Marco Castillo, president of the LGBT advocacy group Diversity Movement, said the bills would be a step forward for LGBT rights in Costa Rica, even if full marriage was not on the table.
A recent survey of National Police officers by the Center for Research and Promotion of Human Rights in Central America found that 25 percent believed that LGBT people had fewer rights under the law than heterosexuals.
Facing violence and criminal impunity in their countries of origin, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have become the latest face of Central American displacement, and they have turned to Costa Rica for refuge.
Officials from President Luis Guillermo Solís’ administration were tight-lipped about their support for two controversial bills in the upcoming legislative session that were campaign promises of the Citizen Action Party’s presidential platform: gay civil unions and in vitro fertilization. The bills might prove too divisive for a government struggling to secure support from a fractured legislature.
The board of directors of Costa Rica’s Social Security System, or Caja, has approved a series of amendments to the public health care agency’s regulations that, among other benefits, will grant same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples in public health care services as soon as next month.
An historic World Cup football win wasn't the only thing people in San José were celebrating Sunday. Hours before the big game, more than 10,000 supporters of the lesbian, gay and transgender movement marched down Paseo Colón for the annual Diversity March.
