(CMR) Juliana O'Connor-Connolly, representative for Cayman Brac and the Minister of Education, Youth, Sports, Agriculture and Lands is calling on the public to “protest” the marriage of Chantelle Day and Vickie Bodden.
Her comments were made in the Legislative Assembly earlier this evening during the ongoing debate on the same sex marriage landmark case handed down by the Justice Anthony Smellie on Friday morning. The legislative assembly agreed earlier in the morning session to appeal the decision of the Chief Justice.
On April 2, the marriage notice was posted; which pursuant to the marriage law has to be done to be able to get married in the Cayman Islands. It gives the general public the right to object to the marriage. Minister O'Connor-Connolly goes further and notes that if people are not able to object to it in that manner they should actually show up to the wedding to protest.
This comes after the Premier, The Honourable Alden McLaughlin stated earlier in the day that these ladies and other gay people in the community are humans too and called for respect towards them. However, CMR understand that certain members of his coalition government were prepared to break the government apart if he did not take the position to instruct the attorney general to appeal the decision.
The message shocked a lot of people in the community with some wondering what she hoped to accomplish by encouraging such behavior. Some of the comments included:
“I can not imagine what those two ladies have been subjected to since Friday. The hate and filth people have written about them is heartbreaking. And there is a child involved.”
“Unbelievable she needs to be called out”
“I could NOT believe that came out of her mouth ????????”
“That’s being a bit extreme”
“She is asking the people to fragrantly ignore a decision of the Grand Court and in my opinion indirectly inciting violence. I wonder if as a qualified lawyer she fully understand the ramifications of her inflammatory statement. As a woman I am further disappointed in her comments. Her lack of respect for the court and differences is quite astounding”
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