LGBT Rights in Costa Rica - Living Conditions

Living Conditions

While homosexuality was technically legal, police harassment and raids of LGBT people and private establishments was formerly commonplace. In 1990, for instance, Antonio Alvarez Desanti, by then Minister of Governance and Police, announced that he will not allow foreign women to enter to Costa Rica to participate in a congress of lesbians. He instructed Costa Rican consulates not to grant visas to women travelling unaccompanied by men, warning that all such women would be stopped at the airport. He also informed airlines that if they sold tickets to women travelling alone, or appearing likely to attend the meeting, they would be required to provide for the suspected lesbians' immediate return. When pressed to explain how lesbians could be identified at the airport, he reportedly asserted that women who had short hair, wear pants and travelled alone could be identified as lesbians. Organizers changed the dates and location of the meeting, and it finally took place (Cynthia Rothschild, 2005. Written out. How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women's Organizing)

Furthermore the government did not want to grant legal recognition to political organizations seeking to advance LGBT rights. These policies started to change in the 1990s, when the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution gave LGBT people the right to peaceful assembly, associate, create their own private establishments, as well as their own LGBT rights associations.

In 1993, it came to light that the Universidad Internacional de las Americas has a policy of expelling LGBT students and firing LGBT faculty and staff. When an AIDS-HIV education association, Instituto Latinoamericano de Educacion y Prevencion en Salud, filed a complaint with the Ministry of Education they were unable to come up with a specific example of the university's policy being enforced, but the Ministry stated that if the policy is enforced it would probably violate Articles 20, 33 and 70 of the Constitution.

In the later 1990s the Costa Rica Catholic Church organized protest against LGBT tourism, often arguing that it was a cover for sex tourism. Yet, there are still several tourist groups that cater to LGBT people.

In 1998, a planned LGBT pride festival was cancelled out of concern of the possibility of violence. During the initial planning of the event, the then President of Costa Rica publicly opposed granting permits for the event to occur.

In 2000, the City of San José attempted to close down a gay sauna, but the Court ordered the City to allow the establishment to remain open stating, "subjective criteria of morality and proper behaviour have no legal basis ... and represent a violation of the fundamental rights granted by our Constitution".

In 2008, the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled against a gay prison inmate receiving conjugal visits. In October 2011, the Costa Rican Supreme Court reversed the 2008 ruling that now allows equality for gay couples in receiving conjugal visits only for partners outside of prison.

No openly LGBT Costa Rican has run for or held elected public office. Until recently, most Costa Rican political parties and politicians tended to ignore LGBT rights issues. However, this has slowly begun to change. On 27 March 2008, the president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez, signed an executive order designating 17 May as the National Day Against Homophobia, committing Costa Rica to join others around the world in working to eradicate bias against gays and lesbians.