Activists celebrate outside the Mexico City Congress after local lawmakers approve prison sentences of up to 70 years for murders of transgender people

Mexico City (AFP) - Murders of transgender people will carry prison sentences of up to 70 years in Mexico City under tough new penalties approved by local lawmakers on Thursday.

The changes, which were promoted by the ruling Morena party, were passed by 45 votes to one, the capital’s legislature said on social media platform X.

The killing of transgender people because of their gender – known as transfemicide – is “an extreme manifestation of gender violence and discrimination,” lawmaker Ana Francis Lopez said.

Transgender people gathered outside the Mexico City legislature to celebrate the approval of the reforms, known as the “Paola Buenrostro law” in memory of a murdered transgender woman.

Activists hold a transgender flag outside Mexico City Congress

Mexico City is the second of the country’s 32 states to criminalize transfemicide.

In March, the western region of Nayarit introduced prison sentences of up to 60 years for the crime.

About five million of Mexico’s 129 million inhabitants identify as LGBTQ, according to the National Survey on Sexual Diversity.

According to the civil organization Letra Ese, 231 members of the LGBT community were murdered from 2021 to 2023, of which 65 percent were transgender.