West Guadalcanal chief from Visale community, Sangalu ward says the ongoing campaign to legalise same- sex marriage around the world and now in the region, is not an issue for Solomon Islands, unless it becomes one.
Speaking to this paper in an interview last week with North West Guadalcanal Solomon Star stringer John Toki, the unnamed chief said, gay marriage or lesbian couples are newly introduced lifestyles in Solomon Islands, hence it was not an easy thing for the government to give in to such laws.
“This global campaign now gaining momentum in the region should not be an issue for Solomon Islands unless the problem is obvious, in other words the population of people that demands recognition is increasing then government could take steps to address the matter,” he said.
The chief further stated that schools, churches and communities should discourage people from going into such lifestyles because it had distorted cultural values as well as Christian principles.
The 63 year old added, countries that were more likely to legalise such practices are societies with high population of those kind of people, thus Solomon Island was not one of them since gays and lesbian population had not existed at all to alert national attention.
He added rights of people must be practiced to certain limits that overlapped with our religious faith and home-grown culture, but not to go beyond the changes that still 100 years away from today.
By AATAI JOHN