EFE file photo United States President Barack Obama addressed his nation on Sunday afternoon in the wake of a horrific shooting being investigated as an of terrorism. As of mid-day on Sunday, reports indicated that at least 50 people were killed by a man identified as Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen of Afghan ethnicity, who burst into a nightclub that caters to gay revelers before shooting into...

Human Rights Watch, a prominent international non-profit known for its advocacy work with the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, and several nations, is calling on President Luis Guillermo Solís to take immediate action on the issue of marriage equality. The following letter, dated April 4, was posted on the Human Rights Watch website. This letter is also available in Spanis...

Sex Shop in France. Wikimedia Commons Herbal Viagra is one of the most popular products sold in sex shops across Costa Rica these days. Male customers who take these products, which are sold over-the-counter to any adult, report that herbal Viagra is very effective insofar as resulting in long-lasting erections and pleasant feelings of excitement and euphoria. According to a recent report f...

Peace be with you. In the near future, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) population of Costa Rica will be able to enjoy a new dance venue in Downtown San Jose, specifically across from the Roman Catholic Church of La Soledad (The Solitude) in Chinatown. According to a recent news report filed by entertainment journalist Ariel Chaves Gonzalez of daily tabloid Diario Extra, Clu...

A complaint that unfolded in social media circles has caught the attention of the media and the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP) in Costa Rica. According to a news report filed by metro reporter Paula Ruiz of daily newspaper La Prensa Libre, the incident occurred this past Saturday in San Jose. A woman by the last name of Madden was relaxing in Plaza de la Cultura, a major me...

WAYLAND, MA (PRWEB) July 14, 2015 -- Destination Weddings Travel Group, a leader in the destination wedding planning industry, has released its inaugural report with the latest wedding statistics and trend forecast for 2015. “With an ever-changing global environment, the destination wedding industry is continuously growing and changing,” shares Richard Calvert, President and CEO. “It’s with that,...

U.S. State Department Stafford Fitzgerald Haney was formally introduced as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Costa Rica on Tuesday afternoon at the San Pedro office of the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano. He arrived in our country over the weekend. During his press conference, Ambassador S. Fitzgerald Haney, an econo...

Washington, Jun 26 (EFE).- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of legalizing gay marriage across the country, a historic decision that annuls the power of states to ban same-sex unions. The high court's decision makes same-sex marriage a constitutional right in the United States, and consequently requires the 13 states still prohibiting it to allow people of the same sex to marry legal...

Dublin, May 23 (EFE).- The Irish electorate voted 62.07 percent in favor legalizing same-sex marriage, the Referendum Commission said. Official figures released Saturday indicate that the "no" votes against the government's proposal to authorize and give a constitutional standing to gay marriage, amounted to only 37.93 percent. The commission also said that participation at the polls was 60....

Ian Somerhalder Instagram More Hollywood celebrities are choosing Costa Rica as one of their preferred hideaways. One of the most recent instances of this trend was shared on the Instagram online social network by actor Ian Somerhalder, who is better known for his starring roles in popular television series Lost and The Vampire Diaries. On March 13th, Mr. Somerhalder shared an Instagram sel...

Wayland, MA (PRWEB) April 07, 2015 – With a record 30% plus increase in destination weddings in the last year, Destination Weddings Travel Group makes unprecedented changes in 2015 to evolve with the modern destination wedding. Globally, destination weddings are experiencing an exciting shift, with distinct services and unique concepts quickly emerging in order to satisfy this diverse market. S...

Washington, Apr 2 (EFE).- The Indiana House of Representatives announced Thursday that it will make changes to the state's controversial law on religious freedom, which has engendered much criticism for allowing discrimination against homosexuals. The head of the lower house, Republican Brian Bosma, said Thursday he wanted to make it "very clear" that the law permits no leeway to "allow discrim...

San Juan, Mar 18 (EFE).- A Jamaican lawyer has filed a lawsuit in the Caribbean Court of Justice aimed at forcing the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Belize to scrap immigration laws that bar the entry of gays and lesbians. Legal representatives from Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean Community made statements Wednesday at a hearing on the suit, court Registry supervisor Nandlal Hardi...

Outside of La Terraza (The Terrace) Restaurant & Bar, a known nightspot located in the heart of San Jose, a group of gender equality activists staged a loud protest on Saturday night as patrons lined up to enter this well-known dancing and drinking establishment. As reported by metro reporter Laura Ruiz of daily newspaper La Prensa Libre, a kiss between a same-gender couple was the reason for ...

The 2014 Miss Latina Internacional Gay beauty pageant will be hosted for the first time in Costa Rica, and it will feature two separate events. On Friday night, the transgender contestants will be introduced at the Ribs Bar and Restaurant in San Joaquín de Flores; the gala event and awards ceremony will take place at the Lucho Barahona Theater in San Jose on Saturday night. Organizer Ricardo Casti...

