Lambda Legal Responds to Report That Puerto Rican Government Will Drop Opposition to Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

After news outlets reported that the Puerto Rican government is considering withdrawing its support for the law banning marriage for same-sex couples, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney, issued the following statement:

“We are encouraged that the government is reconsidering its defense of its discriminatory ban on the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. Government should never be in the business of discrimination. We look forward to what the government will say in its response to our appeal, which is due at the First Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, and hope Puerto Rico will join the several other state officials over the past year who have also ceased defense of marriage bans in similar cases. We have always maintained that the ban is unconstitutional and we are eager for a court to vindicate the rights of our plaintiff couples.”

Learn more about Lambda Legal's 15 years of work in Puerto Rico.

The change comes just before the deadline for the defendants’ response brief, due Friday, in the appeal process of a federal case in which Lambda Legal represents four same-sex couples, seeking the freedom to marry for same-sex couples there and to compel the Commonwealth to recognize the legal marriages of LGBT people entered into in other jurisdictions.

Lambda Legal joined the lawsuit Conde Vidal v. Rius Armendariz in June 2014, challenging Puerto Rico’s marriage ban as a violation of the equal protection and due process guarantees of the U.S. Constitution. Representing four of the plaintiff couples, as well as the Puerto Rican LGBT advocacy organization Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, Lambda Legal is arguing that existing legislation in the Commonwealth sends the message that LGBT people and their children are undeserving of the legal sanction, respect, protections, and support that different-sex couples and their families are able to enjoy through marriage.

Read the press release.