By: Staff Writer
March 31, 2023
A prominent Caribbean political strategist weighs in on the upcoming British Virgin Islands general election slated for April 24 and how social issues like same sex marriage are heavily on BVIslander’s minds in the run up.
Peter Wickham, director of the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), told a Caribbean online newscast that same sex marriage is being used as a “proxy” for Independence from British rule.
“Now, the political parties or the entities that are contesting seem to have very different views on whether the BVI should ultimately become independent, whether they are comfortable with British rule, whether they want to move closer or further away, and in many ways, this whole question of same sex marriage as a proxy for that type of relationship,” he said.
In December 2022 the Premier of the BVI Natalio Wheatley announced the government would seek to pass legislation authorising it to hold a referendum on same-sex marriage and expansion of domestic partnership rights in 2023.
Mr Wickham also said: “One of the interesting things that’s been happening is that the government has put on the table a matter… There’s a current referendum that’s on the table on the issue of same sex marriage and that’s interesting because there are clearly some issues not only in relation to the same sex marriage, but the court matter that has led to that the potential referendum that they are having on the issue, and also broader issues of governance, self-governance, and so on.”
BVIslanders are against same sex marriage polling indicates and going into the general election with this weighing on their minds does not bode well for he sitting government. However, Mr Wickham indicates that regardless, a BVI government will have to deal with the issue of same sex marriage one way or the other.
Virgin Islanders Kinisha Forbes and Kirsten Lettsome sued the government last year, claiming that the registrar general denied them a marriage licence on Feb. 2, 2021 because they are of the same sex. The defendants — who have been legally married under United Kingdom law since 2019 — are asking the court to declare that their marriage is valid under VI law and that prohibiting same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
The government, however, is defending the status quo, the Premier Wheatley explained while announcing the upcoming referendum.
“In response to this legal challenge, the Virgin Islands government, who is the respondent in this case through counsel in the Attorney General’s Chambers, is vigorously defending our laws, which clearly provide that marriage should be between a man and a woman,” Dr. Wheatley said in a Monday announcement broadcast on Facebook. “Importantly, also, we are defending the ability of the democratically elected legislature of the Virgin Islands to make legislation on this issue.”
He went on to say that “weighty matters of social and religious significance must not be decided in the courts or elsewhere.”
“It is our belief that the people of the Virgin Islands must speak clearly and loudly on their views on marriage, and that legislators should be obligated to comply with their wishes,” he said. “Therefore, in a special meeting of the Cabinet of the Virgin Islands held on Friday, Cabinet decided to refer the matter of same-sex marriage to a referendum, so that the electorate can consider and decide on the question of whether same-sex marriage should be legal.”