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help your community get the
much needed seats in the House
of Representatives. Completing
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which drives the strength of our
Political Power"
Lashaun Rogers Muhammad
Social Action Member
Caribbean L 12 ife, Sept. 25-Oct. 1, 2020
Barbados Governor General Dame Sandra Mason. Barbados GIS photo
Barbados going republic
By George Alleyne
Following 53-plus years as an independent
nation but one that stilll recognized
the queen of England as head
of state Barbados will become a republic
with a national as head of state within
the next 14 months.
Governor General Dame Sandra
Mason, who is incidentally the Queen’s
Representative in Barbados, delivered
this information last week as she presented
the Throne Speech that precedes
opening of parliament.
During that speech she also revealed
that Barbados will pursue legislation
to make legal same sex unions but will
seek consent of the people through a
referendum.
“Having attained independence over
half a century ago, our country can be
in no doubt about its capacity for selfgovernance,”
Dame Sandra said and
continued, “the time has come to fully
leave our colonial past behind. Barbadians
want a Barbadian head of state. This
is the ultimate statement of confidence
in who we are and what we are capable
of achieving. Hence, Barbados will take
the next logical step toward full sovereignty
and become a republic by the
time we celebrate our 55th Anniversary
of Independence.”
On the matter of same-sex unions,
she said, “a society as tolerant as ours
cannot allow itself to be ‘blacklisted’
for human and civil rights abuses or
discrimination on the matter of how
we treat human sexuality and relations.
My government will do the right
thing, understanding that this too will
attract controversy. Equally, it is our
hope that with the passage of time, the
changes we now propose will be part
of the fabric of our country’s record of
law, human rights and social justice.”
“In that regard, my government is
prepared to recognise a form of civil
unions for couples of the same gender
so as to ensure that no human being in
Barbados will be discriminated against,
in exercise of civil rights that ought to
be theirs.”
While there was a mostly muted
response to the decision to pursue a
republic status and sever ties with the
British queen, the decision to hold
a referendum and seek the people’s
approval for same sex unions provokes
much reaction.
Anglican Bishop of Barbados Reverend
Michael Maxwell told Barbados
TODAY newspaper that while
his denomination understands that
government’s recent recognition of
same-sex civil unions may be a stance
against discrimination, gay relationships
it still would not attract his
church’s backing.
He added that this is the stance of
Anglican churches across the Caribbean
insisting that the Province of
the West Indies remained fortified in
its position stemming from a decision
of the 1998 Lambeth Conference
of Anglican Bishops in England that
marriage is a lifelong union of a man
and a woman.
Church leader, Dr. Lucille Baird,
of Mount Zion’s Missions, said, “I am
very disheartened and disquieted in
my spirit and that is as much as I am
going to say.”
Leading Caribbean pollster and
political scientist, Peter Wickam, who
is himself in a same sex marriage that
was conducted in Europe, told the
Barbados Nation newspaper that the
governor general’s announcement is
token acknowledgement of the rights
of the LGBTQ community.
“What she seems to be doing is telling
the LGBTQ community is that
they can have this type of union, but
you stop short of having what we identify
as a marriage in the more legal
literal sense.”
#dstquacsocialaction
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