Barbados Signals Intent to Recognize Same-Sex Marriage, Reduce Penalties for Persons Found With Small Quantities of Marijuana

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados government has signaled its intention to recognize same sex relationships and reduce the penalties for persons caught with a quantity of marijuana commonly referred to as a “roach" or "spliff”. Governor General, Dame Sandra Mason, addressing the opening of a new term of the Barbados Parliament, said that the island has always been in the vanguard of pioneering social justice, the protection of civil rights and the battle to ensure dignity to the poor, marginalized, vulnerable and dispossessed. “Our generation must do no less; for compassion, decency, empathy, kindness, fairness, and justice are what characterize us as a people,” she said, noting that it was the Charter of Barbados signed here in 1652 that gave rise to the expression, “no taxation without representation” which became the rallying cry for American colonists to break with Britain and precipitate the American War of Independence. Dame Sandra said that the legal systems of modern ...