On June 3 Mexico's supreme court ruled that it is unconstitutional for Mexican states to bar same-sex marriages.

As reported in an Associated Press article the court's ruling is considered a "jurisprudential thesis," which means that it does not invalidate any state laws and therefore same sex couples that have been denied the right to marry would have to now come to the courts individually. Judges would then, due to this latest supreme court ruling, be obliged to approve the same-sex marriages before them.

According to the Mexico’s highest court, any state law which stipulates that the ultimate purpose of marriage is procreation, or defines marriage between a man and a woman is now unconstitutional.

In Latin America, countries such as Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil already allow for same-sex marriage. Colombia grants same-sex couples much of the same rights that heterosexual married couples enjoy. This past April, Ecuador approved civil unions. And this year Chile has plans to recognize same-sex civil unions. In Mexico, gay marriage is already legal in some parts such as Mexico City and the northern state of Coahuila.

Jason Pierceson, a professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield who studies gay marriage trends in Latin America, notes in a New York Times article the growing tolerance for same sex marriage, saying: “It’s a huge change from where things were 10 years ago.”

Estefanía Vela Barba, an associate law professor at CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas), a university in Mexico City, further elaborates on the change of perspectives regarding gay marriage.

“If a same-sex couple comes along and the code says marriage is between a man and a woman and for the purposes of reproduction, the court says, ‘Ignore it, marriage is for two people,'" she said.