RICKY MARTIN ‘SAD’ ABOUT PUERTO RICO ANTI-GAY RULING

Latino superstar Ricky Martin has expressed his sadness that Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court has backed a law barring gay couples from adopting children.

On Wednesday, five out of nine judges ruled against a woman who has been trying for eight years to adopt the 12-year-old biological daughter of her partner of 20 years.

The judges ruled that the ban on gay adoption was not unconstitutional and also said that having heterosexual parents is in the best interests of the children.

“The state …  does not have a constitutional obligation to award this relationship the same rights that other relationships have when it comes to adoption procedures,” the majority of the judges ruled.

The judges urged the woman to instead approach the legislature to change the law to allow second parent adoption in Puerto Rico, which is an unincorporated territory of the United States.

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Federico Hernandez Denton commented that the young girl “proudly states: ‘I have two mothers'” and that the two moms “have ideal emotional skills, intuition and protective instinct to guarantee the girl’s full and healthy development”.

He pointed out that the ban means that the young girl cannot make use of the woman’s medical insurance and should the biological mother die the surviving partner would have no rights to care for the child.

Reacting to news of the ruling, Martin – who was born in Puerto Rico – tweeted in Spanish:  “How sad. This I see as turning your back on childhood. So many orphans wanting to have the warmth of home.”

The ruling was preceded by a mass demonstration in the capital San Juan on Monday by over 200,000 Christians protesting against same-sex marriage rights and gay adoption.