Municipal authorities in Guadalajara and Chapala denied a married same-sex couple, named Alma and Ariana, the right to register their recently born triplets as their own, says Union Diversa de Jalisco, a local LGBT activist/support organization.
In a press release, the UDJ says that the discriminatory actions by municipal personnel took place shortly after Alma prematurely gave birth to the triplets in the Centro Medico of the Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social (IMSS) in mid October. She became pregnant after undergoing an artificial insemination procedure.
Because it looked like the babies might require a longer period of hospitalization, Ariana rushed to a Civil Registry in Guadalajara to have them registered. However, staff there refused to recognize the couple as the legitimate parents of the children, even though Ariana presented their marriage certificate.
According to the UDJ, Ariana subsequently went to two other registry offices in Guadalajara and one in Chapala but none allowed her to register the children.
The UDJ said it is working with lawyers and local authorities to try and have the couple legally registered as the triplets’ parents.
The UDJ said it was lamentable that the state’s Civil Code has not been amended almost four years after Mexico’s Supreme Court declared that laws in Jalisco discriminating against same-sex marriage were illegal.
Authorities will allow same-sex couples to apply for wedding licenses but the vacuum in state law means that many rights automatically granted to heterosexual couples are denied them.