Costa Rica: New President Opposes Gay Marriage

Costa Rica's first woman president, elected in a landslide Feb. 7, supports gay civil rights but doesn't want gays "to touch an institution like marriage."

Speaking to media during the campaign, Laura Chinchilla said: "A society that aspires to show solidarity and protect everyone's freedoms and defend human rights cannot discriminate in access to rights for reasons of religious beliefs, political beliefs or sexual preferences. In that sense, we defend the right of all Costa Ricans, independently of their sexual preferences, to have the protection of the state and of the institutions, and to have access to the different opportunities that Costa Rican society offers."

"Nevertheless," she said, "there are different ways other than marriage to guarantee homosexual couples the right to the patrimony of their partner, to patrimonial rights, to political rights, to civil rights. We are working on this and I hope that we certainly can get ourselves in agreement without needing to touch an institution like marriage, which also has been conceived by so many Costa Rican families within a different concept."

Full Story from Pride Source
Click here for gay marriage resources in Costa Rica.
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