Caribbean News – TT Religious Leaders Object To Same Sex Marriage

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 22, 2018: Religious leaders in Trinidad and Tobago are objecting to any notion of same sex marriages taking root in the twin-island Republic and are urging the government to maintain that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.

Roman Catholic Archbishop, Jason Gordon, told reporters recently that the Church is united in its views regarding marriages.

“For us, male and female, we were created …to be complemental and they were created for the union of the male and female in a covenant called marriage for the unification of the spouses and the procreation of children,” Archbishop Gordon said recently. “And that’s how we have understood marriage ever since and it is a foundation of our whole society. This is not something where the Muslims, the Hindus or the Christians have any difference of opinion.”

The move by the religious leaders follow the ruling in April by the High Court that the buggery law is unconstitutional.

The government has already indicated it will appeal the ruling of Justice Devindra Rampersad, saying the law goes against the basic rights of any citizen to enjoy the freedom of privacy and family life.

The High Court ruled it is unconstitutional to impede on the rights of homosexual men and anal sex, a challenge that was brought against the state in 2017 by gay rights activist Jason Jones.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Council of Evangelical Churches, Dr. Desmond Austin, told the news conference that the campaign would be to “encourage the parliamentary agenda for September 2018 to amend the Marriage Act to define marriage as between one biological man and one biological woman.”