In a recent statement, Dominican attorney Cara Shillingford defended her decision to represent a client in a successful constitutional challenge against the country’s buggery laws. Shillingford emphasized her responsibility as an attorney to represent her clients to the best of her ability, regardless of their race, political opinion, place of origin, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender.
The courts decision has drawn strong criticism along religious and moral grounds, from some sections of the public.
Shillingford stated that it would have been easy for her to decline the case, but she believes that if every lawyer in Dominica decided not to take on unpopular cases or challenge those in power, then the Constitution would merely be a piece of paper with words. She stressed that as an attorney, she has a responsibility to do what she thinks is right, even if that decision might be unpopular.
The attorney pointed out that the laws that were recently struck down were unconstitutional and violated the human rights of persons. She explained that Section 16 of the Sexual Offenses Act, which made it an offense for any adult to partake in the act of buggery, did not specify that it applies only to LGBT persons. This means that every heterosexual person who has partaken in that act in the privacy of their home would be liable to up to 10 years imprisonment.
Shillingford argued that what consenting adults do in the privacy of their homes is their business, not the law’s business. She added that the law should only intervene if a child is being affected or if someone who is not capable of consent is being affected.
As a Christian, Shillingford called on fellow Christians to read the entire Bible and not be hypocrites. She pointed out that while the laws of Dominica do not criminalize fornication, adultery, and other sins, people are quick to judge, criminalize, and want to imprison for 10 years, persons who engage in buggery.
In the trial, both the state and the claimants agreed that the laws were unconstitutional. The claimants brought a constitutional motion asking the court to strike down parts of the buggery laws insofar as they criminalized consensual sexual activity in private between adults. The state, represented by the Attorney General’s chambers, agreed with the claimant. The Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and Dominica association of Evangelical churches had applied for them to be added as interested parties, but according to Shillingford, they did not submit anything to the courts in terms of legal submissions that would cause the courts to rule otherwise.
Shillingford concluded by stating that legally, something cannot be criminalized simply because it is believed to be a sin.
While I respect Ms. Shillingford’s right to represent her client, this ruling goes against the moral values and religious beliefs of a large portion of Dominica. The Bible is clear on homosexuality being a sin, and this decision weakens the country’s Christian foundation.
Furthermore, the focus on privacy ignores the potential harm. What happens behind closed doors can still affect children and families. Promoting this lifestyle could lead to a decline in traditional family structures, which are the backbone of society.
Ms. Shillingford mentions other sins not being criminalized, but isn’t that a good thing? Shouldn’t we focus on laws that protect people from harm, not regulate personal choices? This ruling seems like an unnecessary attack on our Christian morals and could have unintended consequences.
I rember the song ‘dude looks like a lady, .. and the lady is a man’. No surprise here.
If an unsaved man divorces his wife and marries another woman, and it is not for the “exception clause” in Matthew 19:9.This man is an adulterer.However if he turns to the Savior for forgiveness.He is no longer an adulterer,he is forgiven by God Almighty for all his sins, including adultery.Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
when God saves you,you are sanctified,you becomes a child of God.
Whom the Son sets free you are free indeed
Amen
One Love;;; You are all over the place.You are saying “God wiped off the entire earth with a flood of Noah for sexual immorality,and Homosexuality was not mentioned as one of the sins.”
Let me inform you “Homosexuality” is also “Sexual Immorality.
De Lioness is on the rise do’nt you ever have doubt ,truth push to earth must rise up , very proud of you a little giant from Salisbury, show them you are not a coward,those wearing those pretty suits they a bunch of cowards with no balls or fortitude fancy talkers. They have a lot to say in chamber, but, cannot face the fact head on, thats why Dominica is in the position it is in right now.
It’s no joke and no doubt we are in the Sodom and Gomorrah Dominica period. So watch your children closely. If they have anything in their possession that you didn’t buy them, or they could not afford; watch their behind because something may be happening back there.
Wrong is wrong and two wrongs don’t make a right.
DNO I wish you had also updated the response of our beloved pastor because as soon as Ms Cara Shillingford spoke to Matt our beloved pastor took offense and spoke to Matt because Cara used the word Hypocrite. But why should some pick and choose what they want in the Bible nou? For example, the same bible that says homosexuality is wrong also speaks forcefully about sexual immortality “But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery Matthew 5:32”.
Pastors, have you performed the wedding for someone who is known to be divorced and their spouse is still alive? According to Jesus that’s also wrong.
Jesus says if a person was already married and their spouse is still alive, if it’s not for fornication whoever marries them is in adultery whether is a pastor, prime minister, or anyone. Pas…
There is something called fostering and adoption. Duh!!!
