The legislative sun ain’t shining in Puerto Rico, where conservative politicos seem poised to vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Blabbeando reports that Senator Jorge de Castro Font told newspapers that he’ll put the bill before the Senate today. What’s more, he’s allegedly been drumming up support from anti-gay religious leaders:
Senator Jorge de Castro Font, who authored the measure and controls which bills are brought to the Senate floor, said just as much to El Nuevo Dia reporter Israel RodrÃguez Sánchez yesterday, and said that he also believed there were enough votes to pass it.
Other Senate leaders from different political parties did not go on record to say if they agreed with De Castro Font’s assessment though independent Senator MarÃa Lourdes Santiago did say that she would oppose attempts to pass such an amendment.
…
In a public statement sent this morning, [gay group] Puerto Rico Para Todos’ Pedro Julio Serrano stated that Puerto Rico’s laws already limits marriages to those between a man and a woman and said that the effort to amend the constitution was a purely discriminatory endeavor: “With the country in [fiscal] bankruptcy, the senators should focus on finding solutions to the socio-economic crisis and not spend millions of dollars on a referendum that doesn’t resolve a thing.”
Why deal with socio-economic crisis when you can distract voters with some good old fashioned gay panic?
Matt
“Puerto Rico / You ugly island” (Bernstein/Sondheim).
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
Of course, this is extremely tragic. Last year, we realised that a great January getaway location was not supportive of true rights. What to do? Boycotts hurt the effort. We found a gay-owned b&b who wanted a gay family and made sure that all our dollars went to gay restaurants etc….and we even gave something to the PR gay activist alliance.