In 2015 Gay American citizens across America were given the long awaited right to marry and since this pivotal moment, countries all over have been addressing laws that permit civil rights to their Gay civilians.
Puerto Rico Pro Family, one of the island’s largest Christian groups, said the protests are two ensure constitutional amendments are enacted to limit marriage to heterosexual couples and to allow parents to decide how their children are educated on gender issues.
“There are certain issues that are non-negotiable,” Dr. Cesar Vazquez Muniz, spokesman of Puerto Rico Pro Family, commented about the changes stating the problem is, “that they are trying to change the values of this country.”
Due to the protests, Legislators held back public hearings on the proposed bills debating the issues of gay rights currently finding some opposition in the country.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Senator Maria Gonzalez Lopez said that the bills she had filled back then had an emotional, psychological, and economical effect by disallowing same-sex couples to adopt. Possibly suggesting the ban on same-sex couples to adopt may lead to said couples opting to live elsewhere.
The bill states the importance of enabling same-sex couples to adopt, stating: “It’s imperative that this legislative assembly recognize and not deny existing families their rights. People’s lifestyles are moving further away each time from the concept of a traditional family nucleus.”
The current was filed when back in February Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court voted 5-4 to maintain a local law that banned any adoption requests made by same-sex parents. The vote was appealed by a Puerto Rican woman who, for nearly a decade, tried to adopt a 12-year-old girl her partner for more than 20 years gave birth to via vitro fertilization, the appeal was unsuccessful.
While the same-sex adoption has generated protest, fearing the permitting of Gay couples to adopt may destroy the meaning of family the issue regarding teaching students about gender has the religious organization fearing the government is trying to distort the morals of Puerto Ricans.
However, Senator Gonzalez introduced the bill to educate students on gender issues as way to promote gender equality and end the country’s domestic violence problem.
Despite protests on the change in the curriculum, Puerto Rico’s education secretary approves of the bill and supports it but warns that the department will need more funding and resources to create the gender issue into the curriculum. Also backing Gonzalez’s bill are other officials who want penalties to be added if schools do not comply with the bill.
In response to the ban disallowing Gays to adopt, Puerto Rico’s Supreme Judges said that it was up to legislators to change the adoption laws.
While most do not see how gay civil rights and gender issues do not co-relate, they do. Both are currently growing issues that need to be addressed.
Both contained two sets of people being discriminated against and deemed un-equal because who and what they are.
The introduction of bills to permit or allow for a better livelihood for either man or woman, gay or straight, and anyone else is not an action on disturbing one’s life but to ensure a better living condition for all.
Across the US, approximately 3 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) Americans have had a child, and as many as 6 million American children and adults have an LGBTQ parent.
Among LGBTQ adults under 50 living alone or with a spouse or partner, 48% of women and 20% of men are raising a child under 18 and 19% of transgender adults have had a child.
Foster Care and Adoption Updates
- According to a 2015 demographic study by the Williams Institute, there are 992 same-sex couples raising an estimated 1,250 children in the territory of Puerto Rico.
- In 2017, of the almost 443,000 youth in foster care in the U.S., 4,539 of them resided in Puerto Rico, 300 of whom were waiting to be adopted at the end of the fiscal year.
- In 2017, no children were adopted from the foster care system in Puerto Rico. Foster Care and Adoption Laws:
- Puerto Rico allows adults to petition to adopt. 31 P.R. Laws Ann. § 531. There are no regulations that prohibit LGBTQ individuals from petitioning to adopt.
- Puerto Rico law provides that a “two persons united by marriage” may adopt jointly. 31 P.R. Laws Ann. § 531. Because marriages of same-sex couples are now recognized nationwide, same-sex spouses should be able to adopt jointly.
- The law of Puerto Rico also permits any married person to adopt the child of their spouse via stepparent adoption. 31 P.R. Laws Ann. § 534. With nationwide recognition of marriage equality, an individual should be permitted to adopt the child of their same-sex spouse via stepparent adoption.
- Puerto Rico courts ruled that a same-sex couple could adopt a child in December 2015. Financial Analysis Youth who are not adopted and age out of the foster care system face significant obstacles later in life. According to the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the outcome differences between youth who age out of foster care and the general population is nearly $5,700,000,000
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