A lot of people who are able to have children but unable to care for them do put them up for adoption or fostering 0r taken from them, rather than set them loose on the streets to fend for themselves.
you are talking about man and woman not man and man God did not create a man and man he made a man and a woman can a man bring kids come on you are talking nonsense you know dam well it is so wrong for gays in society and the. eyes of God we will be like Sodom
Matthew 5:29
“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
Don’t blame the pastor because the same bible say what I quoted above. So if the wife is causing you to sin because she is not giving “it” up or seeing someone else then the man has a right to cut off the marriage and do his thing whether its remarried of stay fornicating or whatever. Also remember, the bible only speaks to Christians and has absolutely no meaning to non Christians.
Having said that, I support my hero Cara 10000000000%. Lil Willy Tony METBONDA!
What if all those people today who engage in Same Sex intercourse including Buggery, were put in their own private commune not to interact with the outside world or any affairs dealing with heterosexual activities,,,
As all those inhabitants in that particular commune would not be able to pro-create because of the sexual orientation and interactions,,,
How long would that commune survive for???
RastarMarn dear those who engage in that lifesyle to create such a commune and test the theory!!!
Cara, sometimes we expose our true character, and characteristics by the things we do or support!
In this particular instance you have identified your immorality, by association with Sodomy, and homosexuality.
There can be no defense to that sort of filth, which is a nothing than a learned behavior!
To defend homosexuality, is to place yourself above God Jehovah, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit!
If God did not hate homosexuality, if he condoned homosexuality, Sodom, and Gomorrah, he would not have destroyed, they would still be in existence in the 21 century!
Nevertheless, God allow visible remnants of the two cities to remain as a warning to people like you who probably indulge in something like that!
The fact that you represented a client, who refused to let his name known, is an indication that they (he) knows the filth they indulge is wrong.
And if money is the cause of you defending that sort of thing, it will eventually plague you!
What you have accomplished is…
Nonsence !!!, Thats a lawyer will you help feed her family that’s her profession, man think before you speak .
Skerrit told you all he was’nt going to sign the paper not under his watch ,he went and sign it, with you all there talking a hole bunch of BS, now it in your face, why all the talk , people like you did nothing about it ,she didnt make the law she defending what’s was written many years before she was born blame skerrit and his goons. OH did’nt you know he sign it on your behalf to. Skerrit will keep on chewing Dominicans like tobacco when he finish he spit it out and no dog back . Ask skerrit why the law is still on the books .
Well written Francisco Telemaque but you forgot to mention God destroyed the whole world not just 2 cities during the flood because of immorality (fornication, adultery, marrying and giving in marriage and a whole slew of other sins) Therefore brother Telemaque the fornicators, adulterers, whoremongers, liars, thieves, sodomites, etc. all with have their part in the lake of fire along with the homosexuals. Hope your are not part of any of these groups BRO.
Let me clarify this: I as every other human are born in sin. (Clarification meaning of a sinful nature). It matters not who we are we commit some sinful offense every day!
However, my sins are not forsaking the use of a woman’s body, nor her love, affection, and everything about her that God allowed, for the cravings of a man’s anus!
I don’t practice telling lies because one lie leads to another; liars are always caught in traps of their lies because they are never able to remember the way they told it the first time around.
I am not a perfect human, nevertheless, I am very careful about what I do, and all of that mentality dates back to when I was young lad, to now, in my twilight years!
Why such silly behavior of judging people with your canal mind and religious beliefs. You know, thank God the era of the Dark ages is gone, pity your silliness, so long.
I don’t support homosexuality but as a student of the Bible I know there were Gays in the days of Abraham, Moses, the prophets, Jesus, Paul, Peter and other holy men and women of God and they all died but homosexuality is still here with us and we too will go and live it here.
But as nasty, disgusting, ugly or even unnatural and sinful homosexuality is, Jesus in his life on earth hardly waisted his time on homosexuality. In fact there is no record of him saying anything on homosexuality though I am sure he did not approve it. In fact in Matthew 5:32 he addressed fonication, adultery and remarriage but nothing on homosexuality.So why are we wasting so much time on it as church people? If we are so concerned about what’s right and wrong why pastors and priests not reminding people that remarriage is wrong when the spouse is still alive?
I just feel we too quick to condemn others because we are not doing what they do but we say nothing about what we do. Gay, adultery, fonication is…
Now you need to shut up, because you don’t know what the hell you are talking about!
Note: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God! Since you know how to play with nonsensical words cipher that out. Every line written in the Bible is inspired by the Word which is “God” so, how can you say Jesus whom is God did not waste his time on homosexuality.
He did not tolerate homosexuality, that is why he authorized the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, that is why the inspired Word of of God speaks against unnatural sex!
From Genesis to Revelation you will read somewhere where Jesus condemned homosexuality!
What you are doing is pretend that you know, when in fact all you are doing is talking nonsense!
So read this: In Romans 1:26-27 “Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, given up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another.
