Premier hints Roper should tackle marriage equality
Governor Martyn Roper, accompanied by his wife and the premier, meets Speaker McKeeva Bush
(CNS): In an address to the Legislative Assembly yesterday, the premier appeared to signal that he wants the new governor, Martyn Roper, to deal with the contentious issue of same-sex unions and demonstrated his own reluctance to tackle it. Welcoming the UK’s representative to Cayman and speaking off the cuff, Alden McLaughlin gave a potted history of the islands and an overview of the current successful economic situation. While he had plenty of positive things to say, he did not shy away from raising many of the challenges faced by society, including marriage equality. McLaughlin told Roper that it almost brought down his last government and is now causing divisions in his Cabinet.
The premier stated that the role of governor was not an easy one and he needed to walk the line of being a Foreign and Commonwealth Office appointee and representing the interests of the Cayman Islands, as he outlined some of the challenges ahead and the pressure coming from the United Kingdom.
Raising the issue of “gay marriages and the rights of same-sex couples”, the premier said he was hoping not to embarrass the chief justice, who is presiding over the current legal challenge by Caymanian Chantelle Day and her British fiancée, Vickie Bodden, which the government that McLaughlin leads has opted to fight. He made it clear that Cayman, along with other British territories, is under pressure to accede to the UK government’s wish to see same-sex relationships validated.
“These are difficult areas, very difficult areas. There are mixed views even in my caucus and my Cabinet. They are very difficult to navigate politically. I almost lost my previous government over those issues,” he said, as he told the governor he wasn’t trying to spoil his upcoming night’s rest but to explain how much of a challenge tackling this issue was going to be.
But the premier appeared to hint that this was something he wanted the governor to make the decision on. He said it was one of a number of difficulties ahead but there were many positive things going on in Cayman, as he noted the drop in unemployment, the fall in debt, the domestic economic growth and improvements in public finances.
“We are doing very well in that aspect, but that is not to say we do not have problems and social issues,” he said.
He spoke about immigration and how it had been a major contributor to the country’s success, as he pointed to the benefits of the diversity here. “It has made for tremendous success on a number of fronts,” he said. “It’s been hugely positive in many ways.”
But he said that it had come with a share of social strains and the perception of locals that they do not have fair opportunities in the workplace, adding that this and previous governments have all struggled with the issues. He outlined plans to address the issue of getting Caymanians into the good jobs being created by the successful economy with the creation of WORC and a fair employment commission.
Despite addressing some of the difficulties that needed to be addressed, he said he didn’t want to be accused of painting an overly rosy picture of the Cayman Islands, but in the broader context, “this place is still paradise”.
McLaughlin also said he hoped the governor would stay on long term, as Cayman did not need more disruptions, and said he hoped that when the time comes, he would be able to provide the governor with a glowing reference.
Category: Politics
As a educated, tolerant, emphatic and proud to be Caymanian Gay male, why should I not be afforded the same rights as my fellow heterosexual Caymanians? Why should my partner of 13 years have to live abroad and we see each 3 or 4 times a year? WHY???
The time has come for the CI Government to put in place a law that recognizes same-sex unions. I don’t care about the label/title of what the law is called. I just want to have my foreign partner come and live with me in the Cayman Islands in definitely and be able to work like any other foreign partner of a heterosexual marriage. Furthermore, a foreigner living and working in the Cayman Islands can have his same-sex partner reside here with him and I not. BullSH***. I must be afforded the same rights. NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To sum up my two cents on the matter, here is a famous quote to read:
“I’m the one that has to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life, the way I want to.”
Hello ALL. Here is an article worth reading.
The Church and Homosexuality
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By The Rev. Fr. Sean Major-Campbell
Many churches are sure about the sexuality of their members. They know that once they are Christians, none will be homosexual. Some churches are so sure about this that it is not necessary for the subject to be addressed in any of its forums.
What if we were truthful, and acknowledged that the church like any other religious body has always had members of different sexual orientations. The Lambeth Conference (meeting of Anglican Bishops every ten years), postulated among some guidelines, the fact that:
-homosexuals are full members of the Church
-the irrational fear of homosexuals is to be condemned
The study also acknowledges rightly, that homosexuality is incompatible with Holy Scripture. Of course our youth are intelligent enough to ask questions as: Are not the following incompatible with Holy Scripture:
Not following the Jewish practice if keeping the Sabbath; not observing the dietary laws; the braiding of hair; the preaching of women; the use of tattoos; divorce, and the list could go on.
The Taliban regime addresses the matter of homosexuality in a very easy way. Death by stoning!
One of the questions that we as Christians will have to wrestle with for a long time, is whether we want to work with an enlightened approach, informed by deeper study into the word of God, and that of research in the various fields informing the difficult subject of human sexuality; or whether we are to go the Taliban way?
A popular sign used by many committed Christians is that of WWJD? -What Would Jesus Do? Would Jesus tell us to shut up and simply do as the Mosaic tradition stipulates?
