On 2017-05-07 03:29 AM (-4), Stephen wrote:
> On 5/6/2017 11:58 PM, Cousin Ricky wrote:
>> We in the U.S. Virgin Islands just celebrated the 100th anniversary of
>> the sale of the Danish West Indies to the USA.  Barely asked among the
>> "important" people was the obvious question: why is being a colony of
>> the USA cause for celebration over being a colony of Denmark?
>>
>
> The literal answer is because you are Americans. But I know what you mean.
> Actually my personal opinion is that you would have been better off with
> the Danes. I worked on a Danish Oil Exploration rig for about six
> months. I really liked the people I met there. Importantly their sense
> of humour is similar to ours. But on the other hand. Could you trust
> them to keep you? The gave away the Shetland Islands to the King of
> Scotland (No, not Idi Amin) Because the then King of Denmark was too
> poor to buy his sister a weeding present.

Good point.  I am a diehard republican (with a small 'r'); I do not 
understand how one person deserves sovereignty over an entire nation 
just because they emerged from some special vagina.  A constitutional 
monarchy such as Denmark would be tolerable, though; possibly more 
tolerable than a de jure republic whose sovereignty has been usurped by 
a small class of people just because they have more money.

I assume you mean "wedding" present.  When people complain about us 
redefining marriage or protest that the government should get out of the 
marriage business and leave it to the churches, I remind them that 
marriage started out as a contract for exchange of merchandise, namely 
the bride.  Payment could be in the form of such things as, say, the 
Shetland Islands.

>> One constitutional protection that recently seems to have put us in a
>> better position is equal protection under law prescribed by the 14th
>> Amendment.  In 2015, our local judiciary agreed that Obergefell v.
>> Hodges applied to the Virgin Islands, thus legalizing gay marriage here.
>>   In Greenland and the Faroe Islands, the issue was devolved, meaning
>> that if we were still under Danish rule, the issue would have been left
>> to our homophobic legislature.  It is not lost on me that in this one
>> case, colonialism resulted in greater rights for us.
>>
>
> Sorry, lost me a bit there. Whose legislature. the US government's or
> your island's?

My islands'; if we were still under Danish rule, the U.S. government's 
currently homophobic legislature would be irrelevant.

Nevertheless, I sense that the people here are far less homophobic than 
the legislature.  The homophobes are just louder and have the churches 
on their side, and in the Americas, few politicians want to cross the 
churches.

> I was taken aback when I found out how much homophobia was rife in Jamaica.

It's all over the region.  The only islands in the region with any LGBTQ 
rights at all are those still subject to outside powers.  The former 
British colonies are the worst, with gay sex punishable with lengthy 
prison terms or even commitment in a psychiatric institution.

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