Ricky Martin urges Puerto Rican officials to step up gay rights support

Singer Ricky Martin has urged government officials in his native Puerto Rico to step up their support for gay rights and pass new legislation to protect same-sex couples.

The gay Livin' La Vida Loca hitmaker, who hails from San Juan, is calling on Governor Alejandro Garcia and politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives to approve three proposed bills, which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace, grant gay people the right to adopt children, and amend domestic violence laws to include provisions for same-sex couples.

The initiatives are expected to be discussed in the coming weeks and Martin hopes legislators will take a stand for the growing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

A statement from the 41 year old reads, "The same rights for each and every citizen of Puerto Rico, that's what we are asking (for) and that's what we hope to achieve, the country's justice and peace that we want to achieve. Puerto Rico has to join all the countries in the world that are at the forefront of the issue of human rights and equality."