In the wake of the U.S.’ historical, brilliant Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, I direct you today to a beautifully written editorial in yesterday’s Jamaica Gleaner. It makes the point that this is a question of fundamental human rights, and also calls on Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to act. Here is an excerpt:

The American legal and constitutional factors applied by Justice Kennedy in his ruling are not totally at one with Jamaica’s. Indeed, marriage, as defined in Section 18(2) of Jamaica’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, is a “union between one man and one woman”. But they are not incongruent with the larger principles upon which fundamental human rights must rest, if the individual is to enjoy his/her innate right to dignity.

In that respect, on this issue, Jamaica remains stuck on first base. It retains the anachronistic buggery law, which maintains the State as voyeur and is the basis for the illegality of ultimate sexual expression among gay men. Indeed, some heterosexual couples engage in anal sex, too. It is also antipathetic to same-sex marriage – an institution that presupposes the consummation of its fact.

With her revolutionary stance that contradicted the anti-gay, “not-in-my-Cabinet” rhetoric, Portia Simpson Miller hinted at the courage to advance these rights. She must act.