LGBTQ people in Mexico

The LGBTQ community in Mexico has seen significant advancements in the early 21st century, marked by the passage of key legislation and the establishment of institutions aimed at preventing discrimination.

This law, although criticized for its limitations, strives to protect citizens from discrimination based on various factors, including sexual preferences and gender identity.

Surveys have shown varying levels of support for same-sex marriage and equal rights for LGBTQ individuals, reflecting deep-rooted prejudices and challenges faced by the community.

The LGBTQ movement in Mexico has organized through local initiatives, marches, and advocacy efforts, with a thriving presence in major cities across the country.

Societal prejudices and terminologies in Mexico reflect complex gender dynamics and cultural norms, impacting the experiences of LGBTQ individuals.

Historians often described the indigenous customs that surprised them or that they disapproved of, but tended to take a position of accusation or apology, which makes it impossible to distinguish between reality and propaganda.

The visible center of the LGBT community is the Zona Rosa, a series of streets in Colonia Juárez in Mexico City, where over 50 gay bars and dance clubs exist.

[19] LGBT Pride Parades have continuously occurred in Monterrey,[20] Tijuana,[21] Puebla,[22] Veracruz,[20] Xalapa,[23] Cuernavaca,[24] Tuxtla Gutiérrez,[25] Acapulco,[26] Chilpancingo,[20] and Mérida.

[27] A study by the agency De la Riva on the behavior of the LGBT consumer shows that the habits of gay men and lesbians are distinct.

[27] Guadalajara and Acapulco were common vacation destinations for gay men and lesbians from Mexico City and, especially, the United States and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s.

Since that time, Puerto Vallarta has developed into Mexico's premier resort town as a sort of satellite gay space for its big sister Guadalajara, much as Fire Island is to New York City and Palm Springs is to Los Angeles.

The law, which has been criticized as insufficient,[37] gives rise to the creation of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Consejo Nacional para Prevenir la Discriminación, CONAPRED), which is in charge of receiving and settling cases of discrimination, as well as "develop[ing] actions to protect all citizens from every distinction or exclusion based on ethnic or national origin, sex, age, disability, social or economic condition, conditions of health, pregnancy, language, religion, beliefs, sexual preferences, marital status or any other, that prevents or annuls the acknowledgement or the exercise of the rights and the real equality of opportunities of persons".

The law, in effect since its publication in the official newspaper of the capital city government on 16 March 2007, gives almost the same rights as a married couple within the limits of the Federal District, with the exception of adoption.

[45] Anthropologist Joseph M. Carrier suggests that, unlike the U.S., in Mexico, a man's masculine gender and heterosexual identity are not threatened by a homosexual act as long as he plays the inserter's role.

The most benign of the contemptuous terms is maricón, a label that highlights the non-conforming gender attributes of the (feminine) homosexual man, equivalent to sissy or fairy in American English.

The invective associated with all these appellations speaks to the way effeminate homosexual men are viewed as having betrayed the Mexican man's prescribed gender and sexual role.

[46] The concealment, suppression, or prevention of any open acknowledgment of homosexual activity underscores the stringency of culture surrounding gender and sexual norms in Mexican family life.

[53] According to the First National Poll on Discrimination (2005) in Mexico which was carried out by the CONAPRED, 48% of the Mexican people interviewed indicated that they would not permit a homosexual to live in their house.

[56] The second major reason gay men and lesbians remain invisible is the strong social stigma attached to homosexuality, particularly where it comes into conflict with the highly accentuated and differentiated sexual roles prescribed by machismo.

The distinct boundary between male and female roles in Mexico appears to be due in part to a culturally defined hypermasculine ideal referred to as machismo."

It means that most Mexican gay or bisexual males, regardless of the sexual roles they assume in private, are at pains to project a manly image in public.

[48] Because machismo is by definition male-oriented, and is premised on male dominance in relations between the sexes, lesbian relationships are generally perceived as far less threatening to society.

It would be difficult for two men to live together by themselves without giving rise to rumors; but for two women to accompany each other how beautiful it is that the poor things have found company to avoid loneliness!"

[62][63] In a journalistic study by Fernando del Collado, titled Homofobia, odio, crimen y justicia (Homophobia, Hate, Crime, and Justice), there were discussed 400 dead between 1995 and 2005, that is to say, some three murders a month.

"The arguments expressed by those who sympathize with this current that favors sexual libertinism, often appear under humanist banners, although at root they manifest materialist ideologies that deny the transcendent nature of the human person, as well as the supernatural vocation of the individual."

Recognizing that "the number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible", it specifies that "they must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity," avoiding "every sign of unjust discrimination."

"Muxe, persons who appear to be predominantly male but display certain feminine characteristics are highly visible in Isthmus Zapotec populations.

[68] More recently, muxes have been able to use their relatively high levels of education to gain important footholds in the more prestigious white-collar jobs in government and business that constitute the social elite in their communities.

[70] Though not necessarily approving such liaisons, Isthmus Zapotec society is tolerant of persons who publicly form same-sex couples, whether male or female.

[70] The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a mostly indigenous and armed revolutionary group, on 1 January 1994, the same day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, began a rebellion against the Mexican government in the southern state of Chiapas, the country's poorest.