Mexico City - On Monday, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced that pupils attending public and private kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in Mexico City no longer have to wear gender-specific uniforms.

"Boys can wear skirts if they want and girls can wear trousers if they want," Mayor Sheinbaum said during a visit to the Guadalupe Ceniceros de Zavaleta elementary school, located in the capital city's historic center.

She added that the measure would create "a condition of equality, of equity."

Previous guidelines stated that "just as the skirt is the basic garment of a girl's daily school uniform, so trousers are for boys."

Mayor Sheinbaum said that that kind of thinking "had passed into history" and that the new measure would come into effect "immediately."

Sheinbaum's announcement was welcomed by transgender activists who said it would help children who until now had to use a uniform they may not have identified with.

Education Minister Esteban Moctezuma backed the mayor's move and said he was sure many other states would follow suit.

It is not the first time Mexico City has been ahead of the rest of the country in introducing more liberal norms.

In 2010, it became the first area in Mexico to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Since then, it has been legalized in more than a dozen other states. And, last month, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would push for same-sex marriage to be made legal across the country.

Sources: Animal Politico • BBC