TEGUCIGALPA, HN — (01-23-21) — Members of the Honduran Congress voted last Thursday to amend their constitution making it much harder to reverse existing anti-LGBTQ bans on same-sex marriage and abortion.

This move taken by the conservative lawmakers was announced to appease their social conservative constituents.

Lawmakers voted to require a three-quarters super-majority to change a constitutional article that gives a fetus the same legal status of a person, and another that states that civil marriage in the Central American nation can only be between a man and a woman.

Conservative Mario Perez, a lawmaker with the ruling party of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, said during a virtual floor debate last week that the change will create a “constitutional lock” on any would-be softening of the existing articles.

The bill managed to capture 88 legislators in favor of the same-sex marriage ban while 28 opposed and seven abstained. The proposal still needs a second vote in the unicameral legislature next year before it is enacted.

Currently, all constitutional changes require a two-thirds majority vote of the 128-member body.

The leader of the Gay Rights Advocacy Group in Honduras, Kevihn Ramos, slammed the lawmakers who voted to make it harder to change the two constitutional articles.

“This reform is the product of a state-imposed religion on Honduras,” he said.

We will continue to follow this story and bring you developments as they become available.

(photo courtesy of NBC News)

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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