Two young men from Escazú were turned down by the family court in San José on their quest to have their gay marriage recognized legally. They have lived together for seven years. The court decided that the definition of marriage is the joining together of a man and a woman. The pair were disappointed because they were counting on the judges taking into consideration that the Young Persons’ Law ...

Being the victim of constant ridicule from his fellow workers for wearing women’s pants, a man named Sanchez working for the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT), decided to rely on the law and file a “recurso amparo" (appeal) with the Constitutional Court. The appeal challenging his employer’s rules prohibiting him from wearing women’s clothes is being closely watched. Sanchez ...

Source: Flickr CC The first-ever legally recognized civil union between same-gender partners in Costa Rica might take place in one or two weeks. Such was the statement pronounced by Marco Castillo, an attorney and president of the Diversity Movement in Costa Rica. Mr. Castillo is currently handling petitions from three couples who want legal recognition of their rights to civil unions as lesbi...

Churches throughout Costa Rica are expecting 30,000 people to join in on a march in defense of traditional marriage slated for August. The gathering is meant to counter attack recent legislations allowing same-sex civil unions, abortion, in vitro fertilization and challenges to the ban on the morning-after pill. Organizers are calling for Evangelicals and Catholics to unite against what they...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Article 52 of Title V -"Social Rights and Guarantees"- of the Constitution of Costa Rica states that: "Marriage is the essential foundation of the family; it rests upon the equal rights of spouses." As clear and elegant as the above statement is, a civic group in Costa Rica would like to see it change by means of a proposed amendment to our Constitution. The gro...

On Monday, Costa Rica printed a controversial law in its official publication, La Gaceta, that could open the door to gay marriage. The measure, a reform of the country's Young Persons Law, modifies part of the code covering civil unions, or what could be called common-law marriages, between those who have been co-habitating for three or more years. It outlines “the recognition of the right, wi...

The bill to give longterm gay couples the same legal benefits as conventionally wed couples finally made it to debate Tuesday on the floor of the Legislative Assembly, only to have discussion blocked by recesses. The Libertarian Movement, Renovacion Costarricense Party's Justo Orozco and the (also Evangelical) Renovacion Nacional Party called three 15-minute recesses in quick succession before ...

Last year a gay couple returning from a trip to Costa Rica got quite a shock at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport: Luggage handlers had gone through their bags, found a dildo, removed it and taped it to the exterior of their suitcase—so all the passengers could see it as it made its way down the baggage carousel. Bilerico Project’s Michael Hamar, who knows the aggrieved couple well...

Many gay people are unencumbered by deep and binding family ties; 90 percent of us have no children. As we age and our parents have passed on we can become more mobile than at any other time in our lives. Not having to be home for Christmas makes it easy to consider heading south. Retiring to a typical retirement area can be a frightening prospect. Even more so for perhaps three million gay...

It would be hard to overstate just how amazingly LGBT-friendly the US State Department has been under the leadership of Hillary Clinton even as she prepares to depart later this year. I first took note of the changes at hand in January of 2011 when the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras took the highly unusual step to publicly put pressure on the Honduran government to investigate an increasing nu...

After successfully completing an unprecedented march in downtown San Jose, the Invisible Movement activists were able to meet with government representatives to advance issues related to the project of Societies of Coexistence, something Laura Chinchilla’s administration had ignored so far. The meeting took place yesterday at around 3 pm at the Presidential House with activists representing gro...

La Marcha de los Invisibles (March of the Invisibles) will take place today in protest of a Secular State, the right to assisted reproduction, and a society with diverse sexual orientation without discrimination. Protesters have been summoned today, June 16th at the Central Park in San Jose at 9 a.m. and will march from there to the National Assembly of Costa Rica. Speakers for the movement ...

Justo Orozco is a legislator and Protestant minister who also leads the Committee of Human Rights at the National Assembly of Costa Rica. According to an article recently published by Act Up, Mr. Orozco spoke to national newspaper La Nacion and categorized homosexuality as a sin with a cure. The Act Up site describes itself as a "perspective from over 60 countries and 50 languages highlighting our...

SAN JOSE – The National Assembly of Costa Rica has stalled the advancement of gay rights, according to statements made by the president of Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall), the country's highest court. In an interview with Amy Ross and Ferlin Fuentes of national newspaper La Nacion, Senior Magistrate Ana Virginia Calzada explained that, with regard to the rights of same-gender couples, the Na...

If you plan to take a Saturday afternoon stroll around Plaza de la Cultura and the Central Avenue pedestrian boulevard tomorrow, don't be surprised if you see a group of couples kissing in the vicinity of the legendary Soda Chelles. According to national newspaper La Nacion, a activist group that supports the rights of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered community in Costa Rica will h...