200,000 Puerto Ricans stand up to put same-sex couples down
On Monday 200,000 thousand Bible-thumpin’ Boricuas gathered in the colonial capital to snarl their opposition to gay rights legislation.
“We are concerned that laws will be created to discriminate against the church. We are concerned that public education will be used to change our children, presenting them with behaviors their parents don’t think are correct,” said César Vázquez, spokesman for the event.
Then on Wednesday the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico voted 5-4 to deny same-sex couples the right to adopt children.
“Island of enchantment,” my ass. Look, I’m Puerto Rican on my dad side (who in Humboldt Park isn’t?), but ignorant nonsense like this makes me prouder to be from a progressive state that’s on the verge of recognizing marriage equality than from a nonprogressive colony that believes same-sex couples spread their gay cooties to children.
Still, things aren’t all bleak on the sunny island.
Puerto Rico’s Legislative Assembly is currently reviewing amendments to a law (Law 54) that would provide protection to partners against domestic violence, regardless of marital status or sexual orientation. The island’s House of Representatives are also working on a bill to protect workers against sexual discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and Puerto Rico’s new governor has pledged to address the rising hate crimes against the LGBT community.
Minutes after the court’s decision, Ricky Martin, Puerto Rico’s famed gay activist (in more ways than one), took to Twitter to vent his frustration.
If Puerto Rico is serious about becoming the 51st state in the Union, then Puerto Rico needs to get with it. Unless it wants to be lumped together with Arizona and Mississippi, Puerto Rico better start respecting the equal rights of all its citizens.
South Side via Wicker Park
Just when you thought crime scenes were strictly an Englewood thing, the Six Corners intersection in Wicker Park was flooded with police cars in the early morning hours on Wednesday after a police shootout.
The suspect, Jesus Rosas, of the far South Side is charged with robbing 12 businesses during the past two months. According to his neighbors, he used the money to satisfy his money-hungry girlfriend.
After she dumped him, he decided to rob a Subway in River North and then lead police officers on a high-speed chase through the city in hopes that he’d either die in a crash or the cops would shoot him.
Rosas got his wish (well, sorta) when an officer shot him after Rosa had crashed his SUV in the busy intersection of North, Milwaukee and Damen.
The incident shook a lot of people who either live, work or party in Wicker Park. Chicagoans know that they live in a dangerous city, but they like to believe that the danger is limited to just a handful of neighborhoods on the South and West Sides.
What Wednesday morning makes all too real is that there is nothing keeping what goes on Inglewood from coming to Lakeview or Wicker Park.
The crises plaguing the people of West Humboldt Park and Garfield Park — crime, violence, poor housing and poor education — are issues that can potentially affect the lives of every Chicagoan, no matter where they live, how much money they have or how hypoallergenic their dogs are.
[Photo by Jaik Willis via Facebook]