By Georgina González

Photos: Courtesy of El Taller

On November 3, the Puebla Congress approved, with 31 votes in favor, reforms to the Civil Code guaranteeing same-sex marriage. Puebla, a conservative state in central Mexico, became the 20th state to recognize this right.

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The substantial reform occurred in Article 294. Previously, it stated: “Marriage is a civil contract between one man and one woman.” After the reform, marriage is now defined as “the union between two people.” 

The right to same-sex marriage in Puebla was achieved after ten years of struggle. Since then, activists and civil organizations that defend the human rights of the LGBT population in Puebla have worked on community and political actions to guarantee this right.

“ During this struggle, we even heard politicians say that if we were so eager to get married, we should move to Mexico City. And that makes me angry. Why do we have to go somewhere else? Why do we have to relocate if we grew up here, built our lives here, and live here? Why should we have to go somewhere else to have our rights recognized?” Gabriela Cortés, a theater artist, human rights defender, and coordinator of El Taller , a Puebla-based organization dedicated to community and artistic work with a lesbian-feminist focus, told Presentes.

A ten-year struggle

On May 17, 2010, the Puebla Pride Committee organized a gathering to perform symbolic unions between same-sex couples. Around 23 couples participated in the event that day. “ It was so powerful that some couples actually exchanged real rings, and it was so beautiful. But the next day we were confronted with the discrimination and hatred we face every day in a state with so much conservatism and religious influence as Puebla ,” recalls Gabriela Cortés, remembering the year the fight for marriage equality began in Puebla.

That experience prompted activists and organizations to take action to raise awareness of sexual diversity and defend their rights in a state that denied same-sex marriage at least three times. 

Since 2014, the Citizen Observatory of Sexual and Reproductive Rights and El Taller had already filed a collective injunction so that 30 people, lesbians and gays, could unite with their partners.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) published jurisprudence 43/2015 , which states as unconstitutional the civil laws of the states of the country that define marriage as the union between "a man and a woman".

In 2017, following a recommendation from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruled Articles 294 and 297 of the Puebla Civil Code unconstitutional and a violation of human rights. These articles invalidated civil unions between "one man and one woman." Thanks to this ruling, same-sex couples were able to legally marry through injunctions.

“My partner and I managed to file one of those injunctions without paying for it, and it was approved. But it made us uncomfortable, you know? Why do only some couples have that right? We were lucky, but we still feel that injunctions will never be the solution because they leave out many more couples, and that's not fair,” Gabriela said.

Fundamentalism and homophobic rulers

In December 2019, the current governor of Puebla, Miguel Barbosa, presented a reform initiative to the Civil Code that maintained marriage as the union "between a man and a woman" and removed the provision that the purpose of marriage is "to perpetuate the species". 

That action effectively locked the Supreme Court's ruling of unconstitutionality, which had benefited same-sex couples for at least three years, allowing them to unite through legal protections.

The resistance put up by the state governor himself led the CNDH to reiterate that the reform defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman is unconstitutional and violates human rights.

During the congressional session that guaranteed the right to same-sex marriage, independent congressman Héctor Alonso Granados demanded, “Make them a special law like the ones in other states, but don’t come and destroy the family code (…) which has taken us centuries to build (…) That’s why I voted against it. There are more heterosexuals than homosexuals, therefore we cannot be held hostage by minorities, and I don’t care what they say. I am not a misogynist or homophobe, I guarantee you that.”

This type of resistance is not unique to the political class. In Puebla, the Catholic Church has played a significant role in ensuring that the rights of LGBT+ people and women are not guaranteed and are repeatedly denied.

“The Catholic Church has a lot of influence, and although the law says it’s a secular state, the reality is different. We recognize that there are very conservative groups in Puebla, and the Archbishop has a lot of power over parishioners and government officials, and what he says is practically a mandate. It’s very difficult, frightening, and paralyzing to hear them say that lesbians and gays will destroy the family,” Gabriela Cortés pointed out.

“And yes, there are many lesbians, gays, and trans people who want to put an end to that traditional family, that family that rules in one way, that hates what is different. Yes, we want to put an end to that family that doesn't recognize other families, the diversity of families that exist,” she added. 

“The law on paper is one thing, and reality is another.”

Gabriela asserts that the approval of the equal marriage law does not guarantee a real change in the discrimination and violence experienced by LGBT+ people in Puebla. 

“When the law was passed, I felt everything. I wanted to cry with emotion, but also with fear, with sheer anger… I mean, why only now, right? But it’s important so that society in general starts to understand that this is normal. But the truth is that even though it’s on paper, this law isn’t for everyone, because there’s still discrimination, there are still femicides, violence; you simply can’t shout from the rooftops, ‘I’m getting married.’ It’s scary,” Gabriela maintains. 

Without violence statistics

In Mexico, there are no official statistics to help quantify the violence and discrimination against LGBT people. And although homicide is classified as a hate crime in Puebla based on “sexual orientation,” prosecutors lack a specialized protocol to guarantee access to justice.

From 1996 to 2019, 65 LGBT+ people from Puebla were murdered, according to a newspaper review conducted by the organization No Dejarse es Incluise AC Vida Plena.

Faced with “a reality that is difficult to change,” Gabriela, along with her colleagues from El Taller, is committed to using theater, batucada, and community work with a lesbian-feminist perspective “to fight against the competition that certain groups want to impose between women and trans women; misogyny; hate crimes; femicides; sexist violence; corrective rapes; and transfeminicides.”

“Suddenly, there are congresswomen and congressmen who claim to be sensitive. But in the end, it's all because of the struggle of the organizations that haven't stopped chipping away at the stone, demanding, pointing things out, and saying: we are here, we are watching you,” Gabriela Cortés pointed out.