp)
