Premier Dr the Honourable Natalio Wheatley is seeking to trigger the Territory’s first Referendum to decide on the matter of legalising same sex marriage, as a decision currently before the High Court threatens to force the Territory in that direction.
According to Wheatley, the decision which threatens to tear apart the “social and religious fabric of society”, relates to the case involving a same sex couple comprising of two Virgin Islanders, who were married abroad and have mounted a legal challenge to have their union legally recognized in the Territory.
He said that should the court rule in favour of the couple “section 13 1 c of the matrimonial proceedings and property act, which provides that marriage is void unless the parties are respectively male and female, would be declared unconstitutional and therefore be null and void”.
In response to this legal challenge, Wheatley said that the Virgin Islands Government plans on “vigorously defending” the existing laws, and the ability of the democratically elected legislature to make decisions on such issues.
Wheatley reiterated that it is his position that matters of “social and religious significance should not be decided in the courts”.
He has called on people of the Virgin Islands to speak on their views as it relates to marriage, and stressed that legislators should be obligated to comply with their wishes. That is why, he said, “cabinet decided to refer the matter to a referendum”.
Wheatley believes that this move will “give all eligible persons an opportunity to defend what they believe to be socially and morally right”.
“This referendum will also consider the question of whether new legislation should be introduced to provide persons in a domestic partnership with certain legal rights such as the ability to pass on one’s estate to their partner regardless of sex”, he added.
In order for the referendum to proceed, a resolution must first be prepared, agreed upon and then voted on by the House of Assembly.