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 Editorials | Issues | July 2007 
Mexico City Prison System Allows First Gay Conjugal Visit
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
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 |  | The Mexico City department of prisons and rehabilitation has allowed the first conjugal visit to an inmate with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual.
- Rights Commission |  | | Mexico City’s prison system has begun allowing gay conjugal visits, bowing to a recommendation by the country’s National Human Rights Commission, the commission announced on Sunday.
The city’s leftist government has taken a series of controversial stands in recent months on social issues like abortion, gay marriage and prostitution, despite opposition from conservatives and religious organizations.
"The Mexico City department of prisons and rehabilitation has allowed the first conjugal visit to an inmate with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual," the government-funded rights commission said in a news release. It called the move "an important step in terms of non-discrimination regarding sexual preference."
In many Mexican prisons, inmates are allowed to receive conjugal visits, and most do not require the visitor to be married to the inmate. Special rooms are set aside in many prisons so that inmates and visitors can be alone during such visits.
The decision was prompted by a complaint filed by a man identified only as "Agustin N.," who said he wanted to visit his companion, "Ricardo N.," at the Santa Martha Acatitla prison on the city’s east side.
Agustin filed a complaint with the rights commission - which has the power to make recommendations but not to enforce them - saying prison authorities had denied his request because the two are gay.
On Feb. 8 the commission ruled that was discrimination, and prison authorities decided to allow the visit. The statement did not say when.
The commission said it still wants the policy change to be set down in writing and applied to all city prisons. The prisons department spokesman’s office said he was not immediately available to comment on Sunday.
The leftist party that governs Mexico City has already legalized gay civil unions and abortion in the capital of this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, and has proposed legalizing prostitution, which is currently punishable here by 12 to 24 hours in jail and small fines.
Mexico as a whole adopted a law in 2003 banning discrimination based on sexual preference.
Calif. Gay Partners Get Conjugal Visits
Don Thompson - Associated Press
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Jun 2, 2007
California has begun allowing overnight visits for gay and lesbian partners of prison inmates to conform to the state’s domestic partnership law.
California is one of just six states that allow overnight family visits, which take place in trailers or other housing on prison grounds. But attorneys, gay rights advocates and corrections officials said they know of no other state that permits conjugal visits by same-sex partners.
"Historically, these types of requests were denied," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and.Rehabilitation. "Homosexuality is a touchy subject in prison. We don’t want people to come to harm in prisons, but we need to comply with the law."
Since the 1970s, immediate family members have been able to visit many prison inmates for up to three days at a time.
The privilege is being expanded to registered domestic partners under a law signed by former Gov. Gray Davis that took effect in 2005. It requires state agencies to give the same rights to domestic partners that heterosexual couples receive.
"This was one of the issues raised at the time. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken the Department of Corrections so long to comply with the law,"said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California.
Thornton said the Corrections Department had already started examining its policies last year when the issue drew the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Vernon Foeller had requested an overnight visit from his partner a year ago while he was serving an 18-month sentence at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville for an attempted burglary conviction. When his request was denied, Foeller complained to the ACLU.
"To tell a couple like my partner and I that we weren’t eligible, that to me is absolute discrimination," Foeller said in a telephone interview.
Foeller, who was paroled in April and lives in Sacramento, registered his domestic partnership in August 2005, before he was incarcerated.
"You have a condition of unequal treatment," ACLU staff attorney Alex Cleghorn said. "They were being denied something for which they were eligible."
The new regulations permit visits only by registered domestic partners who are not themselves in custody, and the domestic partnership must have been established before one of the partners went to prison.
The policy will formally take effect later this year, but the department already is complying. Foeller was allowed an overnight visit with his partner inDecember.
"I got to spend 2 1/2 days one-on-one with my partner, my best friend, my confidant, my life partner. It wasn’t about the sex," Foeller said. "You can actually just relax and get to know your partner again."
Overnight visits allow inmates to remain connected to their families and help prepare them for their eventual release, Cleghorn said. There is no record of how many domestic partners are serving prison terms.
Family visits are not permitted for condemned inmates, inmates serving life without parole or those who have not had a parole date set, or for sex offenders. Inmates serving time for a violent offense against a minor or afamily member also are ineligible.
Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, objects to conjugal visits for both gay and straight inmates.
"These are unsupervised sex visits in trailers or rooms, and the guards can’t go in there," Thomasson said. "It’s the main way of smuggling contraband for some of these inmates."
Inmates also can spread sexually transmitted diseases, regardless of their sexual orientation, he said. |
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