Civil Rights

Mexico City Jails OK Gay Conjugal Visits

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Accepting the recommendation of a human rights commission, Mexico City has begun to allow conjugal visits between gay inmates.

Such visits are commonly allowed for opposite-sex couples, even when they are not married, and a 2003 Mexico law bans discrimination on the basis of sexual preference, reports the British Broadcasting Corp.

“The Mexico City department of prisons and rehabilitation has allowed the first conjugal visit to an inmate with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual,” says the city’s human rights commission. A complaint by a man who said he was denied permission for a conjugal visit because his partner is also a man reportedly prompted the policy change.

California reportedly recently announced plans to became the first U.S.state to allow same-sex prison visits, an earlier ABAJournal.com post notes. That policy changed followed a threatened lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

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