While more than 70 percent of U.S. states allow same-sex marriage, the waves of change have yet to reach America’s far-flung and socially conservative territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Of the five territories, only Puerto Rico has faced a lawsuit seeking the right for gay and lesbian couples to wed, and a federal judge there — bucking the trend in federal courts on the mainland — rejected the suit. That case is under appeal before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
In the other four territories — the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas — no gay or lesbian couples have stepped forward to make a legal case for marriage rights, according to advocacy groups monitoring the situation.
The five territories would be covered by a possible U.S. Supreme Court ruling establishing a constitutional right for same-sex couples to wed, notes Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney with the national gay-rights group Lambda Legal. Several same-sex marriage cases from the mainland are before the high court this spring, and a ruling is expected by the end of June.
Gonzalez-Pagan said he hoped same-sex couples in the territories would step forward to seek marriage rights.
“No matter how big or small the population might be in any one of these territories, or the fact there’s vehement opposition in them, it doesn’t mean any citizens should be left behind,” he said. “All of them have a fundamental right to marry. They’re all entitled to equal protection.”
The only pending territorial lawsuit involving same-sex marriage was filed in Puerto Rico last year by five couples — two who are seeking to marry in Puerto Rico and three who live on the island and want recognition of marriages that occurred elsewhere.
In October, U.S. District Court Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez upheld Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying voters and legislators, not judges, should decide the issue.
In the other Caribbean territory — the U.S. Virgin Islands — there is strong opposition to same-sex marriage from leaders of various Christian denominations. A member of the territory’s Senate riled some of those leaders last year by drafting a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage, but the bill has not advanced.
