Following years of campaigns, the changes, promoted by the ruling Morena Party, were passed by 45 votes to one, making make Mexico City the second of the country’s 32 states to criminalise such killings. Earlier this year, the small state of Nayarit introduced sentences of up to 60 years. Lawmaker Ana Francis Lopez described the killing of trans people because of their gender – known as transfemicide – as “an extreme manifestation of gender violence and discrimination,” France 24 reported. The law also makes it possible for a victim’s friends, not just relatives, identify and claim bodies. This is important in a country where some families disown their transgender relatives.