WHEN WILL WE GROW UP?
Prime Minister David Cameron’s threat to cut off budgetary aid to Commonwealth countries that discriminate against homosexuals made some Bajans go berserk.
Admittedly, Cameron’s threat was so arrogant it was jointly condemned as insensitive and counterproductive by over 50 African associations that defend homosexual rights.
But that’s not the issue.
Exactly the same storm in a teacup happened a few years ago when Professor Sir Errol Waldron made the eminently sensible recommendation that, in the context of combatting the spread of HIV/AIDS, it might be helpful to decriminalize consensual adult anal sex.
Why does the mere mention of homosexuality provoke such torrid emotions that reason and facts fly out the window? Olu Waldron’s recent comments in this newspaper were an excellent exception.
Interestingly, most of the venom and ridicule is directed against male homosexuals by other males. Hmmm . . . . Curious.
Let’s take a dispassionate look.
First, many religious Barbadians sincerely believe, for a variety of reasons, that homosexual acts are sinful.
Such a belief does not constitute homophobia – an irrational aversion to homosexuals.
Indeed most Christian churches in Barbados maintain that homosexuals, since their sexual orientation is involuntary, must be treated with respect. The Catholic Church, for example, issued a statement at the United Nations in 2008 indicating that “the Holy See continues to advocate that every sign of unjust discrimination towards homosexual persons should be avoided and urges states to do away with criminal penalties against them”.
There are some fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists among us, however, who condemn homosexuality itself as evil personified. This is homophobia. It leads to ridicule, discrimination, persecution and even incitement to violence against homosexuals.
Despite these strident public denunciations, Barbados, unlike some countries in which homosexuals are aggressively persecuted, is not a homophobic society.
Although there have been a few violent attacks on male homosexuals, most Bajans are tolerant of homosexuality, largely because, as a small society, we all have some relative, friend or acquaintance who is gay. Our tolerance, however, is tinged with hypocrisy: we’ll tolerate whatever you do once you aren’t open and honest about it.
Secondly, Barbados has no laws discriminating against homosexuals.
Under our Constitution every person is entitled to fundamental rights and freedoms. It’s illegal to discriminate against a person because of their sexual orientation.
In respect of buggery, the Sexual Offences Act does not define the offence. The law has been interpreted by the courts to apply to anal sex between men, between a man and a woman, and to any sex between human and animal; but never, as far as I know, to consensual anal sex between adults in private.
So the criminalization of anal sex does not discriminate against homosexuals; it applies to everyone.
Furthermore, in the unlikely event that a charge of buggery was ever brought against two consenting adults in private under current legislation, you can safely bet your house that the Caribbean Court of Justice would not allow the interpretation of buggery as embracing private consensual sex between adults to stand. This is just an absurd archaic colonial law that intrudes into our right to privacy.
In any case, if you think that the mere existence of a law that has never been enforced against consenting adults in private is stopping a tsunami of homosexuality from flooding Barbados, you should return to the asylum or the planet whence you came.
It is not homosexuality but homophobia that is an import – from the American religious right.
We can disapprove without being intolerant.
As for same-sex marriage, an interesting take is that of the New York Times conservative (heterosexual) columnist David Brooks. In a column titled The Power Of Marriage, he had this to say:
“We [conservatives] . . . should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity.”
Okay, go foam at the mouth now.
• Peter Laurie is a retired diplomat and a commentator on social issues. Email plaurie@caribsurf.com
