Mia Amor (!) Mottley. That is the name of the Prime Minister of Barbados. Lesbians and gays on the former British island could well write her into the history books as the gods’ messengers of love. Until now, homosexuality has been punishable with life imprisonment.

On 15 September, Dame Sandra Mason, Governor General of Barbados and representative of Head of State Queen Elizabeth II, announced her intention to decriminalise homosexuality and “recognise a form of civil union for couples of the same sex to ensure that no person in Barbados is discriminated against in the exercise of civil rights that should belong to them”. Mason stated in Parliament’s opening address that the legal systems of modern societies recognise many different forms of human relationships. Barbados should

“do nothing less, because compassion, decency, empathy, kindness, fairness and justice are what distinguishes us as a people”.

The speech opening the new parliamentary term is commonly seen as a benchmark for the government’s agenda for the coming years.

For the time being, however, there will be no formal equality for marriage. This is to be decided in a separate referendum, which LGBTIQ* associations naturally consider to be a suboptimal approach, as there should be no referendums on human rights.

Mia Amor Mottley: Public-spirited, empathic and with almost absolute power

Mia Mottley has been Prime Minister of the Caribbean island since 2018. After a rather dirty election campaign, in which the opposition tried to discredit Mottley with speculations about her gender, Mottley and her party achieved a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections on 24 May 2018 – 74.6 percent of the votes and all 30 parliamentary seats went to the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).

During her time as Attorney General of Barbados from 2001 onwards, Mottley ordered research into laws and measures to help reduce new HIV infections. The research concluded that it was crucial to repeal the laws against sodomy. Following public protests, the project was dropped.

Homosexuality in Barbados: Laws and evangelicals lag behind society

Barbados has one of the strictest laws against homosexuality in the world. The sodomy laws, which go back to the British, provide for a life sentence, but according to Equaldex are rarely or never applied.

In a 2016 survey, 67 per cent of Barbadians said they were tolerant of the LGBTIQ* community. In addition, 82% of respondents were against discrimination against queers. But since evangelical influences from the US have been increasing in recent years, the tone against queers on the islands has also become rougher. In 2018, during the first Pride march in Barbadosʼ capital Bridgetown, local church leaders claimed that support for the LGBTIQ* “agenda” was a form of “neo-colonialism” – bizarre, as sodomy laws were only introduced with British colonial rule.

By the way: Would you like to take a year off or get out?

Since July Barbados has been issuing the WELCOME STAMP VISUM, which allows foreigners to live and work in Barbados for twelve months. With this visa you are not liable to income tax in Barbados.

Following reports from PinkNews that spouses are only defined as mixed-sex partners in the online Welcome Stamp Visa form, Prime Minister Mottley explicitly invited same-sex couples to the island:

“As long as I am Prime Minister of this nation, we welcome everyone.”

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