St Lucian law may
permit same-sex marriage,
says local hotelier
by Shervon Alfred,
caribbeannetnews.com from the Web, July 29, 2005
CASTRIES, St Lucia: On a
strict legal interpretation, it could be argued that the marriage laws in St
Lucia permit same-sex marriages, says Allen Chastanent, Vice President of the St
Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA).
Chastanent, a local hotelier, is calling on the government urgently to review
the laws governing marriage on the island.
“St Lucian law for getting married refers to 'persons' and 'persons' goes on to
refer to husband and wife. English language tells you if you say,
'persons' are you really meaning that the other people need to be a male and a
female?” he asked.
The former Air Jamaica executive believes that while “there is some very loose
suggestion that they should be male and female, any good lawyer can argue around
that,” in favour of gay marriages in St Lucia.
The SLHTA Vice President believes there is a great opportunity in the gay market
for the island as tourist destination.
“I want to be very clear, I don’t think that one should be making a moral
decision based on economics… but the gay market is a huge market. In
fact in our industry we refer to them as DINKS, which we call Double Income No
Kids, so it is a very large market.”
However, the SLHTA is apparently concerned that sexual preference discrimination
is affecting the ability of local hotels to effectively tap into the gay market.
“That market is very sensitive to being discriminated against,” Chastanent said.
St Lucian law makes it illegal for two men to engage in sexual intercourse;
however Chastanent noted that the law against “buggery” is not being enforced.
“No one here that I know of is being charged with that… so if the intent is not
to in fact enforce the law and we were to repeal the act of buggery, then you
would open the market and probably would be more in keeping with what’s taking
place on the global trend,” he said.
He added that, “I’m not saying that St Lucia ought to follow what everybody else
is doing but certainly for a market, there is a growing demand for people who
are gay and want to either come on honeymoon or get married in St Lucia.”
Email:
shervonalfred@yahoo.com
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