Costa Rica: Update on Proposed Gay Unions Bill

In Costa Rica, the issue of same-sex relationships has been an active topic for the past several years, but little progress has been made in terms of establishing an official policy. In a country with Roman Catholicism as the official Constitutional religion and with a large majority conservative population, it has been a controversial topic with supporters and opponents on both sides of the issue.

After several attempts to bring the issue to the legislative level, the most recent proposal called Coexistence Societies, which can be read here in Spanish, does not seek to legalize same-sex marriage, but seeks to offer alternatives for these couples. The text is based on four basic points [es], which include hospital visitation rights, dividing of earned wealth, inheritance rights, and insurance options.

During the presidential campaign, Laura Chinchilla of the National Liberation Party (PLN), who was elected on February 7, 2010 promised to support same-sex unions as an alternative to marriage, as she expressed in this video [es]. However, shortly after she was elected and after meetings with Assembly deputies from the Christian-aligned parties and with Evangelical Christian leaders, she hardened her position towards the proposal of same-sex unions [es].

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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."

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To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.