Mexico president proposes legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide News
Mexico president proposes legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide

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.

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.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.