The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – The marriage between same-sex couples could have been approved in Costa Rica inadvertently in an article of a law that was ratified by Congress on Monday and that the government said it will veto.
“We will proceed to sign the law. Interpretations of what the item might say are (under the powers of a judge who has to (re)solve this case”, Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla told reporters.
The Reform Young Persons Act was ratified by Congress without making much noise until deputies Carmen Muñoz, Citizen Action Party, and José María Villalta, the Frente Amplio, held that an article in the Act allows the facto unions between same-sex couples.
The article in question establishes the right to “recognition without discrimination contrary to human dignity, social and economic effects of domestic partnerships”.
The text adds that these effects do not apply Article of the Family Code, which only allows unions between a man and a woman.
Villalta deputy said in the Legislative Assembly that they should find a “creative way” to endorse same sex marriage.
“This is a chance for family courts examine the issue from the perspective from human rights,” said Villalta, who criticized lawmakers who equate homosexuality with a disease.
Several deputies, including Justo Orozco Christian Costa Rican Renovation Party, demanded Chinchilla veto the law, while other lawmakers have downplayed the issue and said that the text has been interpreted incorrectly.
“Based on interpretations this is fraud law because a law is being used to violate another,” said Orozco in plenary today.
Deputy Orozco reiterated his view that homosexuality is “a practice strange and foreign to our customs” and claimed homosexuality is “unconstitutional”.
De facto unions between persons of the same sex is a controversial topic that has been analyzed in Costa Rica for several years and that human rights organizations have tried to pushed several bills through in recent years.
Among these initiatives is one that has been stalled in Congress about “living societies”, which is intended to guarantee rights like social security, inheritance and pensions to gay couples.
The Catholic Church and other religious groups and civil society sectors and politicians have exerted a strong opposition to this initiative.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica
