Would ignoring same sex relationship issue make it go away?

Editor: What do they mean, “We do don’t want to talk about it?” I can understand that you don’t want to talk about your father’s (or grandfather’s) possible array of out of wedlock children, or the current Government’s huge loan burden (which will take generations to repay—which, of course, you support); none of us want to discuss our private business or our closely held convictions, political and otherwise. These are sacrosanct and not to be exposed to the light of reason.{{more}} But a population of people whom you choose to ignore (“refuse to discuss”) lives here and elsewhere in the Caribbean, and are tacitly or overtly persecuted because of their genetically determined—not “chosen”—sexual orientation.

But if we ignore the issue, maybe it will go away… You know that is not true. You can socially persecute them, you can religiously vilify them, you can take whatever antagonistic posture you choose towards them, but these people will still exist within our society. You can force them underground or into the closet, or out of the country or you can allow them to become productive, contributing members of the community.

This country, to the best of my knowledge, has not spent a lot of taxpayer’s money seeking out and hunting down violators of the existing anti-homosexual laws. But the fact that the laws are vociferously supported, and actively endorsed and upheld by the current Government’s Prime Minister, implies the Government’s willingness to do so. I anxiously await the first public trial resulting from this Government’s arrest and prosecution of a violator of its current laws regarding same sex relations. If the current Government, in its wisdom, chooses to continue not to prosecute offenders under the existing law, then why does it not expunge the law? Is decriminalization that difficult to understand?

Decriminalization does not mean endorsement or encouragement. It simply means the Government will not be arresting, prosecuting and locking up people that it once did. Is that so hard to accept? Many countries have decriminalized, for example, prostitution, so that they can control the possible attendant health issues, requiring medical check-ups of sex workers, and defining areas where they may work. This does not mean the mass population of these countries agrees with, supports, or endorses prostitution. It simply means that they do not wish to expend tax money prosecuting victimless crimes, and consider the expenditure of health funds on protecting the general population to be money well spent. Decriminalizing same-sex behaviour is simply to take a step away from the ignorance, prejudice and superstition that caused the law to be written in the first place. Grow up and get over it.

HJA