From NAM News Network

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (NNN-AGENCIES) — Veteran backbench member of the Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly, Anthony Eden, has called for the Human Rights Commission (HRC) chair to be replaced with a Christian who believes in the Bible, as he defended comments he made about the evils of homosexuality.

In the wake of the public fallout following his August parliamentary presentation on a motion about preserving ‘traditional marriage’ and his attack on the LGBT community, Eden said HRC chair James Austin-Smith, as well as Dr Leonardo Raznovich, had led a campaign of vilification and attempts to “crucify him” over what he said.

Eden rejected the accusation that his comments during the debate were ‘hate speech’, despite the exceptionally controversial content.

During a statement on Wednesday morning as the Legislative Assembly opened, Eden claimed that in his August debate he had quoted only from the Bible and what he described as legitimate articles. Reported on CNS, the story about Eden’s speech attracted 402 comments, stirring up wide condemnation as well as some support.

He accused Austin-Smith, who wrote to the Cayman Islands premier condemning Eden’s LA speech, and Raznovich, the lawyer who also publicly criticised Eden’s stand and who is leading the campaign to change the law in Cayman to facilitate same-sex partnerships, of “disrespect” for the people of Cayman. Eden claimed that, as a long-standing representative, he had a perfect right to quote from the Bible and other sources.

He derided Austin-Smith as “an admitted atheist who does not believe in God” and called on the premier to appoint someone who understands the people of Cayman and the Bible as chair of the commission, and said Cayman did “not need an atheist chairing our Human Rights Commission”.

Eden, the deputy speaker of the parliament, said that Austin-Smith had taken his comments out of context when he wrote to the premier in the wake of the speech, in which Eden had said some shocking things about members of the LGBT community and described homosexuals as evil.

But Eden said Austin Smith and the broader public should get a copy of the Hansard and read the speech in its entirety. Eden pressed again on the idea that members of the LGBT community are choosing their lifestyle and that they have some kind of agenda, upon which he did not elaborate but tabled an article from a fundamentalist magazine suggesting homosexuals were out to transform America.

Eden said that Raznovich was disrespecting Caymanians and embarrassing the island with his presentations at internal conferences and that the people in Cayman had not wanted to hear about homophobia and misogyny at the serious of lectures he had organized while at the law school.

He dismissed Raznovich’s comments that same-sex marriages have been accepted in many Christian countries. Eden asked how those nations could be called Christian when they had transgressed by allowing same-sex marriage. Quoting from the Bible, he again emphasized his beliefs regarding the punishment God has in store for adulterers, sodomites and homosexuals.

Eden said he did not care what Austin-Smith said about human rights as he would obey the Holy Bible, and both he and Raznovich could malign him for his religious beliefs but he pitied them both and would pray for their conversion.

The HRC chair had written to the premier in the wake of Eden’s August speech in which he had raised grave concerns and condemned the content. His main aim, however, was to call on the premier to address the human rights challenges regarding local legislation when it comes to the rights of same-sex partnerships and stop the wider discrimination faced by the LGBT community fueled by the type of hate speech delivered by Eden. It is understood that the commission and the premier’s office are still in communication regarding that correspondence.

Meanwhile, Raznovich and his spouse are currently going through the process of mounting a legal challenge against the immigration department. After Raznovich’s contract at the law school was not renewed he applied to remain in Cayman as a dependent of his spouse, an attorney with a leading offshore firm. However, the application was refused when the business staffing plan board said there was no legal mechanism to allow him to be placed on his spouse’s work-permit despite the legitimacy of the couple’s marriage in both their own countries of origin.

Although the Cayman government has resisted any move to address the legislative issues relating to same-sex unions or civil partnerships, legal experts including Raznovich and Austin-Smith have warned that it may prove very difficult for it to continue doing so without facing the possibility of significant legal claims that the government will not be able to defend.

Although the UK has said it will not force its overseas territories to introduce same-sex marriage, on a recent visit to the Cayman Islands shortly after Eden’s now infamous speech, the acting overseas territories minister Grant Shapps said it was not a good idea to prescribe some groups with civil liberties and deny them to others.–NNN-AGENCIES

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IMAGE: Anthony Eden