FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2014, file photo, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto stands at attention as the national anthem of the UK and Mexico is played during an official visit by Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, at the National Palace in Mexico City. According to a report by a leading Mexican journalist, the private home of President Pena Nieto was built and is registered under the name of a company connected to a controversial high-speed rail contract that he abruptly canceled last week. The article did not specify what laws if any are broken by the president using a house registered under another name. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)
Enrique Peña Nieto wants to bring marriage equality to Mexico.
The Mexican president proposed Tuesday the legalization of gay marriage, announcing that he has signed several initiatives that would seek to enshrine same-sex marriage in the country’s constitution and its federal civil code.
“Today, on the International Day Against Homophobia, I met the representatives of LGBT groups. I listened to their ideas and proposals,” Peña Nieto posted in Spanish on Twitter. “I reiterated the Mexican government’s commitment to combat all forms of discrimination, including those motivated by sexual preference.”
He continued over a couple of tweets, “These reform initiatives takes up the the Supreme Court's initiative of non-discrimination … for an inclusive Mexico that recognizes diversity – one of its greatest strengths.”
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His profile picture on his Twitter account turned rainbow-colored after he made the announcement.
Peña Nieto’s initiatives would modify article No. 4 of Mexico's constitution to reflect the Supreme Court opinion and "to recognize as a human right that people can enter into marriage without any kind of discrimination."
Currently gay marriage is only legal in the country’s capital, Mexico City, and eight other states. The country has 31 states in all.
Same-sex couples can marry in Mexico's other 23 states, but it's complicated, slow and expensive.
A couple needs a month or more and the equivalent of around $1,000 U.S. to pay a lawyer to help them.
In June 2015, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.
Elsewhere in Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and, most recently, Colombia have legalized same-sex marriage.
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