Ricky Martin weighed in on the fierce debate in Puerto Rico over a bill allowing government employees to avoid serving certain constituents on religious grounds ― and soon after, the island’s governor decided to kill the measure.

The singer, who was born in Puerto Rico, published an open letter on Thursday denouncing the measure as a “hate bill” that “projects us to the world as a backwards country.”

“As a defender of human rights and a member of the LGBTT community, I am vehemently opposed to the proposed measure imposed upon us under the guise of religious freedom,” Martin wrote in a statement on his site.

The same day, Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló announced that he was asking legislators to drop the bill, tweeting in Spanish that “instead of reaching a consensus on a basis of mutual respect, it provokes the division of our people.”