Senator Basil Waite

A MEMBER of the Upper House wants a clear definition of the Jamaican family to prevent homosexuals from demanding such recognition.

Senator Basil Waite told his colleagues in the Senate on Friday that there were particular groups in Jamaica, who had, over the last several years, been campaigning for specific rights.

"I don't think it will be long before we have some of those same groups agitating for recognition as a family, so we need to prevent that, and be proactive in what we are doing and define now what the Jamaican family is," said Waite.

National commission

His comments came during a debate on a resolution moved by Warren Newby, state minister for information and youth. The junior minister had recommended that the Government set up a national commission on the Jamaican family.

As part of its mandate, the commission would conduct and collate appropriate studies to ascertain the status and definition of the family in Jamaica, in terms of its emotional, economic, educational, health and legal protection needs.

The commission would also integrate government policies related to the structure and welfare of the family and to oversee the work of all agencies linked to the family. It is also expected to develop policy and make recommendations for the sustenance of the family unit.

Government's decision

Waite stridently argued that while some countries were institutionalising what he described as an "immoral definition of the family", this should be rejected by the Jamaican society.

"Not in my Cabinet," declared Waite, in an obvious reference to gays.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Bruce Golding, responding to a question in a BBC 'HARDtalk' interview, had said gays would not be accommodated in his Cabinet.

Waite contended that for the proposed commission to be successful in conducting a study on the status of the Jamaican family, it must identify a preferred structure of the family, so that public policy could be developed to target specific needs.

He said while non-traditional families such as single-parent and common-law unions should not be excluded, it was important for Jamaica as a "Christian nation (to) define for ourselves what is our preferred construct of a family".