![Mexico president proposes legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/03/shutterstock_657639088.jpg)
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto [official website, in Spanish] on Tuesday signed an initiative that would amend the country’s constitution to legalize same-sex marriage [press release, in Spanish] nationwide. Marking the national day against homophobia, Peña Nieto tweeted “I signed reform initiatives to promote marriage equality and its addition to the Constitution and the Federal Civil Code.” The proposal still requires congressional approval. The move follows a June ruling by the Supreme Court of Mexico [official website, in Spanish], which declared it unconstitutional [JURIST report] for Mexican states to ban same-sex marriages but did not invalidate any state laws. Same-sex marriage is currently legal only in Mexico City and the states of Campeche, Jalisco, Coahuila, Quintana Roo, Colima, Nayarit and Chihuahua.
Firmé iniciativas de reforma para impulsar que el #MatrimonioIgualitario quede plasmado en la Constitución y en el Código Civil Federal.
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) May 17, 2016
If approved, Peña Nieto’s proposal would make Mexico the fifth Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage. Argentina became the first in 2010, followed by Uruguay and Brazil [JURIST reports] in 2013. Colombia’s Constitutional Court legalized same-sex marriage last month.