The time is now. Equal Marriage Act should be discussed immediately. All other issues have already been addressed by way of introduction. Such law is now being drafted and in the coming days will be submitted to the National Assembly plenary for consideration. It seems that legislative approval will be swift and won’t be vetoed by the president of the republic. Equal marriage will provide the same benefits enjoyed by those who prefer to stay together through existing marriages. Nobody has proposed to broadly repeal the institution of marriage.
Exiting the socialist regime will cost some time, whereas the Equal Marriage Act could be approved with the same ease as property titles were issued to beneficiaries of Housing Mission. We won’t allow bigots and homophobes to continue making excuses so that Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) electoral promises aren’t fulfilled. Enough politicking and deceit! The National Assembly has already decreed a humanitarian emergency in health. Still pending is discussion on equal marriage, which could even be adopted unanimously by combined votes of opposition and officialism. Public opinion won’t forgive those congresspersons who insist on maintaining lawful this current, shameful discrimination.
At the MUD we did electoral campaign to approve equal marriage, because officialism did not approve it when they were parliamentary majority. Homophobic minority will fail to impose their agenda of hatred against diversity. Intolerants, homophobes and haughty out of tune with the change, are encouraged to get into a time machine and return to barbaric times. Discriminating against equal marriage, so that other issues get favored, won’t work any longer. Loafers pretend to impose their will as historical trends adverse them. Equal marriage is urgent according to clamor of millions of people who have suffered discrimination throughout their lives. It is not negotiable, and will only take a short time of sessions at our busy and well organized National Assembly presided over by the MUD.
Making campaign promises, seeking votes of the people, and not meeting those promises after winning is cheating. Enough for mediocrity. Equal Marriage was as recurrent an election promise as the last queue. Deception is reflected in shameful statements pronounced by Chuo Torrealba, who generated such matrix of opinion that equal marriage is a first world problem and that there are more important matters. Recent, successful campaign was discredited, which had earned new opposition votes from sexual diversity previously sympathetic to officialism.
Héctor Rodriguez indeed applauded Tamara Adrian applauded when she was sworn in, despite their belonging to opposing blocs. Henry Ramos Allup as president of the National Assembly is well aware of the various legislative proposals which it must approve to honor previous commitments to the MUD. Gender is independent of sexual orientation and all people deserve respect for their integrity. Traditional descriptions of intercourse and procreation are only applicable to heterosexuality and therefore only generate an incomplete reading of nature and its diversity.
With a single scheduled discussion equal marriage may be approved because it is up to the legislative, while the exit of Maduro we don’t even know if it will occur through constituent assembly, constitutional amendment or revocation referendum. Once economic emergency decree has been overturned, it isn’t much what can be done by the National Assembly regarding queues, as economic policy belongs to the executive. It is disrespectful to pretend pierce the Unity, when we clearly agreed that equal marriage would be part of our legislative agenda. Thanks to that campaign promise an enormous amount of opposition votes that were formerly cast into officialism were earned. Let’s be responsible and honor our commitments. We should not remain as liars. Now we must deliver what we always promised.
Flickering from those weighing whether or not to support the MUD, as we do or don’t accept their blackmail against our policies won’t work for them. We have informed several months in advance about our intention to approve equal marriage. The public was aware that indeed this has been and remains our intention. We thank those who voted for us; however, they should understand that at the last minute we cannot abandon our duty to debate equal marriage at the assembly, just because some people now don’t feel like we should be responsible. We’ll fulfill our election commitments because we are serious.
Most Congresspersons of MUD and many congresspersons of PSUV don’t suffer from sickly homophobia that some vomit in their opinions. The equal marriage act will indeed be approved with a couple of discussions, because it is currently the only issue that guarantees a certain harmony during debates between the two antagonistic blocs. So it happens with unanimous votes as when supporting commemoration for Divina Pastora Virgin and the mourns in honor of a Serenata Guayanesa musician. The day of approval of equal marriage act will be a festive window of light and hope in a Venezuela that usually just generates bad news.
Some seem desperate because they find no way to prevent the imminent discussion and approval of the Equal Marriage Act. They will have to abide by it as it will come from legitimate National Assembly. Such adversaries remind the process of denial that suffered and still suffers officialism on the occasion of the victory of the MUD, when they thought that the PSUV would win by any means. Homophobics seem convinced that the Equal Marriage Act will be rejected b y any means, when in fact it widely supported in both caucuses as a symbol of national reconciliation. We do not want to encourage divisions in the Unity since they may be used by officialism to remain in power. So we suggest that our legislative strategies are abided to.
The Equal Marriage Act was proposed by youth sectors of the PSUV and delivered on January 31, 2014 to the National Assembly in office at the time. It never was discussed. That's why Popular Will, through our current congresswoman Tamara Adrián, took the initiative to continue fighting for the rights of the GLBT community. Let us not disappoint our supporters. It would be appropriate for us to contact our ProInclusionVP movement and coordinate with them to provide training workshops at all regions on the sexual diversity agenda. It is natural to feel afraid of what isn’t known, so again we invite you to hear everything that our activists at Proinclusion movement have to tell us. Remember that our motto is all the rights for all the persons.
Those who oppose the legislative debate on the Equal Marriage Act, by arguing that the economic problem and the health crisis are national priorities, are encouraged to communicate that to Maduro as chief of executive power. The legislative power already rejected the economic emergency decree and proclaimed humanitarian emergency in the health sector. Since the legislative already addressed priorities convenient for others agree, it is their turn to put aside their selfishness, to abandon censorship, and to provide a space for discussion and approval of the Equal Marriage Act.
Everyone is free to deal with the issues most convenient to them and in civilized societies space should be ensured for all positions. Those who oppose including certain issues in the debate will have to concede. The Equal Marriage Act will be debated in the Assembly as long as necessary. The National Production Act is also important, and will receive as much support from the MUD as Equal Marriage Act. We are one block. Due the abundance of legislative proposals, chamber sessions were increased from once to twice per week. It is enough of parliamentary weakness to which officialdom accustomed us.
We opened this debate because it is time to generate answers. The Equal Marriage Act is as important as the Amnesty Law and as all other laws that were promised during the campaign, to which took time and effort through volunteers activism. It is discriminatory to relegating Equal Marriage Act to last priority. We demand its immediate discussion. The Equal Marriage Act and the Rights of the LGBTI community are as important as Human Rights. Venezuela must take a step towards equal opportunity and justice for all people.
Rubén Rivero Capriles
Municipal Responsible, Guilds Popular Will Sucre Miranda
Petare, February 12th, 2016
