Mexico rights agency slams 10 states for HIV marriage bans

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s governmental human rights commission has called on ten of the country’s 32 states to get rid of old laws that ban marriage between people with “chronic, incurable, hereditary or contagious diseases” saying that could discriminate against the HIV-positive or people living with AIDS. The National Human Rights Commission issued the recommendation Wednesday. States must either comply with the call or explain why they refuse. Such laws were once a common response to poorly understood diseases, or perceived as a way to prevent birth defects. They have slowly disappeared, but ten outlying states still have them.