Ricky Martin calls out Puerto Rican lawmakers over bill which could strip LGBT people of legal protections
Ricky Martin has juggled acting with his singing career. (Getty)
Ricky Martin has called out the Puerto Rican Senate over a bill which could strip LGBT+ people of legal protections.
The San Juan-born singer criticised lawmakers over plans to block people from correcting the gender marker on their birth certificates.
Trans people in Puerto Rico have been able to apply for a new birth certificate since July 2018, after a federal judge ruled that a previous ban was unconstitutional.
However a proposed bill threatens to restore the old policy and consequently block LGBT+ people from accessing public services.
Lawmakers are obsessed with provoking a setback in the fight for LGBT+ equality.
“We must keep in mind the senate’s motives to amend the Civil Code,” Martin tweeted (in Portuguese), according to Out.
“Lawmakers are obsessed with provoking a setback in the fight for equality the LGBTQ community has led.”
The Civil Code amendments have already passed the House of Representatives and are now set to be put before the Senate.
The newly-installed governor Wanda Vázquez has so far refused to condemn the bill.
“We are going to listen to everyone, we are going to evaluate these claims,” she told el Nuevo Día.
“We are going to see the final bill and at the end of the day we will make the determination.”
Human rights groups are urging the government to delay the vote, arguing that the bill “contains provisions that are harmful to civil rights in the country and to the stability of our legal system”.
Ricky Martin has become a prominent activist.
Martin – who recently welcomed his fourth child with husband Jwan Yosef – has become a prominent campaigner for LGBT+ rights and political reform in recent times.
In July he joined mass protests demanding the resignation of then-governor Ricardo Rosselló who had been accused of misogyny and homophobia.
The demonstrations began after a string of leaked messages showed Rosselló and aides making degrading comments about women and Martin himself.
In one exchange published by CNN, Puerto Rico’s then-chief financial officer Christian Sobrino Vega wrote: “Nothing says patriarchal oppression like Ricky Martin.
“Ricky Martin is such a male chauvinist that he f***s men because women don’t measure up. Pure patriarchy.”
Rosselló resigned after more than a week of protests, and was replaced by Vázquez.