Seek and you shall find. If you are a seeker after truth, you will recognize that the answers to life’s questions are not as simple as pulling a bible verse, hence the value of listening, discussing, and communicating with compassion.
The Roman Catholic Declaration of Sexual Ethics 1975 states, “Homosexual acts are disordered and can in no case be approved of.” Another Christian perspective is reflected in a Methodist discussion document 1979 – “Homosexual acts are not wrong, since the quality of any homosexual relationship is . . . to be assessed the same way as a heterosexual relationship. For homosexual men and women, permanent relationships characterized by love can be appropriate and Christian way of expressing their sexuality.” Here we have two opposing views, though nevertheless equally Christian positions.
Is it any wonder why some people find religion to be a confusing scenario? This is however another reminder to us, that this business of life and human society are not simply about reading the bible and finding easy answers.
What for example should one make of culture in which a young girl can be gang raped by order from the elders (in Pakistan), while they teach the virtues of the sacred texts. Consider such quotes from Hadith – “Let no man be in privacy with a woman who is not lawful unto him, or Shaitan will be the third.” Look even at Surah 17:32, “Have nothing to do with adultery, for it is a shameful thing, and an evil opening the way to other devils.” How noble! Yet the same follows/elders sought to restore a family’s dignity by ordering the 18-year-old sister of the ‘offender’ to be raped. Never mind the fact that she was a teacher of the Holy Koran. I suppose these rapists just had to reluctantly and involuntarily do their job.
These same elders would hold dear Surah 26:165-166, “Of all the creatures in the world, will you approach males and abandon those whom Allah created for you as mates?” It would seem pertinent for an onlooker to ask questions such as:
1.Would it be nobler thing to marry and abuse the mates that Allah has created?
2.Would it also be wiser to obey the sacred texts, marry a member of the opposite sex, and frustrate both yours selves in the process, even though neither of you have any sexual desire or attraction for each other?
3.Does the value of a woman begin and end with her capacity to meet sexual needs?
Maybe it seem unholy to ask these questions. But what should people think when the words and actions, of the religious, are so often out of sync with the reality of a struggling humanity? Maybe God should take some of the blame. Why were we not all just made to act and think in the same way? I suppose God wanted us to be different.
Whatever the questions, and the differences, and the interpretations, it seems as if we in the Church will have to come to that place, where we understand that, there are genuine Christians EVERYWHERE, who have never known themselves to be anything but gay/lesbian.
Believe it or not, some of these same persons are also our esteemed nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers, police officers, bankers, and clerks! And sometimes as we condemn them in our generalizations, they are our particular colleagues or friend, son or daughter, who has never disclosed to us their truth. Why? Our assumed holiness retards our ability to move beyond the scourge of prejudice and stereotype that has long alienated people because of their colour, gender, sexual orientation, and other factors.
Beloved let us love one another for love is God. Amen. (Oops, I completely forgot the popular convenience quotes: but you know them already).
Cayman Net News, Issue 958, Wednesday, 2 November 2005, p.b-5
Why?? Its a rather IRRELEVANT “issue” if at all….help the youths mate.
Cant believe MaCrappy Bush Leage El PSYCHO Babble would call the new Gov. a cockroach. What a grade A put down. Very tacky. He must hate the Cayman Islands because he piled it up with lots of extra people by giving away statuses.
Cayman has no infrastructure for more people. Please vote this man out asap!!!
Like someone was heard to say you can take someone out of the bush but you cant take the bush league out of this individual. Terrible comment calling the Gov a bug? Embarrassing to Caymanians that are nice, gentle people. Who beat up Mac when he was little and never gave him counselling. He needs to behave. Politics is a crazy game and he needs to go. Mac? Please shut up. You are sick and need help.
How can we accept that we are willing to give foreigners more rights than Caymanians? A foreigner can live here, with a dependant same-sex spouse and yet we are not willing to give Caymanians the same right. Shame CIG. Shame.
Curious how there are some who believe that our democracy is mature enough for independence but our elected leaders seeming look forward to handing off any and all responsibility possible
This is not what a mature democracy looks like, these are a bunch of power hungry con artists who figure they can make more in the LA than they ever made in the private sector
When you read this, you understand why there are so many issues here that never get dealt with- no one politician has the balls to say or do the right thing or even to attempt to educate the public about why we have to do certain things, unless it involves your friends business interests (Port) and then you can spend as much as you like spreading half truths and lies. Governor, your first full day and already you are being set up to take a fall. I have long maintained CIG has wanted the UK to foist this on us so they can blame them, but it does not work on public registers, right? Explain that away…you cannot have it both ways.
In the photo Bush is telling the Governor he is about to bump into one of his famous invisible bodyguards. The Governor is thinking “oh so this is the one I read the very thick file about”.
Does the file include qualifications to be a consultant ?
