Homosexuality
    ✔ Legal
    Gay Marriage
    ✔ Legal
    Censorship
    ✔ No censorship
    Changing Gender
    ✖ Legal, but requires surgery
    Gender-Affirming Care
    Unknown
    Non-Binary Gender Recognition
    ✖ Not legally recognized
    Discrimination
    ✔ Illegal
    Employment Discrimination
    ✖ Sexual orientation only
    Housing Discrimination
    ✖ Sexual orientation only
    Adoption
    Unknown
    Intersex Infant Surgery
    Unknown
    Military
    ✔ Legal
    Donating Blood
    ✔ Legal
    Conversion Therapy
    ✔ Banned
    Age of Consent
    ✔ Equal
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Public Opinion

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History

Homosexual activity in Zacatecas

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Homosexual activity in Zacatecas is legal.

Current status
Since Oct 5, 1929
Legal under federal Mexico law
This previous Penal Code from 1872 was replaced in 1929. The new legal order aimed to modify the legal architecture of the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship, which was based on penal repression, to align it with the context of the constitutional guarantees and social justice proclaimed by the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

Once again, any notion of homosexuality (both male and female) was formally excluded from the document. The potential criminalization allowed by the previous code due to the vagueness of the sanctions related to 'offenses against public morality and good customs' is now technically limited solely to a prohibition of pornography. Thus, Article 536 536 (Second Book; Title 8 'Crimes against Public Morality'; Chapter I 'Offenses against Public Morality or Good Customs') mentions imprisonment and fines for those who reproduce or manufacture obscene writings, images, or objects, as well as for those who display or commercialize such obscene expressions in public.

Again, in 1931, the penal code was substituted by the one that still governs at the federal level today. However, in 1966, Article 201 (Third Book; Title 8 'Crimes against Public Morality and Good Customs'; Chapter II 'Corruption of Minors') was reformed, and for the first time, a reference to homosexuality appeared. It established imprisonment for anyone who induces or incites a minor under 18 years old to engage in 'homosexual practices.' The penalty was doubled if the act was repeated and resulted in the minor 'acquiring habits of homosexual practices.'

Finally, those last provisions that indirectly incited the criminalization of homosexuality were eliminated in the 1999 reform.
Feb 15, 1872–Oct 5, 1929
Legal under federal Mexico law
Mexico’s first Penal Code (published in 1871) which entered into force in 1872, made no reference to the criminalisation of sodomy or any other consensual same-sex act between adults.

Nevertheless, LGBTQ people could be prosecuted under the vague language of article 787 (Third Book; Title 6 'Violations against family order, public decency, or traditional customs'; chapter II 'Offences against public morals or good manners'), which never mentioned any sexual orientation or gender identity. The penalty included arrest and a fine if the alleged 'indecent act' was committed either in a public place (with or without witnesses) or in a private place.

The first known reference of the application of this article towards LGBTQ people dates from November 1901 when the scandal of the 'baile de los cuarenta y uno' (the 'Ball of the Forty-One') occurred. Police illegally raid a private home in Mexico City where 41 men (some of them dressed in women's clothing) from the upper classes of the Mexican society were attending an event. The identity of the suspects was never disclosed, but according to some sources, there are some press articles at the time that state some of them could be conscripted into the army and sent to Yucatán to public works. This was as the Caste War against the Mayan Indigenous rebels was finalising. There are seven names listed in the records of the Supreme Court who filed a writ of protection against their conscription to the army because homosexuality was not illegal in Mexico at the time. Hence, the charge was simply replaced (crime against decency), but the punishment didn't change.

