Santo Domingo.-The bishop of the Diocese of Our Lady of La Altagracia, Jesus Castro Marte reacted this Thursday to the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court that eliminates prison sentences for police and military personnel who have sexual relations with people of the same sexas long as they are adults and consented.
The religious assured in
“We see with perplexity and amazement the tremendous social degradation that relentlessly corrodes Dominican society today,” Castro Marte.
The TC annulled the provisions of two laws from 1953 and 1966 that punished this type of relationship within the military and police ranks with sentences of two months to two years in prison.
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The ruling of the Constitutional Court
The TC ruling declares articles 210 of the Police Justice Code and 260 of the Military Justice Code unconstitutional, considering that these violated fundamental rights such as privacy, equality and the free development of personality.
The court held that these rules contained unjustified discrimination based on sexual orientation and had no reasonable relationship to institutional discipline or service.
Mixed reactions in public opinion
The decision has generated extensive debate. Human rights organizations celebrated the ruling, pointing out that for years members of the military forces belonging to the LGBT community lived under the risk of being persecuted or expelled for their sexual orientation, even when the relationships were between adults and consensual.
In contrast, conservative and religious sectors expressed their disagreement.
A legal change of national scope
The ruling joins other regional decisions that seek to eliminate criminal sanctions for private conduct between adults.
At the local level, specialists in constitutional law highlight that the ruling creates a precedent on the protection of the private life of members of military and police institutions, opening a new chapter in the discussion on rights, discipline and regulatory modernization.
