Gay marriage should be legalised in the VI– Bailey C. Penn
“We are governed by the United Kingdom, we cannot do nothing without them sanctioning because like it or not right now they own us and if they own us the rights and laws that they have we should be following. Giving gays the right to get married and operate in society as free as me and you should and must be allowed in these Virgin Islands,” said Mr Bailey C. Penn.
Penn, making it very clear that he is not gay and has never been attracted in any form to a person of the same sex, said that it is prejudicial to deprive any human being from being who they really are or have chosen to be, the right to get married, raise a family or socialise in any section of society.
“Laws and privileges are for everyone to enjoy and not for a chosen some, everyone. The way you choose to live your life is your business and your business should remain your business and no man should want to stop you for minding your own business,” he further stated.
The local resident, who spoke passionately about the topic, said studies have shown that gays lead a very respectable and stable family life. Their involvements in criminal or illegal activities have been noted to be at “point zero”.
Barbados was used as an example by Mr Penn as he cited it as one of the most stable Caribbean countries with the lowest criminal records per capita. “And they say Barbados has the highest population of gays in the Caribbean. I wouldn’t call names but the Caribbean countries that had people singing and ‘burning’ out what they call batty boys, are the ones with the highest drugs uses, guns and other crimes, so you get the picture of what is going on. And this is not only in the Caribbean countries, it’s in UK, USA, Asia, you can make the comparisons,” Mr Penn argued.
The Virgin Islander, who is a certified electrician by profession, was of the opinion that once the laws permitting gay rights and privileges are enforced in the Virgin Islands, tourism is likely to be up by at least by 30% immediately and double today’s figure over a few years. “Gays are big spenders, gays raise very good and balanced children, gays are said to be very loving and to make great love,” he added.
On the other hand while leaders of most religious outfits have in the past, and continue to condemn gays and say that they would never support laws allowing gay marriages, some of their membership thought differently.
Ms Athena Stanley of the Catholic faith, Mr M. Malone of the New Testament Church, and several others who chose not to be named all shared a common view - that the church should not be limited as to who should or should not be allowed to fellowship or even be baptized in the religious sector. They all said that in their personal belief, it is not biblical and no man has the right to judge or discriminate another even at the level of government.
“There are laws that govern people who are straight people so they are laws that should allow gay people to do the same things that straight people do and allowing them to get married and lead a legal union should not be withheld from them,” said a member of the New Testament Church.
Mr Malone was of the opinion that there are many persons who are bisexual that are among the most ardent followers in many religious organizations and churches in the Virgin Islands but yet they cannot expresses their innermost thoughts and feelings with their fellow brothers and sisters in the church environment for fear of being condemned.
“The church should be the most comforting place for gays. The church is not for the holy and righteous, we don’t have any but some people think they are more holy and righteous than others, but some of the big cheques and hundreds of dollars that go in the collection baskets and so on come from a lot of people I personally know are bisexual and a couple of gays.,” he said.
Mr Malone further said he has chosen a Christian lifestyle but wishes that one day a gay man or woman could be allowed to stand up in church and say ‘I am gay’ without the fear of being rejected or discriminated. Asked if he is gay or straight, Mr Malone said, “I lead a normal life.” Asked if he has ever felt an attraction for a person of the same sex or has ever been involved with a person of the same sex, he responded, “I have a wonderful woman by my side, three adorable children and we all are living very happy.”
Ms Stanley expressed that the freedom of choice should be enjoyed by everyone and not some. “Everyone has to answer for themselves. No man is qualified to judge another person because none of us is perfect or even close to perfection and if a person chooses to be gay that’s their business and they should not be just by us who are straight,” said Ms Stanley.
She went into the bible and used the great Moses as an example, noting that he was known as a man of perfection, “But what, even he, Moses, didn’t get to see the promised land and that says a lot. Even the best of us got faults and you never know what and how some people became gays and they should get the rights of everyone else,” Ms Stanley noted.
Several persons declined to comment on record but were of the general opinion that whether the government of the day chooses to or not to give rights to gays, it is something that everyone would have to adhere to.
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132 Responses to “Gay marriage should be legalised in the VI– Bailey C. Penn”
Back to the point at hand, whatever two consenting adults want to do in the privacy of their home and in the name of love is their business, not anyone elses.
Furthermore humans were sooooo BAD at sticking to what was clearly outlined and wrong and right He had to create a new way to seek repentance which cancels out all the other because NO MAN IS BETTER THAN ANY ONE MAN. All have sinned and fallen short. So who are you to stone me for adultery and then the very next day God might have to strike you down dead in your tracks for bearing false witness.
Some one wants to be gay? My only response to them is at the end of the day we all have to answer for our own sins so you do what ever you want to do. Your the only one that will have to answer why you chose to do it.
http://www.upworthy.com/a-pastor-asks-a-politician-why-he-supports-gay-marriage-it-seems-he-wasnt-prepared-for-his-reply?c=fea
What is wrong: Not seeing, Self-centeredness, and Ignorance
But does right/wrong has anything to do with BELIEF?
How can it when belief has to do with the mind? You can believe in anything?!
But can someone please explain to me, how is my marriage,… my relationship with my wife is different from that of the gay guy (and his partner)?
Lets look at the bible, Gods state that such behavior is an abomination to God and he will cast people who practice such behavior to hell. Now there is no way in the bible stated that God does not love the people, it is the sin that he cannot stand, and will give both gays and lesbians the time to truly find themselves and repent. So lets not love them less, but do not support the behavior. I know of a little phrase that says if you are not for them, then you are against them. I love the people but I am against their behavior.
