By DAVID AGREN
Published: August 10, 2010
The Mexican Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that each of the country’s 31 states must recognize same-sex marriages registered in Mexico City, potentially giving gay and lesbian couples full matrimonial rights nationwide.
While the court made it clear that state governments were not obligated to enact same-sex marriage laws of their own, it did require them to recognize the legality of such marriages performed in Mexico City.
“What’s going to happen to a same-sex couple, who marry in Mexico City, when they cross the border to another state," asked Justice Arturo Zaldívar, who voted with the majority, during Tuesday’s discussions. “Does this marriage disappear? They go on vacation and they’re no longer married?”
The court decision leaves uncertainty about which marital rights must be recognized by state governments. But Arturo Pueblita Fernández, a constitutional law professor at the Ibero-American University in Mexico City, said that fundamental spousal rights would apply to same-sex couples across the country, including alimony payments, inheritance rights and the coverage of spouses by the federal social security system, which provides health and pension benefits to most of Mexico’s working population.
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