'Don't bow to gay pressure' - Crusaders urge Jamaicans to stand by buggery law

Jodi-Ann Gilpin, Gleaner Writer

Peter LaBarbera, president of the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), in the United States of America (US), has encouraged Jamaicans to be grounded in their Christian beliefs and not to be lured by other countries in repealing the buggery law.

"The United States has no business lecturing anybody about sexual morality. America has rampant abortions, rampant promiscuity, and I stand wholeheartedly with Jamaicans and encourage you all to hold to your beliefs, " LaBarbera told The Gleaner.

LaBarbera made the comments Saturday following The Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society International Human Rights conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.

"We are all watching Jamaica to see what happens (buggery law), and I believe if Jamaica can stand up and not bow to the pressure, you can be an example to the world. There is no need to follow anybody," LaBarbera said.

Christian lobbyist

Similarly, Andrea Williams, a Christian lobbyist in the legal public policy arena in the United Kingdom, told The Gleaner that family values should be prioritised.

"When we begin to make normal something that is contrary to proper family standards, that is social engineering, and we are in serious trouble, " she said.

"What Jamaica needs to understand is that the homosexual activists have an incremental agenda; because this is where its starts, by them asking for rights, and then our society's morals become redefined," she continued.

Several US states have lifted the stay on gay marriage, including California earlier this year and Illinois in November.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has promised to have the Parliament engage in a conscience vote on whether or not to repeal the buggery act.

Minister with responsibility for information Sandrea Falconer said the debate "will certainly be within this parliamentary year".

During a leadership debate on the eve of the December 2011 general election, then Opposition Leader Simpson Miller said her administration was committed to the protection of human rights.

Simpson Miller declared that it was time for a review of the buggery law, saying she believed the issue should be put to a conscience vote in the Parliament.