Marriage Equality Comes to Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex marriage was ruled unconstitutional today by a panel of three judges with the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals. According to The Advocate,

U.S. Circuit Court Judges Juan Torruella, Ojetta Rogerlee Thompson, and William Kayatta, Jr., issued their ruling less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its landmark decision that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples throughout the country.

The decision comes in a lawsuit filed last year by Ada Conde Vidal and Ivonne Álvarez Vélez of San Juan, where the lesbian couple asked the U.S. District Court to force the U.S. commonwealth to recognize their Massachusetts marriage.

In 2014 Ada Conde Vidal and her wife Ivonne Alvarez on San Juan filed a lawsuit which asked the U.S. District Court to force the Puerto Rico to recognize their Massachusetts marriage. Four more same-sex couples joined the lawsuit along with LGBT advocacy group Puerto Rica Pará Todos. After being dismissed back in October, the case was appealed by the plaintiffs to the First Circuit. According to The Washington Blade, Puerto Rico will begin allowing same-sex marriages on July 15.