I hope he was warned that he will be living in the Dump’s vicinity. No one escapes its toxicity and incinerator’ fly and bottom ash.
Welcome to Cayman! The best place to get cancer!
Because big industrial cities aren’t the best place to inhale a million car’s worth of car exhaust and factory fumes etc right?
Or “Paradise” if your exposure to the rest of the world has been very very limited.
That’s why I stay in south sound
That picture says it all – “Oh Mr. Governor let me introduce the real boss”.
Is this in line with cockroach & rooster fights?
Just give him a list of everything no one wants to address lol
daylights savings
dump
port
turtle farm
saturday night bar hours
garbage pickup
double dipping
Alden can’t tackle this??? What kind of leader do we have? No back bone at all!!!
Barring of same sex marriage
Illegal failure to provide free primary and secondary education for all resident children.
Illegal work permit equivalency fees for permanent residents.
Illegal discrimination in fishing permits and regulations.
This government is failing the future generations in terrible, terrible ways.
By failing to pass on the skillls of advanced melodrama passed from generation to generation before?
I sincerely hope the WORC decision makers are able to diffrentiate between ability and Caymanian entitlement, when it comes to “getting Caymanians into the good jobs”.If not, and we end up with the mediocre running our financial industry, then the business will simply move elsewhere to obtain the expertise needed, to the detriment of all.
Just make Same sex marriage the same as any other marriage. Gay people deserve the opportunity to be as miserable as heteros!
What about common law marriages? Why do government and churches need to be involved in a relationship.
You are confused, but make a good point. There is a no such thing as a common law marriage. But marriage is simply a legal arrangement without any religious link, it is just the churches have interfered with the law to the point of allowing their more bigoted extremists to interfere and lobby against ending discrimination in this area of the law.
I hate when people say that. It’s such an old joke and it’s not funny anymore. Time to get some new material. Btw.. I’m for marriage equality so the rest of your comment I will give you a like for.
“In an address to the Legislative Assembly yesterday, the premier appeared to signal that he wants the new governor, Martyn Roper, to deal with the contentious issue of same-sex unions and demonstrated his own reluctance to tackle it.”
Nice way to say I don’t want to deal with this and if the people don’t like the result I can point a finger and say “he did it”. What a piece of crap.
Sound. Just trump the bigots and get on with ending the discrimination.
Word; ‘bigot’, meaning; ‘A person who is intolerant towards those holding different opinions’. In context; Those who are pro gay marriage, and consider themselves to be ‘oh so very enlightened’, and have no tolerance for those who would and will continue to stand for the sanctity of marriage and it’s meaning as the union between a man and a woman are thus ‘ipso facto’ and by the very definition of the word, BIGOTS.
You religious conservatives really have a way of twisting words to fit your agenda, don’t ya?
Look up the etymology of the word bigot. (Look up etymology first if you need to.)
No one’s telling you how to live your life. The difference between you and supporters of SSM is that you won’t stop telling other people how to live their lives. In other words: whilst they tolerate your opinions you won’t tolerate theirs.
Bigot.
Strange no mention of the piers?
Not for “cockroaches” to be concerned with apparently.
Roper needs to read our Constitution Order (2009) and question, with priority, why the Standards in Public Life Law (2014) has not been enacted, determine who have been operating in widespread contravention, conspiring to dither on enactment, and sanction those as necessary. That we have a Cabinet and public servants negotiating backroom deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, that refuse to accept any basic-levels of personally accountability, conflict checks, or transparency in the year 2018, is simply jaw-dropping. This is a free-loading regime that shouldn’t even be in power.
Well the Premier didn’t take too much time off- loading on the Governor. I read a lot, but I have never read anything so pathetic.
typical Alden, he well know he wants it
Buck officially passed.
Very disappointing. Cant Protect the institution of marriage.
That’s the Leader Premier Alden McLaughlin I hear talking . He wants Governor Roper to handle the contentious matter of same sex marriage , so when it’s done he can’t blamed for it . I wonder if he would ask the Governor to tackle the issue of how his government just violated the Constitutional , rights of the people .
Alden deserves to be squarely blamed for it. He’s the ponce that unilaterally chose to misappropriate OUR money to contest our lawful obligation as a dependent territory of the UK, and affiliated membership in the ECHR, to recognize and safeguard same sex civil unions. CIG is going to loose at the highest court of appeal, and then have to pay multi-million-dollar damages from OUR public purse. This is personal vanity of the highest order – unfortunately for us, those frittered monies won’t be going to our unfunded mental health budget, crime prevention, drug rehab, towards finishing JGHS, or used to pay down our colossal debt or unfunded and redacted pension and public health liabilities. That will be his legacy.
2 pm…..ahhh
Loose means not tight
Lose with one o means to lose the case. OK?
You did not listen up that day in class in George Town when the English teachers were telling you how to spell.
Keep reading. Your computer has spell check too dahlin.
what do you expect from spineless do-nothing alden???