COMING SOON OUR WAY: SAME-SEX MARRIAGES?

Apr 24, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

France has joined a long bandwagon of European countries that have now legalised same-sex marriages. Britain is likely to eventually follow suit, as is the United States, where already some states have legal consent to such unions.
Once same-sex unions become fully legalised throughout the USA, it is only a matter of time before countries like Guyana will be lobbied to follow suit. In fact this lobby has already begun. Guyanese will have to within the next few years address their minds to this important issue because it is not going to go away.
Guyana will be hard pressed to stand alone.  If Argentina and Ecuador could have passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriages, and if some States in Brazil, and Mexico could have followed the example of Canada in recognizing such unions, it is difficult to see how Guyana can resist doing the same.
There is however going to be a strong resistance within Guyana to any attempt at legalizing same-sex marriages. The religious community is expected to strongly oppose such moves. But let it also be known that the Guyanese people are no more religious than the nationals of other countries in which these unions have been given legal legitimacy.
There is no doubt that this legalization of gay unions is as much a moral issue as it is a human rights issue. And therefore Guyana is likely to be caught up in a long-winded and contentious debate which can become very nasty. Instead of seeking areas in which there can be common ground, it is likely that both sides of the debate will seek to identify areas of conflict so as to press each side’s case.  We have to try to avoid that because we have enough problems to add to another.
Avoiding such problems however cannot involve shelving or avoiding the debate. Unfortunately, Guyana will have to decide because other countries are doing this and we are part of a global community to which we have obligations.
An easy way out would be to put this matter to a public referendum. However, because  moral issues are often decided on religious absolutes, placing such  an issue to the test of a referendum may be highly controversial and divisive. At the same time, not all issues of human rights enjoy popular support as is so evident whenever some dangerous criminal is shot and killed by the police. Those defending the right to life are often not supported by the majority of the people when it comes to criminals.
The debate on same-sex unions also has serious political implications. All of the main political parties will be wary of the influence of the religious groups in Guyana that are strongly opposed to same-sex unions and therefore they may be inclined to make political calculations when deciding where to stand on this issue. This will make any debate about legalizing same-sex unions very interesting. Such a debate will involve a mixture of politics, religions, human rights and legal concerns. This can be quite toxic.
But wait…finding the right balance amongst legal, human rights moral and political concerns goes to the very heart of democracy, does it not?. Democracy is not just about the right of the people to decide but also about ensuring that an appropriate balance is found between moral, political religious and human rights considerations in which each is respected and preserved.
This is the challenge that will face Guyana when the times come for us to decide on same-sex unions. It will not simply be a case of us giving in to moral considerations, or being swayed by human rights activists or deciding based on political considerations and the many legal ramifications that could emerge. It will simply not be just about a yes or a no.
The challenge would be for us to come up with a solution that respects the human rights of those who wish to have same-sex unions, to ensure that any decision taken is sensitive to the religious convictions of our people, one that carefully weighs the legal implications of any decision taken, and of ensuring that the right decision is not sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
The fact of the matter also is that because so many other countries are legalizing same-sex marriages, it is hard to see how a small country like Guyana can hold on to its traditional system of not recognizing same-sex unions.
Fifty years from now, most countries of the free world will have same-sex unions. The question is how soon Guyana will be joining with them.

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COMING SOON OUR WAY: SAME-SEX MARRIAGES?

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