Posted on 02/22/2013 7:10:14 AM PST by cll
Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court on Wednesday voted 5-4 to ban gay couples from adopting children, with judges claiming that a child’s dignity, stability and well-being can only be ensured if raised in a “traditional” family.
The vote comes two days after 200,000 religious Christians held a rally against granting same-sex couples any sort of legal rights. As the largest anti-gay rally in the history of the US commonwealth, the gathering portrayed the immense opposition gay couples continue to face in Puerto Rico.
Although some lawmakers support granting gay couples with certain legal rights, many public figures remain starkly opposed to the idea. The Supreme Court decision came in response to a woman’s eight-year-long attempt to adopt a 12-year-old girl that her partner had given birth to through in vitro fertilization. Even though the woman’s girlfriend was the mother of the girl, the court upheld the constitutionality of a law that prohibits someone in a same-sex relationship from adopting the child.
“The state … does not have a constitutional obligation to award this relationship the same rights that other relationships have when it comes to adoption procedures,” read the majority’s opinion, which also added that children would only receive a good upbringing if raised by both a mother and father.
The Supreme Court majority also said that second-parent adoptions, which would allow same-sex couples to jointly adopt children, do not apply in Puerto Rico because US territory laws do not have a solution for that kind of a situation. The judges said that rather than take the issue to court, same-sex couples trying to adopt a child should instead ask legislators to change the law.
The court’s ruling prevents the 12-year-old girl from receiving the woman’s medical insurance and prevents the woman from gaining custody of the girl if her birth mother ever died. Because the girl has no legal ties to the woman who helped raise her, she is deprived from financial benefits that translate from parents to a child.
Chief Justice Federico Hernandez Denton, who voted against the ban, said the law is unconstitutional and that the plaintiff’s lawyer’s have successfully proven that the 12-year-old benefited from being raised by two women, AP reports.
“Both (women) have ideal emotional skills, intuition and protective instinct to guarantee the girl’s full and health development,” he wrote. “In addition, tests showed that (the girl) is mentally stable, does exceptionally well in school and gets along very well with children her age.”
But both the court and the territory remain divided about the idea of granting same-sex couples with legal rights. Protesters who rallied outside the Capitol on Monday denounced legislation that would protect same-sex couples from domestic violence and condemned legislation that would ban employment and housing discrimination based on someone’s sexual preference. The Supreme Court’s decision further demonstrates the wave of opposition gay couples face in the US territory that has not yet embraced the idea of homosexual relationships.
VIVA PUERTO RICO!!!!
time to buy some popcorn
Why is it that we can never mobilize like this?
Heh, I agree with them whole-heartedly.
Of course, that kind of scotches their chances of becoming a state. The DemonRATS would never allow such bigotry.
Russia banned homosexual adoptions a few years back, against all the Leftist clamour, hand-wringing and bed-wetting.
Good for them.
There was a time when you had to sign an affidavit in NH affirming that you were not a homosexual.
There was a time when an atheist’s testimony was inadmissible in a courtroom. After all, to what Higher Power could he make a solemn oath?
But now, gender and solemn oaths mean nothing anymore.
The talk about adding PR as the 51st state will cease in 5...4...3...
Maybe those four guys from PR who shot up the capitol in 54 and were pardoned by Carter may consider the need to return (albeit at least one is deceased)?
Hey Ruthie Ginzburg! Since you are of the opine that you should look to other courts for enlightenment instead of sticking to your own constitution, quote THAT “foreign” court.
A effin’ MEN!
Thank you, God for small favors. Now get busy and do us some big favors here stateside, we are getting buried alive by satanists
Puerto Rico is sounding pretty good to me.
Do they speak English there? I may have to go down and check it out.
Spanish and English are the main languages of Puerto Rico.
Okaaaaay. The girl is now 12 years old. Does she "like" boys -- or girls?
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