Puerto Rico's outgoing Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila is playing a bit of political baseball with the incoming Governor by announcing yesterday that he has "prohibited government agencies from discriminating against same-sex couples."

The move allows same-sex partners to apply for health benefits, but the newly elected Governor Luis Fortuño has promised to overturn the move when he takes office in January, claiming that protecting same-sex partners would cost the health care industry too much.

"We are not going to introduce anything that there isn't money to implement," said Fortuño, who also criticized Acevedo for waiting until the end of his term to sign the order.

Acevedo responded ""What I have done is simply broaden these definitions so more people are covered, and it doesn't cost the government of Puerto Rico anything because if the person wants to include somebody they have to pay more."

The order also prevents government agencies from discriminating on the basis of gender identity or sexuality.

It was a tumultuous weekend for the Democratic party - especially Hillary Clinton.

The rollercoaster started on Saturday, when DNC leaders and lawyers converged in Florida, where they hashed out a deal on whether to seat that state and Michigan's delegates. Both states held their primaries early, thus breaking Democratic party rules. The Democratic National Committee, of course, was not pleased and threatened not to seat any delegates from those states. But, as could be predicted, they didn't want two irate states on the loose and agreed to seat delegates, but with some penalties:

A party committee voted to seat delegations from the two states at the August nominating convention, though with only a half-vote for each delegate. The deal, reached after a sometimes raucous daylong meeting, gives Hillary Clinton a net gain of 24 delegates, a margin that's unlikely to stall Barack Obama's momentum toward getting the nomination.

Despite the compromise and satisfaction on Florida, Clinton's campaign remains defiant on Michigan.

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It's a hot one for Puerto Rican politicos today.

The House of Representatives are set to vote today on whether to pass a ban on gay marriage and other forms of civil unions. If the Representatives decide to remove the civil union language - ""No other union, independently of its name, denomination, place of origin, jurisdiction or similarity with marriage, will be recognized, or validated as marriage." - then the bill goes back to the Senate. If they decide to keep the ban - well, then it goes forward.

American politician Jose Serrano of New York, however, hopes that the Puerto Ricans can contain themselves - or risk pissing off Congress:

…Serrano says that passage of such an amendment would put Puerto Rico among those groups that promote hateful and discriminatory measures which might not be seen in a good light by the United States congress.

"This doesn't help me to seek assistance for Puerto Rico," he said during a telephone interview with El Nuevo Dia, "Puerto Ricans cannot ask demand equality and at the same time try to create discrimination."

Serrano told the paper that such a measure would make it difficult to ask openly gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, for assistance indicating that Frank was opposed to such discriminatory measures.

Money - the international language of democracy. God bless it!

Holy Ricky Martin! HIV infection is on the rise in Puerto Rico – and get your mind out of the gay-hating gutter – the virus isn’t spreading among the usual suspects.

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Puerto Rican politics don't often cross our radar, but they sure do when it involves the gays, as it does today.

Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila said he will authorize a May referendum on the legality of gay marriage. If two-thirds of politicos vote to ban same-sex nuptials, says the skeptical Vila, he will have no choice but to enact an exclusionary law:

Acevedo was asked about his support after the leaders of an association of 2,300 churches, the Pentecostal Brotherhood, said the governor told them in private that he would sign the bill.

"I told them that the people need more agendas that unite them rather than divide them," Acevedo said. "But I also told them that if they have two-thirds of the legislature, well, I cannot get in the way."
…
Resolution 99, as the measure is known, would amend the Puerto Rican constitution to establish that marriage is between a man and woman and that no other types of unions could be recognized as a marriage. It would make it harder in the future to allow civil unions or grant marital rights to unmarried couples.

Critics of the proposal, including the governor, argue the amendment is unnecessary because local laws already ban same-sex marriage.

We're always intrigued by politicians who feel it necessary to pile homophobic laws on top of one another. You would almost think they're trying to compensate for something. What they could be - well, your collective guess is as good as ours: their tiny dicks!

There's some mixed news out of Puerto Rico this morning. The Island's Senate voted to approve a constitutional ban on gay marriage, but the House put off its vote until next year:

Jose Aponte, President of the House of Representatives, put the breaks on a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in the island as well as civil unions even for straight couples but said that the House would take up the issue in the next legislative session which begins on January 5th of 2008.
…
It was a small ray of light for LGBT-rights advocates in the island who were dismayed by the degree of support that the [measure] drew in the Puerto Rican senate last night securing its passage. The final tally was twenty senators in favor, two against, one abstention and four other senator absent (the measure needed 18 votes to pass).

At least one approving senator admitted to voting yay in exchange for other legislative passage. Gay activist Pedro Julio Serrano call the Senate's decision "a disgrace for our history".

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 Rodríguez 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 María 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?