Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has reiterated his Government’s stance against same- sex marriage.

The Government’s stance was made clear this week by the Prime Minister after speculation that some churches in Fiji support the idea of same-sex marriage.

In response, Mr Bainimarama said it must be made clear to everyone that Fiji was a God-fearing country and that same-sex marriage would never happen in Fiji as long as his government was in power.

The new Constitution, promulgated in September 2013, bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. However, same-sex marriage remains banned in Fiji.

Here in Fiji we have the LGBT community and they have rights accorded to them under the constitution.

We need to ask if they can use their rights to have same-sex marriage.

With the legalisation of same-sex marriages slowly gaining a foothold around the world, the Methodist Church of Fiji said it would not accept it because it was against the church’s theology.

“The church is founded on the concept of husband and wife and our concept of a family is father, mother and child and not father and father and child or mother and mother and child,” the church said.

“This is not our definition of family.”

The overall definition of marriage is “a union between a man and a woman”.

Genesis 2:24 says – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” … He who loves his wife loves himself.

The church respects LGBT rights, but not to the extent of marriage.

Marriage, it says, is a sacred ritual that should not be taken lightly and is something to celebrate between a man and a woman.

The Catholic Church of Fiji is also against same-sex marriage.

The Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha Fiji totally opposes same-sex marriage.

“We condemn it because it is against our religion,” said its president Sarju Prasad.

Fiji Muslim League president Hafizud Dean Khan said they did not support same-sex marriage.

“We support the Prime Minister’s stand on the subject,” he said.

Naitasiri chief Ratu Timoci Rokobukete has strongly come out against same-sex marriage and said – “this is a shame to iTaukei culture”.

Because it is not part of iTaukei culture, he said, it should not be practised here in Fiji.

Same-sex marriage is surely a no-no for the FijiFirst Government and the two major churches – Methodist Church and the Catholic Church support it.