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Is the legal recognition of same-sex marriage a human rights question, or one of cultural imperialism? British Virgin Islands Premier Dr. Natalio Wheatley, while not making the assertion directly, strongly resisted the idea that such recognition or acceptance could be imposed by external forces. Instead, BVI voters will be asked to decide whether same-sex residents of the territories will have their unions accepted by the state.
A referendum, said Dr. Wheatley, would be coming soon. Without announcing a date, the recently re-elected leader of the territory promised that it would come before the final ruling in a pending lawsuit involving a local couple.
The claimants, Kinisha Forbes and Kirsten Lettsome, filed a constitutional motion in 2021 seeking to have their marriage recognized by the state, after being denied a marriage license by the territory’s Registrar General on the basis that both parties were women. A matter was stayed by presiding judge Adrian Jack, who wanted to wait until similar cases in two other British Overseas Territories in the region – Bermuda and the Cayman Islands – were disposed of by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In March 2022, the Privy Council returned rulings in both matters that upheld the constitutionality of prohibiting same-sex marriage in both territories.
The local court’s decision in the Forbes matter is now set for June.
“We assert that we are a Christian community,” said Mr. Wheatley, at a recent press conference. “And while we accept others, and while we certainly don’t advocate for violence or discrimination against others, we are firm in what we believe and what we want our culture to be,” said the premier.
Mr. Wheatley seemed confident that the outcome of the referendum would be to support the current legal standing in the BVI against same-sex couples who seek to be married. He said that it was important for the referendum to be held so that the courts and the United Kingdom government would be unambiguously advised that the people of the Virgin Islands believe “that marriage should be between a man and a woman.”
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