In a landmark ruling that once again puts Mexico far ahead the pace of American civil rights, the country's Supreme Court has ruled that homophobic language such as "maricones" and "puñal" is not protected speech.

The Court ruled 3 - 2 that such language is offensive, discriminatory and subject to penalties.

Blabbeando reports:

In finding a resolution for the Direct Appeal for Revision 2806/2012 (Amparo Directo en Revisión 2806/2012) the Chamber's starting point was the strong influence language has on people's perception of reality and which can cause prejudice that can take root in society through expressions which take for granted the marginalization of certain individuals or groups. In this introductory stage, the Chamber also studied the role of dominant discourses and stereotypes. Thus, in the opinion of the Chamber, the language used to offend or disqualify certain groups gain the characteristic of being discriminatory.

In this sense, the First Chamber determined that homophobic expressions or - in other words the frequent allegations that homosexuality is not a valid option but an inferior condition - constitute discriminatory statements even if they are expressed jokingly, since they can be used to encourage, promote and justify intolerance against gays.

For this reason, the Chamber determined that the terms used in this specific case - made up of the words "maricones" and "puñal" - were offensive. These are expressions which are certainly deeply rooted in the language of Mexican society but the truth is that the practices of a majority of participants of a society cannot trump violations of basic rights.

In addition, the First Chamber determined that these expressions were irrelevant since their usage was not needed in resolving the dispute taking place as related to the mutual criticism between two journalists from Puebla. Therefore it was determined that the expressions "maricones" and "puñal", just as they were used in this specific case, were not protected by the Constitution.

The court did leave room, however, for artistic or scientific abstract use of offensive terms.

What does it mean by protected?

Basically, if anti-gay slurs were protected by the FoS, Mexicans could get away with saying homophobic things, but since it isn't, it's illegal to do it.

Glad to hear this.

Sweet!

Oh! well yay

Glad to hear it!

Yas Mexico !!

Real equality is coming!

Free speech applies to all speech, not just speech we agree with.

a great step forward

I didn't know you could make slurs illegal.

Slurs aren't *illegal*.

They're just not protected under 'freedom of speech.' (Like slander and libel aren't).

DIng Ding Ding. Even if we think we're doing the right thing, it's just a gateway for more censorship.

Oh, gotcha.

Reading comprehension. Silly me.

This could turn out to be something great or something bad

Finally something Good in my country

It was about time