Lawmakers approve equal marriage bill

Lawmakers with the Commission of Government, Legislation and Constitutional Affairs have approved a bill that would grant marriage rights in the state to same-sex couples.

The measure passed by a 5-1 vote.

The dissenting vote came from Assemblyman Gerardo López Montes, of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party.

The bill seeks to repeal the second paragraph of Article 7 of the Baja California Constitution and modifies various provisions of the State Civil Code.

The proposal was introduced by former Assemblyman Catalino Zavala Márquez and Assemblywoman Miriam Elizabeth Cano Núñez, both of the majority National Regeneration Movement Party.

The bill received majority support from the Assembly on July 15, but failed to pass because it was two votes shy of the 17 necessary for a constitutional reform.

The bill provides legal certainty to same-sex couples in Baja California who wish to marry and assert their rights before the law.

After failing to obtain enough votes, lawmakers returned the bill to the commission for further analysis.

On Friday, Director of Legislative Consulting of the Congress Francisco Javier Tenorio Andújar confirmed the legislative proposal is “legally appropriate, and this is so taking into account that legal conditions that motivated and sustained the provenance legal opinion have not changed.”

Years ago, the federal Supreme Court declared state law regarding the prohibition of same-sex couples from marrying as unconstitutional.

Assemblyman Juan Manuel Molina highlighted that there is jurisprudence set by the Supreme Court that obliges all state legislatures of the country to modify local constitutions to allow same-sex marriage.

The measure will return to the Assembly floor for a another vote.

Conservative organizations have criticized the bill since they are against the marriage between people of the same sex for considering it to be against nature