The supreme court
of Costa Rica has rejected a bid to legalize marriage
for same-sex couples there. Costa Rican lawyer Yashin
Castrillo Fernandez filed a lawsuit in 2003, arguing
that restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples was
discriminatory and unconstitutional.
But the conservative news agency Notivida
reports that the high court ruled against Castrillo
5-2. The justices wrote that marriage in the
Costa Rican constitution "stems historically from a context
where it is understood to be between a man and a woman."
But Chief Justice Luis Fermando Solano suggested
that the country's lawmakers could take up the issue
and enact a law creating civil unions. Solano noted
that while more than three quarters of the country's
population is Roman Catholic, the high court applied
"juridical, and not religious, principles" in its
ruling. (Sirius OutQ News)