Marriage and commitment are the same thing. Christian laws – other than murder, rape, incest, child abuse, slavery, racism, and thievery – are man made inventions.
Marriage equality is about egalitarianism, which is a human right. It is not a privilege bestowed on society by men with God complexes....
Pot? Have you met Kettle?
Here is a suggestion for the church. Go back to the days of monasteries and convents. Sequester yourselves and let the like-minded come to you. That way you won't have to deal with other people making choices you don't approve of but can't do anything about. Will make it all the easier for God to collect his chosen people when he opens the sky and wipes out the 4 billion people that believe in other gods or none at all. My position is not that pastors only have strength for gays. It's that no pastor given what they must accept as fact has a right to question the life choices of any other human being.
You got to be gay yourself! wtf!
Man and Man or Woman and Woman can reproduce ???????????????? Set a CLOWNS ayo be!
Most people on Earth don't just have sex to make children, you know. They do it because God made it such a pleasure.
And those homosexual people share real love, strong as any other. That can't be denied.
Why you so afraid? Sound like you and all hard-hearted sheep who follow the pastor - ayo maybe just 'fraid you gay too!
Your butt is a SHIT PIPE! ONE WAY lane!
Try driving up main street the opposite way and you see what happen !!!
A woman's VAGINA was made for a MAN's PENIS, that is what called SEX!
Set of UNEDUCATED COW BIRDS !!!
Deal with that truth and keep your judging nose out of other people's bedrooms.
Uneducated? You sound like you never left main street and seen the real world!
Is full of stuff we BVIslanders don't traditionally have around here. Again, deal with it, don't just suck teeth at what you never had experience of and go calling people uneducated. Is YOU who look foolish.
Stupid, but worst of all, dangerous.
Where and when have you seen Christians behaving like the Taliban and al Qaeda and trying to enforce religious laws like Blah Blah Blah is implying? Do you often agree with foolishness?
You need a course in logic and common sense. If it is a fact that A B C D E F G cannot all be true, and if you believe A is true, it follows that you believe B C D E F G are false.
Change is so hard, but human beings adapt next topic
Read it again and notice the parts that say you must be humble, must not judge, let God do the judging at the end of the day.
And all those talking about God made man and woman so the human race can grow - that's true, too. But God also made humans enjoy sex, not just do it to make babies. And he made some humans enjoy the same pleasures with each other and feel deep, true love for each other. God made those pleasures, that is God-given love they feel.
Some of you church people are so mixed about this it is a joke. You can't look at how the world is, only how you wish it to be. So you base your hatred of decent people on your own weakness in the face of reality. Confusion in your brains making your hearts cold as stone.
The bill, first introduced in 1973, seeks to protect people from discrimination based on their sexual preferences, just as the state now prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, sex, handicap or age.
The State Senate approved the bill, 22 to 13, on Monday, a week after it passed the House, 79 to 73. Opponents in the Senate asked that the measure be reconsidered, a parliamentary maneuver that a sponsor of the bill, Senator Michael J. Barrett, said is virtually certain to be defeated.
''The chances are 95 to 5 that the Senate will not vote to reconsider and that by next Monday the bill will be sent to the Governor for his signature,'' Mr. Barrett said. Gov. Michael S. Dukakis has said he will sign the bill.
“Decisions by the Executive not to enforce federal laws are appropriately rare,” Mr. Holder wrote. “Nevertheless, for the reasons described below, the unique circumstances presented here warrant nonenforcement.”
The move will allow the same-sex spouses of service members to receive health care benefits, and widows and widowers from same-sex marriages to receive survivor benefits, among other matters. ...THE BEGINING OF THE END OF THE GOOD OLD USA
But it don't matter no
'Cause I got you babe
'Cause we gonna fight
Oh yes we gonna fight
Believe we gonna fight
We gonna fight
Fight for our right to love yeah"
Akon, Don't Matter.
The fact is, Christianity is just another in a long history of systems for achieving domination by the few over the many through social engineering and outright scare tactics appealing to the fervid human imagination. It has not worked as a way to create generalized happiness or well-being; we might as well try something else.
I see it on this very blog page. People cherry picking from the Bible what they want and making out like it is immutable 'law'. See them calling gay people an 'abomination' and saying they must burn in hell and so on. They are making a literal interpretation of the Bible as if it should be law of our land, so they talking as if we should be ruled by the bible alone, an approach which makes no account of diversity in religion or spirituality.
It is simple logic they employ. The Bible says this, so it must be true. That's not the same as saying 'my personal belief is x, y, or z but I will be tolerant of fellow humans who have other beliefs.'
People who happen to born in this Christian tradition did not choose it. They have swallowed what they were given by the culture they arrived in. I can't blame them for that.
Just as people who are gay were born gay. I can't blame them either. Why should anyone wish to condemn them for being born a certain way, just as billions throughout time were born gay, too. It's not new and it's not going anywhere. Get off your high horse and deal with that reality, don't impose some middle ages nonsense on everyone else.
We bring religion in everything and do not understand that now the State runs the country, not the Church. Learn to accept people because their fundamental rights will force to Leaders of today to give all persons their rights. As soon as they do, I will be the first to apply for a license to get married to my man. Get a life and learn about us from condemning us.
Some said that gays are born like that and are we then mocking God for HIS creation of man and woman? It is high time we call a spade a spade and not try to cover up evil. Moral decadence has swept off moral values where you see a child/children being adopted by a gay parents thereby causing the child/children sorrows/pains. God made it so that it should be mum and dad together ad not same sex people. We should please desist from discussing this as it is a grievous sin in the sight of God. We blacks should not try to emulate the whites with their stupid gay marriage rights as it is not proper at all and also healthy to the society.