EVIDENCE ABOUNDS all around us that literacy and, indeed, higher education, are not passports to intelligent, rational thought.
And nothing demonstrates this more than the contentious issue of what is popularly known as “gay rights”.
In the May 23 DAILY NATION, Joseph Scott denounced the Canadian High Commissioner to Barbados [Marie Legault] for suggesting that this country should remove from its statute books laws which render as criminals citizens engaging in same-sex relations, as has happened in Canada and other countries.
The question of sexual relations between persons of the same gender is bound to evoke strong reaction from Barbadians not known for being the most progressive and objective thinkers when it comes to any issue, let alone sex.
Mr Joseph’s reaction is a clear example of this. In the absence of any evidence to support it, he makes the suggestion that perhaps Canada is picking on a “poor, impoverished, Third World nation (that) . . . must now go cap in hand to (countries like) Canada for aid”.
Anyone knowing the history of Barbados-Canada relations would be aware that Canada has been a long-standing friend of our country, going back to colonial times. It is regrettable that we should now be accusing them of trying to blackmail us into doing something we don’t want to do.
Anyone with a clear, unbiased view of this issue would understand very well that the Canadian envoy, far from blackmailing, was merely calling on Barbados to abolish one of the last vestiges of unfair discrimination from its statues.
Our laws do not provide for any censure of persons of ‘normal’ orientation who engage in intimate relations in the privacy of their quarters. They are free to engage in fornication and adultery.
The question, then, is why in a secular state like ours, where laws are not determined by religious dogma, should the state criminalise two consenting adults who choose to engage in same-sex relations.
Mr Joseph’s allegation that this would destroy the fabric of the nation, the family and the church was not supported by evidence. Not surprising, since he can point to none. Are the family, church and nation of Canada destroyed? Of course not.
And how would decriminalisation affect the family and church in Barbados? Would Christians be prevented from meeting and holding to the values they always had? Would the nation suddenly descend into an abyss of same-sex relations? I think not.
Some Barbadians appear to want Barbados to become a theocracy like Iran and Saudi Arabia. In those religious states Islamic law is part of the law of the land. Our country is a secular state, where religious persuasion is left to the choice of the individual citizen. That is why things like fornication and adultery are not illegal.
In our culture, the state, quite rightly, does not generally get into the business of dictating the moral behaviour of its citizens. I am therefore baffled by the link which people are making between biblical doctrine on homosexual relations and its decriminalisation by the state.
The state in our culture safeguards the rights and safety of the individuals; it does not set moral guidelines. Hence the discussion of biblical doctrine is irrelevant.
This issue cries out for rational thought. I hope I have contributed to that without appearing to endorse or condemn same-gender relations.
– OLUTOYE WALROND
