Puerto Rico’s Gov Backs Down After Ricky Martin Publishes Open Letter on New Bill To Give 'Religion Liberty’ (What Liberty R They Lacking?)
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| Ricky Martin |
Are you home on saturdays? On Sundays? when religion comes knocking on your door. If the Governor could tell us what liberty religion does not have with exception of what the constitution says, which they don't obey anyways (Separation of church and state). Bills like that (religious liberty bill) have been proposed on the main land (and some passed) the proposals come from the worse anti gays, anti government, anti education and anti hispanics members of the senate and the house. Why? Because they were elected by those people at least that is what they believe.
If you read the previous story about a Pastor Preaching what he want to do to gays. The law is not going to let him do it but someone listening to him would do it to an LGBTQ person or persons and that is where most gay bashing and killings come from.
On a smaller scale, very much smaller Puerto Rico has everything like any other country. The good, the bad and the ugly. Thank any god you serve the good people being so much more in volume and good heart that protects everyone in the island by watching the government to make sure a Governor Like Roselló doess not give the liberties of some Puerto Ricans away with the excuse of giving someone else liberties they already have. What they don't get is to have laws like in the Spanish inquisition that you could not say something negative about the church or they would burn you alive. They would not burn you alive now but they would burn your personality and the right to be what god created you to be.
Maybe the Governor Ricardo Roselló had been spending too much time talking with his compadres, the republicans in the mainland and let a very special group in Puerto Rico convince him Puerto Rico need to make religion free in the island (it sounds so ridicolous, funny if it wasn't so sad and because they will be back again) The island does not need that law and it would make it regressed from all the positive things the Island has done for the LGBTQ Community and some of them under the Governorship of Roselló. He is not anti gay but listens to his party which still has not dissolve all those old ideas of where gays comes from.
I just wonder if we did not have a famous Puerto Rican singer to make Roselló see the light, then Puerto Rico would have seen the liberties of the oppressed being taken away by those that want to save eveyone even if they have to take their liberties away to be what god created them to be in order to follow their ideas of how the universe is and been millions of years before any part of the bible was written. We are still gratefull the Governor backed down.
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| Luis Fonsi, Ricky Martin,Chayanne and Gov. Ricardo Roselló |
Nicole Acevedo:
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló backed down from a "religious liberty bill” after international star Ricky Martin published an open letter Thursday slamming the legislation that would exempt government employees from serving constituents if they believe it clashes with their religious beliefs.
“As a defender of human rights and a member of the LGBTT community, I am vehemently opposed to the proposed measure imposed upon us under the guise of religious freedom,” the Puerto Rican artist wrote, that "projects us to the world as a backwards country.”
Hours after the letter was published, Rosselló asked legislators to shelve the bill, saying in a statement that "instead of reaching a consensus on a basis of mutual respect, it provokes the division of our people."
His petition came just minutes after island senator Zoe Laboy said she was "determined to submit a negative report to the project of religious freedom before the members of the commission that I preside over for its evaluation."
Martin's letter came a day after he took to social media to speak out against Rosselló and the island’s House of Representatives, who had voted in favor of the bill Tuesday.
“The House Bill 2069, filed at the request of Governor Ricardo Rosselló and promoted by Representative Charbonier, is nothing more than opening the door to hatred towards anyone who does not share the same ideology, who belongs to the LGBTT community, or that is not even the same skin color, among so many other discriminatory manifestations,” Martin wrote on Twitter in Spanish.
The bill had sparked fierce outcry in the island from civil rights and LGBTQ actvists, and at least three U.S. Democratic presidential candidates — Julián Castro, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — have voiced their opposition to the legislation.
“We must defeat this bill — and work to end discrimination, rather than give it shelter,” Castro, the only Latino running for president, said.
New York Democratic congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, who is from Puerto Rico, has also decried the measure.
Supporters of the bill, including the governor, say that the government cannot discriminate and has “the obligation to always provide public services to all its citizens.” Still, the bill calls for government employees and employers to “seek reasonable accommodations” in the face of “foreseeable future conflict.”
Rosselló had said Wednesday that he would only sign the controversial bill if Puerto Rican lawmakers approve another bill that would ban conversion therapies in Puerto Rico.
But this legislation has also been slammed by civil rights groups since it only bans conversion therapies conducted by mental health professionals while allowing the practice to continue in churches and by parents of a minor.
In the wake of the controversy, Rosselló asked legislators Thursday to also withdraw this bill.
The governor had already issued the controversial conversion therapy ban under an executive order March 27, and that will still stand even though it doesn't become law.
Martin’s social media posts, which he published just three days after leading the 62nd National Puerto Rican Day Parade, motivated more artists and politicians to publicly condemn the bill.
Grammy-winning Puerto Rican musician René Pérez Joglar, also known as Residente Calle 13, said on Instagram that the law makes Puerto Rico “look bad on an international level, like a retrograde country.”
“This does no good to tourism, on the contrary. This is a shame,” the artist added.
"This movement is not representative of the Puerto Rico that we all love, defend and hold so dear. We call on the Senate, the House and Governor Ricardo Rosselló to reject this effort, which is an open door to hatred and discrimination," Martin said in his letter.
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