Dix­ie Ann Dick­son

Sev­er­al faith-based or­gan­i­sa­tions and the group known as Lawyers for Je­sus as­sem­bled yes­ter­day to speak out against Gov­ern­ment's pro­pos­al for a re-de­f­i­n­i­tion of the term gen­der in the Na­tion­al Gen­der pol­i­cy. The is­sue sur­round­ing same sex mar­riages and abor­tion sparked at­ten­tion lo­cal­ly since Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma pub­licly an­nounced his po­si­tion.

Sev­er­al groups have ex­pressed their po­si­tion and con­cerns re­gard­ing the two is­sues. Min­is­ter of Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment Ver­na St Rose-Greaves said the pol­i­cy doc­u­ment is ex­pect­ed to be sub­mit­ted to Cab­i­net June 2012. Speak­ing at the Em­manuel Com­mu­ni­ty in Wood­brook yes­ter­day, Hy­acinth Grif­fith, a mem­ber of Lawyers for Je­sus, said leg­is­la­tion of same sex mar­riages and abor­tion does not hap­pen in a vac­u­um.

"It is an in­cre­men­tal process. The chal­lenge be­gins with the de­lib­er­ate re-de­f­i­n­i­tion of the term gen­der, which can be re­gard­ed as le­gal retro­fitting, for ex­am­ple pri­va­cy and gen­der. The re­sult of this is the pro­tec­tion of these new­ly craft­ed fun­da­men­tal rights of the in­di­vid­ual by way of leg­isla­tive agen­da."

She said the re-de­f­i­n­i­tion of the term gen­der was the be­gin­ning for most of coun­tries in their po­si­tion and leg­is­la­tion on abor­tion and same sex mar­riages. Grif­fith said the new de­f­i­n­i­tion re­ferred to roles, re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, be­hav­iours, at­ti­tudes and iden­ti­ties, which pro­vid­ed a plat­form for all oth­er changes to take place.

On the is­sue of abor­tion, Grif­fith chal­lenged any­body in­clud­ing the prime min­is­ter to show proof that abor­tion was le­gal in T&T. The group, which com­prised Chris­t­ian, Hin­du, Mus­lim, Or­isha, Ba­hai and the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ties, has called for the Gov­ern­ment to pro­vide them with a copy of the draft pol­i­cy be­fore it was sub­mit­ted to Cab­i­net next week.

An­oth­er mem­ber, Ro­ma Paul, said Gov­ern­ment's pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion was se­lec­tive and did not in­clude all stake­hold­ers. "We are in sup­port of the gen­der pol­i­cy, but it must seek to build our na­tion and not com­pro­mise our val­ues and morals in the process." Pas­tor Ver­non Dun­can, who rep­re­sent­ed the Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty, de­scribed the move to re­de­fine the term gen­der as in­tel­lec­tu­al dis­hon­esty.

The term gen­der, he said, was based on sex-male and fe­male-not on so­cial norms and to suit the fan­cies of per­son­al sex­u­al pref­er­ences. Quot­ing from the Bible to sub­stan­ti­ate his po­si­tion on the is­sue, Dun­can said in Gen­e­sis chap­ter one verse 27, it states "God made us-male and fe­male." Any­thing out­side of that, he said, was deemed a be­hav­iour­al dis­or­der.

Asked by a me­dia rep­re­sen­ta­tive why the group was try­ing to de­lay the in­evitable-which raised a hor­net's nest from the six-mem­ber pan­el-Dun­can said the group and the Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to take a po­si­tion on what was right. Dr David Jack­son from the Hos­pi­tal Chris­t­ian Fel­low­ship ap­pealed to the Gov­ern­ment to con­sid­er their rights as Chris­tians.

As the in­cre­men­tal process un­folds, he said, soon pas­tors and priests would be forced to con­duct same sex mar­riages in church­es. "We are not ac­cept­ing that, so we are try­ing to nip it from the root." One of the rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty said it would be un­fair for the Gov­ern­ment to present on­ly a pol­i­cy with­out con­sul­ta­tion.