Mexico City: Legislative assembly passes pro-trans gender recognition bill

Mexico City has approved a bill allowing transgender people the legal right to change gender on official documents without a court order.

Last week, the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF) passed the legislation with 42 votes in favour and only six abstaining.

The bill was proposed by Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera on the recommendation of the assembly’s Commission for Attention to Vulnerable Groups.

On Thursday, he said: “The ALDF complies with constitutional reform to ensure the observance of the fundamental rights of the people, by not allowing discriminatory acts or conduct.”

Jorge Zepeda Cruz, president of the commission, called the legal changes “inevitable.”

In July, twelve thousand turned out in the streets of Mexico’s capital to celebrate pride.

In December last year, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled in favour of three couples wishing to marry in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, in a decision which was seen by some as opening the door to eventually having a federal equal marriage law.

Almost 400 same-sex couples married in Mexico within the first six months of the law permitting same-sex marriage coming into effect. The law also allowed gay couples to adopt.

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