{"id":3161,"date":"2019-10-16T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3161"},"modified":"2019-10-16T19:33:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:33:02","slug":"municipal-corporation-v-s-mobay-pride-legal-battle-rages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3161","title":{"rendered":"Municipal Corporation v.s. MoBay Pride legal battle rages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clinton Pickering<\/em><\/strong> – Freelance\nWriter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversial\nissue between the St. James Municipal Corporation and the gay group, MoBay\nPride, over its right to use the Montego Bay Cultural Centre to promote debate\non same-sex marriage, is gearing up to be a legal humdinger. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as support of the church grows for Mayor Homer Davis\nand the Municipal Corporation in their stance opposing use of the Centre, the\nSupreme Court has ruled in favour of MoBay Pride being granted permission and\nfor the group to pursue its case for a Judicial Review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, following that ruling on Monday, Mayor Davis informed\nthat the Municipal Corporation\u2019s lawyers had been instructed to pursue the\nmatter to the Court of Appeal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only on Sunday that Davis and the municipal\ncorporation received more support from the church community following the\ndecision taken just over a month ago to bar MoBay Pride from using the Cultural\nCentre to spread its message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That support came at the Heritage Week thanksgiving service\nat the Glendevon New Testament Church of God with the theme, \u201cOur Heritage\u2026 A\nGreat Legacy.\u201d It provided a platform for host pastor, Bishop R.T. Powell, and\nmembers of his congregation, to voice their support for the stand against MoBay\nPride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the pastor delivered his sermon, female members of the\ncongregation applauded vociferously when he referred to the Biblical story of\nthe creation of man and woman, and openly voiced that \u201cGod ade Adam and Eve,\nnot Adam and Steve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop Powell lashed out against any move to legislate\nsame-sex marriage in Jamaica, declaring that as a marriage officer, he would\nnot hesitate to turn in his license should that happen. \u201cIt no need no\nlegislation,\u201d he said, as the Bible already dictates that marriage should be\nbetween a man and woman. \u201cWhen the question is being raised, somebody needs to\nget up in Parliament, somebody needs to stand up like His Worship the Mayor; I\nam not giving you the public building to have your meeting. Yu want yu meeting,\ngo a seaside,\u201d he declared to congregational approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pastor said they were prepared to uphold the principles\nof the word of Almighty God and the nation must set its priorities in order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only on Thursday at the municipal corporation\u2019s\nregular monthly meeting that Chairman of the St James Minister\u2019s Fraternal,\nPastor Peter Burnett also gave public support to barring the gay rights group\non similar grounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his greetings at the heritage services, Mayor Davis\nreferred to the fact that \u201cour parish and indeed the city of Montego Bay have a\nrich history, one that we must celebrate and protect.\u201d He was greeted with loud\napplause when he went on to say that the city \u201cat this time is going through a\nchallenging time,\u201d and had been taken to court over activity \u201cthat does not\nbelong in the heart of the city\u201d and for which there was unanimous support in\nthe council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Davis thanked the church for its widespread support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Heritage Week message by the Opposition Leader was read\nby new parliamentary aspirant, Senator Dr Andre Haughton, while that of the\nPrime Minister was presented by Member of Parliament Heroy Clarke and the\nGovernor-General\u2019s message read by President of the Lay Magistrates\u2019\nAssociation, St James Chapter, Edgerton Forrester, representing the office of\nthe Custos of St James.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairman of the Municipal Corporation\u2019s Civic and Community\nAffairs Committee, Dwight Crawford, read the scripture lesson and vice\nchairman, Richard Crawford, presented a love gift to the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JCDC gold medalist Trishana Grant was a no-show for the\nspecial item she should have presented, but the congregation was graced with\nthe presence of reigning St James Festival Queen, the elegantly attired\nChardonnae Parkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service was supported by other Justices of the Peace,\ncouncillors and staff of the municipal corporation, the Jamaica Police and\nDefence Forces, Jamaica Fire Brigade and representatives of other community\norganizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clinton Pickering – Freelance Writer The controversial issue between the St. James Municipal Corporation and the gay group, MoBay Pride, over its right to use the Montego Bay Cultural Centre to promote debate on same-sex marriage, is gearing up to be a legal humdinger. Even as support of the church grows for Mayor Homer Davis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[850,1602,1518,919,169,30],"class_list":["post-3161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-mayor-homer-davis","tag-mobay-pride","tag-montego-bay-cultural-centre","tag-montego-bay-pride","tag-municipal-corporation","tag-western-jamaica"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3163,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions\/3163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}