This Penal Code was replaced in 1929.
Jan 1, 1600–Feb 15, 1872
Male illegal, female uncertain under federal Mexico law
From the 1600s to the short Second French intervention and the subsequent restoration of the Republic under President Juárez, sodomy was heavily criminalized in Mexico. The medieval laws issued in the Kingdom of Castile were still valid for all the territories of the Hispanic Monarchy in the Americas. These laws still heavily criminalised acts of sodomy and were still part of the chaotic Mexican legal body even after achieving independence.
In the first half of the 19th century, Mexico experienced political instability and a series of civil wars and revolts. All the efforts to enact a solid, unified legal body for this new country were unsuccessful until the 1870s.
Sources:
Garza, Federico. Quemando mariposas. Sodomía e imperio en Andalucia y México, siglos XVI-XVII. Laertes. Barcelona, 2002. (Spanish)

utpress.utexas.edu/9780292779945/ (English & Book)

database.ilga.org/mexico-lgbti

dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php… (Spanish)

Irwin, Robert McKee, et al., eds. The Famous 41: Sexuality and Social Control in Mexico 1901. New York: Palgrave, 2003. Lumsden, Ian. Homosexuality, Society and the State in Mexico. Toronto: Canadian Gay Archives, 1991. (English)

Timeline of war: napoleon.org/en/history-of-…

Translated version: www-jornada-com-mx.translat…

Original version: jornada.com.mx/2001/11/08/l…
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Same-sex marriage in Zacatecas

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Same-sex marriage in Zacatecas is legal.

Current status
Since Dec 30, 2021
Legal
Legalized in 2021.
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Feb 14, 2019–Dec 30, 2021
Ambiguous
Legalized in Zacatecas (14 February 2019), Cuauhtémoc (1 March 2019), Villanueva (1 May 2019), Miguel Auza (5 July 2019), Freshnillo (3 July 2020) cities.
Sources:
congresozac.gob.mx/63/inicio Poder Legislativo del Estado de Zacatecas - LXIII Legislatura
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Censorship of LGBT issues in Zacatecas

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Censorship of LGBT issues in Zacatecas is no censorship.

Current status
No censorship
In Zacatecas, there are no laws restricting the discussion or promotion of LGBTQ+ topics.
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Right to change legal gender in Zacatecas

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Right to change legal gender in Zacatecas is legal, but requires surgery.

Current status
Legal, but requires surgery
Requires surgery
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Gender-affirming care in Zacatecas

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Gender-affirming care in Zacatecas is unknown.

Current status
Unknown

Legal recognition of non-binary gender in Zacatecas

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Legal recognition of non-binary gender in Zacatecas is not legally recognized.

Current status
Not legally recognized
No state currently recognizes non-binary identities in Mexico.
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LGBT discrimination in Zacatecas

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LGBT discrimination in Zacatecas is illegal.

Current status
Since Dec 18, 2005
Illegal
.
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LGBT employment discrimination in Zacatecas

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LGBT employment discrimination in Zacatecas is sexual orientation only.

Current status
Since Dec 18, 2005
Sexual orientation only
.
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LGBT housing discrimination in Zacatecas

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LGBT housing discrimination in Zacatecas is sexual orientation only.

Current status
Since Jun 11, 2003
Sexual orientation only under federal Mexico law
Article 1(3) of the Federal Act to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination (2003) includes “sexual preferences” as one of the prohibited grounds of discrimination. This law applies to housing as per Article 9(XXI). Gender identity is not explicitly mentioned
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Same-sex adoption in Zacatecas

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Same-sex adoption in Zacatecas is unknown.

Current status
Unknown

Intersex infant surgery in Zacatecas

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Intersex infant surgery in Zacatecas is unknown.

Current status
Unknown

Serving openly in military in Zacatecas

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Serving openly in military in Zacatecas is legal.

Current status
Legal
LGBT people can serve military
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Blood donations by MSMs in Zacatecas

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Blood donations by MSMs in Zacatecas is legal.

Current status
Since Dec 25, 2012
Legal under federal Mexico law
NOM 253 removes targeted restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. Instead, it prohibits donations from individuals with HIV or hepatitis, their partners, and those who participate in "high-risk sexual practices," irrespective of their sexual orientation.
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Conversion therapy in Zacatecas

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Conversion therapy in Zacatecas is banned.

Current status
Since Aug 25, 2021
Banned
The Zacatecas Congress approved banning and sanctioning conversion therapies or ECOSIG (Efforts to Correct Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) almost on a par with Yucatan.
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Equal age of consent in Zacatecas

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Equal age of consent in Zacatecas is equal.

Current status
Since 1871
Equal
Nationwide.
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