Defending a set of new police regulations critics call “anti-gay,” Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas told reporters Sunday that the controversial disciplinary policies respect constitutional rights to privacy, as only “scandalous” gays will be sacked from the police force.
“People’s privacy is a constitutional right,” said Cabanillas. “No one cares about one’s behavior in the bedroom. We will sanction scandalous behavior, gutter and drunken behavior — whether the person is homosexual or heterosexual.”
Cabanillas told reporters that nowhere in the new regulations is a police officer’s sexual preference specified as a cause for disciplinary action. But the wording of the regulation, released May 20, reportedly stated: “Relieve from duty police who have sexual relations with people of the same gender and for whose acts cause scandal or diminish the image of the institution.”
