Cayman Churches Want Anti-Gay Law
Associated Press, February 4, 2001
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (AP) — Religious
leaders in the Cayman Islands have started a petition drive protesting a
British order that decriminalized homosexuality in its five Caribbean
territories.
Last month, Britain scrapped laws making homosexuality a crime in the
Cayman Islands and four other territories after local legislatures refused to
do so.
The move angered church leaders who say that homosexuality is immoral and
goes against the cultural grain of the deeply religious and socially
conservative islands.
The petition says those who sign "object to enacting legislation
against the will of the people of the Cayman Islands," said the Rev. Al
Ebanks, chairman of the Cayman Ministers Association.
"The people of the Cayman Islands as well as other overseas
territories have made it abundantly clear what our position is on this
matter," Ebanks said recently. "I don’t know any partnership that
could survive on the basis of this kind of one-sided relationship."
He said the petition would be turned over to the Cayman Islands legislature
and its British governor.
The order from the British Privy Council, which acts as the highest court
for the territories, decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults
in private. It also applies to Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands,
Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Britain’s government said the anti-gay laws violated international human
rights agreements it has signed. Britain has the power to unilaterally revoke
the statutes, but for years had tried in vain to persuade local legislatures
to repeal them.
[Home] [World]
[United Kingdom]
