SAME-GENDER UNIONS may not be acceptable today, tomorrow or even the next five years in Barbados and its Caribbean neighbours but they will eventually come to the region.
And the driving force behind any change in attitude may be a mix of economic factors - the need for tourists and investors - and a desire by West Indian immigrants for racial equality in North America and Europe.
This is the argument and prediction of Mr. Lindsay Blackett, Alberta Canada, Minister of Culture and Community Spirit.
He went on to say, "If we start being defensive and you start singling out people you would never get there. If you are the Caribbean with a predominantly black population and you expect other countries in North America and Europe are going to treat everybody equally, especially the black community, you can't be pointing fingers and discriminating against another group and then expect the larger group to come and accept you".
This argument by Mr. Blackett is a very weak one.
"If we hold fast to that as black people we would never have been given equal treatment either. So, far be it for me to discriminate against somebody else. I tried to broaden my horizon."
Mr. Blackett must realize that persons who are gay are not discriminated against because they are blue, black, or white. It occurs because of the person *acts*.
I don't think white people discriminates against blacks because of skin tone, but they associate the skin tone with certain characteristics, or *acts*.
Nations including the one from which Mr. Blackett hails, and also so-called human rights groups in the future will force us in the Caribbean to accept they beliefs on the grounds of Human Rights for gays, but wouldn't this be encroaching on our Human Rights and what we hold to be true, and as a Christian society our beliefs and norms?
The above is in part, an excerpt from an article written by Toni Best for the Nation Newspaper
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