In a morning session of the Puerto Rican House of Representatives sponsors of a measure to ban same-sex marriages in the island apparently pulled the bill and sent it back to the island's House Judiciary Committee for further review.
According to legislative observers this indicates that proponents of the constitutional amendment did not have enough votes to pass the measure by the needed 2/3rds majority. A Senate version of the bill had already been approved in November by the Puerto Rican Senate.
The measure, better known as "Resolution 99," would have also banned the recognition of any relationship other than marriage between a man and a woman - including civil unions or domestic partnerships (for gay or straight couples) - and was heavily promoted by a number of fundamentalist religious institutions, as the Associate Press reported this morning.
The House Judiciary Committee will now review "La 99" and decide whether to recommend its passage or its tabling giving LGBT rights advocates more time to gather support against the amendment.
Here is a video of Puerto Rican students in Spain, as well as members of some of Spain's LGBT rights organizations, protesting "La 99" this past weekend in Madrid (El Nuevo Dia covered the Spanish protest here).
Previously: US Congressman Jose Serrano to Puerto Rican legislators: Do not discriminate against gays! (Feb. 27, 2008)
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2 hours ago
2 comments:
How about that, PR is not in the dark ages after all.
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