The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, in a 5-4 ruling announced on February 20, has affirmed the island commonwealth’s ban on adoption by same-sex couples.
The decision, reported by El Vocero and picked up by Andres Duques’ Blabbeando blog, came in a suit brought by a woman seeking to adopt her lesbian partner’s daughter. Under current Puerto Rican law, the woman could only adopt the child if her partner were to surrender her parental rights –– a provision that bars what is known as second-parent adoption for same-sex couples.
The majority, Blabbeando noted, accepted arguments that households headed by married heterosexual couples best protect the “well-being” of children and that the US territory’s constitution provides no protections based on sexual orientation.
The high court’s president, Federico Hernández Denton, was among the four dissenters.
Pop singer Ricky Martin, a Puerto Rican gay father, tweeted “So sad. I see this as turning our backs on childhood. So many orphans who want the warmth of 1 home.”
