Mexico: Gay prisoners gain rights

Mexico City officials have started to allow conjugal visits for homosexual prisoners in the city’s Santa Martha Acatitla prison. The change was based on a recommendation made by the city’s human rights commission:

“The Mexico City department of prisons and rehabilitation has allowed the first conjugal visit to an inmate with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual…(It was) an important step in terms of non-discrimination regarding sexual preference.”

Though a 2003 federal law bans discrimination based on sexual preference, the commission hopes that the decision can be expanded to the rest of Mexico City’s jails.

Over the past few months, Mexico City’s leftist government has been behind the following measures:

• Decriminalizing first trimester abortions
• Permitting gay civil unions
• Creating specific zones for legal prostitution

Sources- BBC News, International Herald Tribune, The Latin Americanist

Image- MSNBC (Masked protestor at a Mexico City pro-gay rights rally)