Gay Marriage Equality in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. Mexico can only have marriage equality state by state. Eighteen of Mexico’s 31 states (including the state of Jalisco where Puerto Vallarta is located) and the federal district Mexico City currently have automatic marriage equality. Gay couples can marry in the other 13 states if they go to a federal judge and get a personalized court injunction (called amparo in Mexico), a case by case legal process that is time-consuming and requires paying a lawyer for help. However, The judge cannot refuse the amparo for the marriage once issued
If you are a foreigner looking for a same sex wedding in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, here are the documents you will need.
- You must take a Pre-marriage course sponsored by and authorized by the local office of DIF (Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia—National System for the Integrated Development of Families) offered every Thursday afternoon. They will give you a certificate that you will then bring with your marriage application.
- A certified copy and two photocopies of each partner’s birth certificates. For Mexicans, these must be requested within one year prior to the wedding date from the local registro civil (equivalent to county clerk). For foreigners, the birth certificates must be certified by the office of origin with a recent international apostille, then translated into Spanish by a translator officially sanctioned in the jurisdiction of your legal ceremony. If your home country’s language isn’t English, the certified birth certificate should be translated into English before being brought to Mexico, because very few of the official translators speak anything other than English.
Same Sex Adoptions. Same sex adoptions in Mexico are not widely accepted pubicly. However, they are allowed by same sex couples taking the best interest of the minor into consideration. The legislators of the State of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located, still refuse to recognize in the state laws, the right of same-sex couples to adopt a child. However, a ruling from the Mexican Federal Supreme Court, the state government authorities that deal with adoptions must process an application from a same-sex couple if the applicants file an injunction or amparo for this proceeding.
The Constitution of Mexico does not explicitly define nor ban same-sex marriage. It does contain various articles protecting the “integrity of the family” and the “fraternity and equality of rights of all” and forbidding “any form of discrimination, based on […] sexual orientation, marital status, […] which violates the human dignity or seeks to annul or diminish the rights and freedoms of the people”. On these bases, the Mexican Supreme Court has ruled that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Article 4 provides that men and women have an equal right to marry, reading that “the law shall protect the organization and development of the family.
Here are some gay weddings that have taken place in Puerto Vallarta!
