Pro-family forces cry foul as legislator sneaks homosexual union language into Costa Rican law
A socialist legislator has managed to smuggle an ambiguous text into a new law regarding the nation’s youth in an apparent attempt to legalize homosexual unions on the sly.
The Law of Young People was passed unanimously on July 1 by legislators who now say they were unaware of changes that had been inserted by a parliamentarian from the leftist Broad Front party, which could be used to grant legal recognition to homosexual unions, and even “marriage.”
President Laura Chinchilla signed the bill into law despite requests that she veto over the changes.
The text mandates the “recognition, without discrimination contrary to human dignity, of the social and patrimonial effects of de facto unions that [young people] constitute in a public, well-known, exclusive, and stable manner.”
Although pro-family lawmakers sought to convince socialist president Laura Chinchilla to veto the legislation, she dismissed their concerns and signed it into law on July 4, stating that the courts would have to resolve disputes about its meaning. Chinchilla has claimed to oppose homosexual “marriage,” although she favors some degree of recognition for unions between people of the same sex.
The stunt follows a well-organized protest in favor of homosexual “marriage” held in the nation’s capital on June 30, which was publicly endorsed by the U.S. embassy’s official spokesman, Eric Nelson. Nelson attended the protest and read statements by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry endorsing the homosexual agenda and promising that “we are going to continue supporting the cause.”
Justo Orozco, a pro-family representative from the Costa Rican Renovation party who has struggled against previous attempts to legalize gay “marriage,” told the press that homosexual relations are “a foreign practice that is alien to our customs” and rejected the claim that the legislation would legalize homosexual unions, which would be “contrary to the Family Code and the Costa Rican constitution itself.”
The nation’s Catholic bishops have issued a statement urging the government to uphold existing legislation and previous court decisions that establish marriage and de facto unions recognized by government as unions between one man and one woman.
The prelates expressed their “profound respect for homosexual persons,” but added that respect “cannot in any way lead to the approval of homosexual behavior nor to the legalization of homosexual unions.’”
They urge the government “to defend the constitutional principles that govern Costa Ricans, to know that marriage between a man and a woman is the essential foundation of the family – a natural and fundamental element of the society --, in virtue of which it has the right to the special protection of government.”
Costa Rica is the only country in Latin America that continues to officially embrace the Catholic religion in its constitution.
As of July 10, at least six homosexual couples have applied with local courts to receive legal recognition and protection for their relationships, according to the Spanish news service EFE, although a decision on the validity of the applications is expected to take several months.
