Same-sex marriage in Puerto Rico

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, which held bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, same-sex marriage in Puerto Rico was legalized. Same-sex couples began applying for marriage licenses on July 13, 2015. On July 17, 2015, same-sex couples began marrying in the territory.

Governor Alejandro García Padilla announced that the commonwealth would comply with the Supreme Court's ruling within 15 days. The parties to the principal lawsuit challenging Puerto Rico's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples jointly asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling of the Puerto Rican District Court that had upheld Puerto Rico's ban on same-sex marriage, which the appeals court did on July 8, 2015.

On March 19, 1999, Governor Pedro Rosselló signed into law H.B. 1013, which defined marriage as "a civil contract whereby a man and a woman mutually agree to become husband and wife."

During a debate on civil unions, Attorney General Roberto Sánchez Ramos declared it might be unconstitutional to deny the right of marriage to same-sex couples.

In 2008, the Commonwealth Senate passed a proposed referendum that would have asked voters to amend Puerto Rico's Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, while also banning same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnership benefits. Known as resolución 99 (resolution 99), the proposed referendum was not approved by the Commonwealth's House of Representatives, after the legislative committee studying the proposal decided not to recommend its approval. A similar bill was defeated in 2009.

In early January 2010, Governor Luis Fortuño suggested to a group of evangelical ministers that he favored amending Puerto Rico's Constitution to restrict marriage to the union of one man and one woman. Shortly afterwards, he categorically denied that he favored such a measure.

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Wikipedia