Over 200,000 “Stand Up” Against Gay Rights In Puerto Rico

[cali]

In the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan on Monday, over 200,000 Christians gathered as part of “Puerto Rico Stands Up”, one of the largest “pro-family” demonstrations held on the U.S. commonwealth.

The protestors organized in front of the Capitol building, blocking traffic in and out of the area, while blasting gospel music and brandishing banners defending so-called traditional marriage. They were also denouncing proposed legislation seeking to grant rights to gay couples.

Cesar Vazquez Muñiz, spokesman of Puerto Rico for the Family — the organization behind the rally — explained that their purpose was to protect traditional marriage and family values for the sake of, of course, the children.

“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,” Vazquez told the Puerto Rican daily, El Vocero. “This demonstration tells the government that there are things that they cannot touch and those are marriage and family.”

Full story here: http://www.queerty.com/over-200000-stand-up-against-gay-rights-in-puerto-rico-20130220/#ixzz2LdgqiskF
Read more at http://www.queerty.com/over-200000-stand-up-against-gay-rights-in-puerto-rico-20130220/#Ez8q8zZHlDIJ8hjX.99

[MADem]

1. How unfortunate. Who, in their right mind, would want to attend such a hatefest?

PR has over three and a half million people living on the island...so we're just talking about a crowd of clueless fools, not a majority of the citizens.

[cali]

2. I'd like to agree with you but that's a large crowd to get together to protest

anything.

I don't see the benefit in pretending otherwise- particularly as the counter-protest was far smaller.

PR is well recognized as an anti-gay bastion.

[MADem]

8. It was a very large crowd, but the actual number is in dispute--it's being propagated by the haters.

El teniente coronel Eliezer Colón, de la Policía estatal, no pudo confirmar la cifra a EL VOCERO pero dijo que “no había visto una demostración como esa en años, con miles y miles de personas. Nos tomó una hora y media sacar a las personas después que se acabó a las 2:00 de la tarde y dejamos el tránsito fluyendo”. Sobre incidentes mencionó que un niño fue llevado al hospital municipal Hoare porque se sentía un poco débil y un muchacho se cayó mientras caminaba.

http://www.vocero.com/contundente-reclamo-profamilia/

Some of the religious people are trying to say it was a quarter million people--I don't think the number was anywhere near that.

PR is still problematic, though it is trending in a way that will make the haters unhappy--yes, there is still religious homophobia, but they also have a vibrant PRIDE parade every year, and Condado is a winter holiday magnet for a lot of gay people, who contribute enormously to the economy in the high season.


Recently, the courts refused a woman the right to adopt her partner's child. It wasn't an overwhelming smackdown, though (which would have been the case in years past), the ruling was close, 5-4. http://www.telegram.com/article/20130221/NEWS/102219904/1052/rss01&source=rss

There's also a vote coming up on a domestic violence measure that will extend protections to gay people.

The "bastion" shouldn't rest easy, because even if they're ignorant and behind the times in terms of their thinking, things are changing in PR. Oftentimes, I've noticed, the loudest shouting comes shortly before the crash-and-burn. Remember when the Tea Party was "invincible?"

I have to wonder how many people took advantage of a free bus trip to San Juan, hang out at the rally for a bit, then run and do some shopping at Plaza de las Americas before the free bus ride home?

I get a sense that PR is starting to change, and when change becomes noticeable, that's also when we start to see pushback.

[RZM]

3. It's an enormous crowd, especially given PR's small population

That's about 1 in every 20 Puerto Ricans showing up for this protest. Proportionally, that's on par with the crowds John Paul II used to get when he visited Poland.

I'm pretty surprised, actually. I wasn't aware that Puerto Rico had this strong of an anti-gay movement.

[MADem]

9. It's a traditional prejudice, but I think it is weakening.

As I said upthread, this pushback is a consequence of changing attitudes. In the old days, there wouldn't be any need to protest gay rights, because the prevailing attitude was that gays shouldn't have any. That is changing. Not fast enough, but it is changing.

[OceanEcosystem]

4. But the people in favor of something are usually greater than the number that show up for a crowd.

Not every single person opposed to gay marriage is going to show up to such a rally/demonstration. So the number of people in Puerto Rico who are opposed to gay marriage is almost certainly significantly greater than just 200,000.


Just like if 100,000 people were to show up to a pro-gay-marriage-rally in Washington, D.C. That would not mean that there were only 100,000 people in America in favor of gay marriage - it would mean that only 100,000 such people actually bothered to rally for it.

[joeybee12]

6. Like in France...huge demonstrations...

Yet marriage equality has overwhelming support at large in the country...bigots happen to be very anal and therefore very well-organized.

[MADem]

10. Not everyone who showed up at that rally gave a shit about the topic, either, I will wager.

There were a ton of children there--they don't have a POV, really, save what their parents try to tell them to believe. Also, a lot of the crowd were jibaros (hillbillies, in essence) who were told by their pastors to show up for a bus trip to San Juan.

The governor isn't having it, either--he's said he'll defend everyone's rights, so the haters will have to stew in their juices.

[One_Life_To_Give]

5. I'll be sure to avoid it

If you don't accept my brothers and sisters as equals. Then don't expect this guys straight dollars to be spent in your homophobic local.

[MineralMan]

7. That's a big crowd for a little place.

I'm going to be wary of support of statehood for PR unless there's a solid demonstration of support for equality issues. We need no new anti-LGBT states in the US. We have too many already.

[MADem]

11. Puerto Ricans have been wary of statehood for many years and many votes now.

Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2013, 03:06 PM - Edit history (1)

We don't have to worry about them until they decide they want to join the club. There's no accord on that score, yet. The latest vote went thusly:

However, a fair reading of the referendum results shows clearly that the headlines proclaiming that a majority of Puerto Ricans support statehood are misleading and erroneous, and certainly promote considerable cynicism regarding Puerto Rico's political process. Indeed, the votes of nearly half a million voters who did not support statehood were not counted. These voters deliberately left blank the second part of the ballot, in effect stating that they preferred a fourth option to the three options listed on the ballot. These voters likely would have supported a fourth option, choosing some form of commonwealth status similar to the current arrangement, but since this option did not appear on the ballot, would have checked a box marked "other" if such a ballot option was available, which it was not. The absence of this fourth option, and the reason for its omission, explain why the official results of this referendum are spurious, and certainly do not support the dramatic headlines proclaiming Puerto Rico's approval of statehood.

...There is further evidence that pro-statehood supporters lacked a mandate from the voters. The pro-statehood governing party which proposed the referendum was voted out of office, the pro-statehood governor was defeated, the pro-statehood majority in the Senate was voted out of office, and the pro-statehood mayoralties in the cities also lost.

Regardless of the ambiguous vote for statehood, there is little chance that Puerto Rico will become the 51st state, at least in the near future. Article IV of the U.S. Constitution authorizes both houses of Congress to admit new states by a simple majority vote, and the president's signature. But Puerto Ricans in the U.S. historically have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, so it is unlikely that the Republican-controlled House would support Puerto Rican statehood, which would mean at least one new voting member in the House, and two U.S. senators.

The only clear message from last week's referendum, if there is one, is that Puerto Ricans want to change their current status. The Puerto Rican economy is very weak, and the population is shrinking. A new political status is seen as imperative. Puerto Rico is a valuable asset to the U.S. Although Puerto Ricans pay no federal income taxes, they do pay at least billions of dollars in import and export taxes. A new status for Puerto Rico, even statehood, may be inevitable. However, it does not appear as yet that statehood commands a majority of voters, despite the big headlines.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bennett-l-gershman/puerto-rico-statehood_b_2118727.html