Puerto Rican Human Rights Crime } LGTB to be Removed from Law Protection

                 (Washington Blade file photo)

Gov. Luis Fortuño called the special session in to vote

 (by Michael Key)

Fotos de la internet

By Phil Reese 

Puerto Rico’s Conservative Senate President Thomas Rivera-Schatz is being accused of homophobia by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, after he worked with Gov. Luis Fortuño convened an extraordinary legislative session to vote on excluding LGBT people and Dominican workers from the commonwealth’s hate crimes statute, according to EDGE Media Network.

The statute, enacted in 2004, increases the punishment on bias crimes committed against people based on political affiliation, age and disability, however lawmakers last month approved a provision eliminating from the law sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity and religious beliefs.

“Basically they took out the communities hardest hit by hate crimes in Puerto Rico out of the hate crimes statute,” the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Pedro Julio Serrano told EDGE Media Network. “It’s an outrage and now we’re calling upon the House to restore this to where it should be.”

A federal DOJ spokesperson declined to comment to EDGE on the proposed 

 Since 2009 the island has been hit with an epidemic of anti-LGBT murders, according to EDGE Media Network. Serrano cited nearly two dozen unsolved murder cases, and Puerto Rico prosecutors have yet to get a single bias-crime conviction.

Taino Art

*****Facts about the Island:

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, with commonwealth status; policy relations between Puerto Rico and United States are conducted under the jurisdiction of the Office of The President of the United States. Key words here are Territory and the President.  Which means the president has more authority in Puerto Rico than in any other Mainland territory (states) as it relates to policy. The US government never  likes to openly admit to that.  Even though Puerto Ricans are born citizens of the US they cannot vote for National US elections while residing on the Island. They most reside in one of the 50 states in order to vote for president. PR is not allowed to have any representatives or senators in Washington DC. 

Even though Puerto Ricans on the island are known to be jovial and friendly, with lots of customs from Spain and the age of the slave as well as the Taino Indians; they suffer from an old colonial custom known as machismo. "Macho”  Which means “Male" or "Man” 

That means that any kind of feminism coming from other than a woman is not tolerated. Gays have gotten a raw deal  with this erroneous perception being that just like I am gay and only my partner and the people I choose to tell know... and in my opinion most gay men are like that. However gays that might have femme traits, they are the ones that were tagged as gays or  “patos’ for walking with a swing like a duck or ‘Mariposa", delicate with bright colors. 

As we know that is only a generalization, but one that has clashed with the macho myth. Originally believing just like here on the mainland  that all gays are  like that and thus they would be easy targets to make fun of and in some cases more than just Fun. But it came the point that they were tolerated.

Now Putting that aside for a moment. Let me ad that the evangelical church has taken deep roots in Puerto Rico like it does in most poor countries and taught all of those that will listen that being gay is either more than a sin, but is a demonic possession.  These issues have made the Island more homophobic than most of the North Atlantic states. During the 70-80’s it was ignore or tolerated but AIDS with the Evangelicals change all that.         That is why this law was enacted there and in no other place in the north east is this law more needed. It is such a shame that these republicans with the religious right want to now exclude the people that need the law the most. Hope that better heads prevail. 

By the way I did say republicans. In PR you have 2 major parties like here and then a minority party the independistas (independents)  that want PR to have independence from the US. However the Democrats and the Republicans are mimics of the ones here. adamfoxie*

Adamfoxie* has written and posted about some of the heinous hate crimes in the island. You can do a search on the search bar above for Puerto Rico.

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