After passing legislation declaring that it’s discriminatory to define marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, Mexico has also gone on to give gay couples the right to adopt. The Supreme Court ruled that the Sociedades Civiles de Convivencia law, a 2013 law banning gay couples from adopting in the southeastern state of Campeche, had discriminatory effects. “The step taken today reaffirms LGBT people’s right to get married and start a family,” Gloria Careaga, coordinator for Fundación Arcoíris, said to El País. “There is increasing agreement in the court, which is leading the way for human rights in this country.”
Justice Luis María Aguilar said that he doesn’t see a problem with children being adopted by gay couples, especially when the alternative is that they may be out on the street. Eduardo Medina Mora, on the other hand, was the only dissenter. He said that no discrimination exists because everyone is regulated by the same set of rules.
Mexico doesn’t have a national ban against same-sex adoption, but LGBT couples have generally only been able to adopt in the states that fully recognize same-sex marriage.