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Toledo proposes legalization of gay and lesbian civil unions

By Andean Air Mail & PERUVIAN TIMES

(01/21/2011)Former President Alejandro Toledo, leading in the race for a second shot at Peru’s highest office, will push for legalization of gay and lesbian civil unions if he is elected, his campaign chief told daily El Comercio.
“It is in our government plan,” Congressman Carlos Bruce said. “We have proposed civil unions for couples without gender discrimination. The state will provide the protection for social security and will recognize the right to inheritance.”

The proposal is included in Toledo’s government plan under the eighth point titled “All Peruvians are Equal.”

The plan aims to promote social inclusion, outlining “respect, defense and promotion of human rights in all its aspects, such as the democratic institutional framework, with the objective that human rights violations that occurred in the past, are not repeated.”

The plan calls for sending to Congress a bill to approve civil unions without distinction of gender. Gay and lesbian civil union “is a question of principals, it aims to recognize the full civil rights of citizens and to be a step, among others, to achieve social inclusion of all Peruvians.”

Meanwhile, the leftist Fuerza Social party has also said it would promote gay and lesbian marriages. Fuerza Social’s presidential candidate, career diplomat and former Foreign Affairs minister Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros, said “it is a proposal to recognize rights without discrimination.”

Both proposals have come under attack by the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani.

In a country where about 80 percent of the population is Catholic, Cipriani said the proposals are an “error.”

“It is a proposal made by a political party and we will see what the population says. The Church teaches something else, but I think politicians present topics that I don’t know if the population accepts or not,” Cipriani said.

According to a recent opinion poll by Lima-based firm Ipsos Apoyo, Toledo has 27 percent support, followed by Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori with 22 percent and the Lima’s former mayor Luis Castañeda with 19 percent.

The general election is scheduled for April 10.