Mexico City, Mexico - Last year’s approval of civil unions for same-sex couples in Colima does not end legalized discrimination against gays and lesbians, local Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) Deputy Francisco Javier Rodríguez García said on Sunday.

Last June, the government of Colima approved a law allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, with the goal of giving them the same rights and guarantees as married heterosexual couples, but the PRD has filed an injunction attempting to block the law, explaining that granting same-sex couples civil unions but not marriage only codifies their status as second-class citizens and therefore violates their human rights.

Only Mexico City and Quintana Roo allow gay marriage, while Coahuila, Jalisco, and Campeche are the only states other than Colima allowing civil unions.

Rodríguez García said that PRD legislators will try to push through a full marriage equality bill during the current period of legislative sessions, adding that he hopes that the legislators who voted for civil unions the last time around won’t be as conservative this time and vote for full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

He explained that civil unions don’t guarantee couples with the full rights of a married couple, giving the example of the Mexican Social Security Institute, which gives benefits to married same-sex couples, as occurs in Mexico City, but declines to do so for those in civil unions.

"We’re fighting for the highest legal authority, the Supreme Court, to say that the legal mechanism of civil unions is badly applied, and that homosexual couples have the right to marriage, but we also need to bring it up again in Congress," he said. "As long as couples aren’t united together by the word 'marriage,' there will continue to be discrimination."