No 'Prop. 8' for Costa Rica; Bishops Upset

Religious leaders and anti-gay activists in Costa Rica are fuming over a court decision that strikes down a plan to put the rights of LGBTs up to popular vote, Proposition 8-style.

The court's Aug. 10 decision strikes down a plan by religious conservatives to put civil unions for same-sex couples up to a referendum. GLBT equality advocates in Costa Rica are not seeking full marriage parity, but they are pressing for national reform, as opposed to adopting a state-by-state or regional strategy, reported The Global Post on Aug. 29.

"The majority [of magistrates] considered that the rights of minorities borne out by struggles against majorities cannot be subjected to a referendum process where the majority rules," the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruling said. "People in same-sex relationships are a disadvantaged group and the object of discrimination who need support from public powers to recognize their constitutional or sub-constitutional rights. In summary, [the court] considered that subjecting the rights of a minority to the decision of the majority deepens and aggravates discrimination against [the minority.]"

"That's a great example for our courts here in the U.S," said Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

But Costa Rican religious leaders--and anti-gay religious conservatives in the U.S.--disagree. Religious site Catholic News Agency reported on Sept. 10 that the country's Catholic bishops had protested the move to provide legal protections to gay and lesbian families.

In a letter to Costa Rican legislators, the Bishops' Conference of Costa Rica asserted that civil unions would be a form of "marriage" for gays, and argued that providing any such legal framework for same-sex families would diminish heterosexual unions. The bishops based their claims on religious grounds, positing that a supreme being had designed marriage, and this "Creator... gave it a particular nature... and an undeniable purpose." Added the bishops, "The legalization of such unions distorts the understanding of fundamental moral values and undermines the institution of marriage as such."

The bishops sent the mixed message that "men and women with homosexual tendencies must be treated with respect and must not be subject to discrimination," while also asserting that "homosexual practices [are] objectively contrary to God's plan for the human being," and therefore gays and their families ought to be denied equality before the law.

As to the legal ramifications of denying same-sex families recognition, the bishops argued that, "In reality, like all citizens, thanks to their private autonomy, they can always resort to common law in order to safeguard legal situations that are of mutual interest.

"On the other hand," the letter continued, "it would be a grave injustice to sacrifice the common good and the rights of families in order to allow them to obtain benefits that can and should be guaranteed by means that do not harm society at large."

Catholic teaching holds that gays and lesbians do not "choose" their sexual orientation, and recognizes that homosexuality is innate. The church also teaches, however, that same-sex physical intimacy is "inherently evil," and says that gays and lesbians are intended by God to lead lives of celibacy.

GLBT equality advocates in Costa Rica say that same-sex families there need some degree of legal recognition, according to a Wikipedia article. At present, gay and lesbian families are not recognized in any capacity. A 2006 Costa Rica Supreme Court decision found that the country's constitution does not require that same-sex couples be granted marriage equality.

Proposition 8, a ballot initiative rescinding the then-existing legal right of gay and lesbian families, was narrowly passed by California voters in 2008. A challenge to the ballot initiative in U.S. federal court argued successfully that Proposition 8 violated constitutional guarantees of equality. Marriage parity has not, however, as yet been restored in California. It is widely anticipated that the case will be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.