Jamaica: 5 reasons why gay rights vote is a bad idea
Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…
Andrew Holness, Jamaica’s new prime minister, proposes a referendum on the nation’s anti-gay buggery law.
It’s the sort of idea that initially sounds appealing — just ask Malawian President Peter Mutharika — but is fundamentally flawed. Why should the human rights of a minority depend on the outcome of a majority vote?
Jamaican activist Maurice Tomlinson makes the same point in a variety of ways …
- “You should NOT vote on human rights! Period. Otherwise they are not ‘rights’ but privileges.”
And:
2. “Some (primarily partisan) J’can LGBTI activists actually SUPPORT this ludicrous notion of a referendum as being “democratic.”I am really shocked by how little understanding these people have about human RIGHTS! They simply DON’T understand how our CONSTITUTIONAL democracy works.
IF YOU THINK that it would be DEMOCRATIC for minority rights to be put to a popular vote, then you would have LOVED living under JIM CROW laws in the southern USA. The majority there SUPPORTED segregation. That didn’t make it RIGHT! Also, Hitler was supported by a MAJORITY of Germans when he unleashed the Holocaust. Again, that did not make his actions RIGHT!
Thankfully Jamaica has a CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY which protects minority groups from the tyranny of the majority.
Minority rights must NEVER be put to a popular vote. That would make them PRIVILEGES and NOT RIGHTS!”
And:
3. “Dear Prime Minister Holness,
Expensive national referendums are for matters that concern the entire nation. What I do in the privacy of my bedroom with another consenting adult, and harms no one is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
The nation has no business in my bedroom!
Yours truly,
BUTT OUT OF MY BEDROOM!”
And:
4. “The Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, wants to pry into my bedroom AND INVITE THE ENTIRE NATION TO WATCH!
Sir, please BUTT OUT OF BEDROOM!”
And finally:
5. “Dear Prime Minister Holness,
I will agree to a referendum on my right to privacy if I get to vote on how you make love to your wife. Missionary position only!
Yours,
PRIVACY PLEASE!”
Related articles
- ‘Time to change the system’ (March 6, 2016, Jamaica Observer)
- PM offers hope, pledges path to prosperity through partnership (March 4, 2016, Jamaican Observer)
- Challenge to Jamaican anti-sodomy law gets under way (February 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Trudeau to be 1st Canadian PM to march in gay pride parade (February 2016, San Diego Union Tribune)
- Evicted gay youths under attack (again) in Jamaica (April 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Jamaica: Inching towards legal equality (August 2014, 76crimes.com)
Maybe this should be forwarded to all those in US congress on thr Federal and State level