Bigotry Hits Paradise

You would think that they would have more important things to do then to pass a draconian law allowing discrimination against us in the name of “religious freedom.”

While Millions Still Lack Water And Electricity, Puerto Rico’s Senate Votes To Approve LGBT Discrimination
A religious freedom bill passed this week would allow government workers to deny services to LGBT citizens.
New Now Next
By Kristina Marusic
February 1, 2018

On Monday, Puerto Rico’s Senate voted in favor of a “religious freedom” bill that would allow government employees to discriminate against LGBT people.

While lawmakers have authored such measures across the U.S., the vote came while 35% of Puerto Ricans still do not have power or running water in the wake of Hurricane Maria. (Reports that FEMA was planning to withdraw aid this week drew stern criticism.)

PC1018 (a.k.a. the “Law for the Protection of Religious Liberty in Puerto Rico”) cleared by a margin of 16 to 11. It was passed by Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives back in May and originally cleared the Senate in December, but was returned to committee after Governor Ricardo Rosselló promised to veto the bill if it reached his desk.

Since then, conservative lawmakers have revised its language with hopes Rosselló will now sign it into law.

Our only hope is that the governor will veto the bill…

“Last we heard, the Governor is still saying he will veto the bill,” Amarilis Pagan of the Committee for the Search for Equity (CABE) told NewNowNext. “But as we know, in politics, anything can happen. So we’ve been urging people to ask him to keep his promise through social media campaigns and TV and radio ads on the island.”

You would think that with all the problems that hurricane Maria caused to the island that they would be focusing on rebuilding the infrastructure or dealing with the massive debt that the territory has instead of passing bigoted laws aimed at marginalizing us even more.