Puerto Rico is the strange stepchild that America claims to love but does little in the ways of nurturing and treating the same as its 50 other children.
Want to be a real US citizen? Easy enough, just don’t be born in Puerto Rico.
While the US government will grant you citizenship, you can forget about your right to vote in any presidential elections, or the right to be legitimately represented in Congress. Oh, and taxes? Yes, Uncle Sam will still be expecting those.
For a change, however, the ever positive Puerto Rican stepchild has voiced a resounding screw you to the judicial branch of the United States. While a federal court recently upheld the ban on same sex marriage, Puerto Rico’s government has decided to ignore them entirely.
?Because of sexual orientation, Puerto Rico has denied rights that others enjoy.?This is not correct.”
While gay marriage is not officially legal in Puerto Rico, their refusal to uphold the marriage ban means that gay marriage will be allowed.
Celebrity pop star Ricky Martin had the following to say:
Mi agradecimiento al Gobernador Alejandro Garc?a Padilla por demostrar que es un l?der que no … http://t.co/lTUtFY5tiw
— Ricky Martin (@ricky_martin) March 20, 2015
Roughly translated:
“My gratitude to Governor Alejandro Garc?a Padilla for demonstrating that he is a leader who is not afraid to of the challenges of the present.?
LGBT groups also had much praise to offer.
Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, held nothing back when he made a statement concerning the Puerto Rican government.
?As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear marriage cases next month, this makes clear that all of America is ready for the freedom to marry,?
A full on legalization of marriage is what Wolfson and other LGBT organizations are fighting for.
Activists such as these will not be satisfied until true equality stretches from the Hudson Bay, to the dirt choked El Paso, Texas, to the soft sand beaches of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In the interim, the stepchild of the American Empire is doing what she wants and what her people needs by rocking the right for lovers to love, and be married.
