A lesbian couple on Tuesday filed a
federal lawsuit seeking to have their out-of-state marriage
recognized by Puerto Rico.
Ada Conde, an attorney, and Ivonne
Alvarez, an accountant and financial adviser, married in 2004 in
Massachusetts, the first state to allow gay couples to marry.
“We wish to enjoy the same social
privileges and contractual rights … and not to be treated as we are
being treated as second-class citizens,” Conde told the AP.
Puerto Rican laws limit marriage to
heterosexual couples and prohibit the state from recognizing the
legal out-of-state marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
The couple, together 14 years, said
that despite being lawfully married, Alvarez was not allowed to
participate in the decision-making process when Conde's young
daughter was hospitalized.
Puerto Rican lawmakers last year
approved measures which prohibit employment discrimination based on
gender identity or sexual orientation and extend a domestic violence
law to gay couples.