Men committed shameless acts with…
This is written in the King James version of the Bible okay! It is talking here about what you all called buggery in Dominica, in Antigua we term it Bull-pooping, in Wesley call it back-lash, one way or the other it is an abomination, and God hate that sin; so you can polish it as much as you wish, but I advised you to understand what you read in the bible and stop making a fool of yourself, disseminating false information!
In the Book of Romans it reads:
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
nuff said. 1 Corinthians 6:9 ” Do not be misled. Those who are sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who submit to homosexual acts, men who practice homosexuality, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners will not inherit God’s Kingdom
You stretching it now Counsel
Ms Cara did an excellent job in explaining what she stood for. I am a born again believer and I Know homosexuality is wrong. Also I am the husband of one wife, who is the mother of our three children. But why should I as a Christian want to live in a country where the laws are not equal to all? Why as a Christian should I want two persons caught in homosexuality in the privacy of their home or hotel be sentenced to imprisonment? Would I want to see a man and a woman caught in adultery or fonication be jailed too since they are all wrong and sin according to the Bible? Yes homosexuality is unnatural and nasty in my opinion but is it not very nasty for a man to put his mouth in the bottom exit of a woman? Some like to say well God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality but they seem to forget that God wiped off the entire earth with the flood of Noah for sexual immorality and homosexuality was not mentioned as one of the sins. We must learn to accept what we can’t control
Dominique! A beautiful landmass , a lawless Island when it is to the advantage of perpetrators from the top to the bottom. As far back as M-29-71. They took it to a myopic level which has evidently torn the Society in unmendable ways. JUSTICE to JUST-US ! Not seeing beyond the NOW in 1979. The start of the Degradation of our future Society.
Children learn from what parents and impressionable adults say and do. The tiny ones who were listening in to tirades. On the days of Mayhem , from behind the bedroom walls, cracked open doors, windows, curtains they saw and heard it all. They were being groomed to be future law breakers. Thanks for those spared and chose to walk a different ‘path’.
Today, we have a Nation that is often practicing the exact opposite of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit. Not even the Wrath of Nature
can bend their evil, selfishness, disunity, aggression, haughtiness…….political hubris.
Congratulations to attorney Cara in an unpopular case. I agree on grounds of what is done with consent behind closed doors is foolhardy to condemn. Furthermore, if there are no written laws to prosecute.
The Church, it’s representatives, members are the last to ‘tawlk’. Who among them have never done or contemplated sodomy? Throw the first Koolrooch. And, before doing so , go back to days of childhood, courtship and even married lives.
I admire her emphasis and stance to represent her clients to the best of her ability, regardless of their race, political opinion, place of origin, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender.
Sadly! I was unable to win her over in order to table a case asking for reparations on my behalf for my astronomical losses at the hands of the Freedom Party and their supporters. I had committed no sin. But my human rights as a Dominican was severely trashed by a Political Party that went on to form the Government for almost two decades.
“Shillingford concluded by stating that legally, something cannot be criminalized simply because it is believed to be a sin.”…very brilliant conclusion Cara.
As a straight person, I will NEVER be supportive of the gay lifestyle but who am I to decry what goes on between consenting adults? Like I said before I know many men who brag about having “advance sex” with their women/ wives in Dca so why is that acceptable when Bugga between marcoumehs
are not? Anyway, let us leave that alone eh before they make fornication and adultry unconstitutional too. Because if they do ebeh chou-nou-toute paytay 
DNO, Q95fm and other local media entities seem completely obsessed with this buggery law. The religious diehards and zealots are having fits of madness and outrage.
I do not have to necessarily agree with someone’s statement but will vociferously defend his right to say it. That’s what lawyers sometimes have to do. We have to defend the minority against the majority in society.
No group of people suffered for using marijuana as a sacrament like the Rastafarians. They were brutalized, ostracized, jailed, and at times killed. Today, it is at least decriminalized.
Cara is just doing what lawyers do best, represent people of all stripes. She has no specific personal agenda on this one.
You are another hypocrite just as Cara is. If Skerrit was the one supporting Buggery, you would have had a lot bad to say of Skerrit. But it is Cara, your God, so it is ok, your hypocrites and batimen.
Might this have been in the SAMOA agreement, and we’re just paying the piper one country after another, in exchange for EU aid, otherwise sanctions?
Not only that but this type of stuff has been in the Paris Accords and probably every other United Nations world government thing that we have been signing on to all these years.
Just asking are you supposing that Cara a Shillingford, the UWP star, is complicit with the government of Dominica to bring in on Dominicans that which the majority doesn’t want simply because we need aid. Thinking of it in that way you’re not telling much about the lawyer’s character. This case started in 2019 the Samoa agreement issue came up last year. Think deeply before you all write opinion pieces. One of the worst things is an argument that is easily refuted.
Then maybe a page from hmm …Euginia’s book?
How can the SAMOA agreement influence this Court decision, utter nonsense. Why Cara has to make a public statement defending what she feels is right to appease a segment of society who think it is OK to criminalize something because it is believed to be a sin.