Same-sex sexual activity legal? Legal since 1985 Adoption Since 2015 | Discrimination protections None | |
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Recognition of
relationships Same-sex marriage since 2015 | ||
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. Virgin Islands face legal challenges and discrimination not faced by other people. Same-sex sexual activity is no longer criminalized, and neither is same-sex marriage. The Virgin Islands lacks a hate crimes statute and provides LGBT residents no protection against discrimination. Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, which found the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples unconstitutional, same-sex marriage became legal in the islands.
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Laws regarding same-sex sexual activity
The first anti-gay criminal law was imposed by Denmark, who had purchased the islands, in 1917. In 1957 the law was expanded to prohibit oral sex.
In 1978, the law was challenged in court as being too vague, but the court rejected this argument.
In 1984, the legislature revised its sex crimes statues to allow consenting adults to have a private life. This revision formally took effect a year later.
Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in the U.S. Virgin Islands since 1985, as long as it occurs between consenting adults in private. Initially, the age of consent was set at 16, but this was raised to 18 in 2017.
Recognition of same-sex relationships
The statutes of the Virgin Islands state that "Marriage is hereby declared to be a civil contract which may be entered into between a male and a female in accordance with the law." However, on June 30, 2015, Governor Kenneth Mapp announced that the territorial government would comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, recognizing marriage as a fundamental right that cannot be denied to same-sex couples.
History
In May 2014, Senator Judi Buckley introduced draft legislation in the legislature to establish same-sex marriage. Called the Civil Marriage Equality Act, it would replace the Code's "between a male and a female" with "between two persons". It included language that would allow anyone authorized to perform a wedding ceremony to decline to do so for any reason. She anticipated that it would take several months for its language to be reviewed. She expected that she and Governor John de Jongh, who she said would sign the legislation, would leave office in January 2015 before the legislation came to a vote. Supporters of the legislation include Liberty Place, an LGBT advocacy organization based on St. Croix.
In response, a group of church leaders organized One Voice Virgin Islands to oppose the legislation and plan a petition drive that aimed to collect 50,000 signatures. The group authored a letter to V.I. officials that some of its members found objectionable because it included the suggestion that some government officials were homosexual. The group's president, New Vision Ministries Pastor James Petty of St. Thomas, said: "We do not wish to be America's same-sex paradise". Pastor Lennox Zamore said that he rejected the argument that legalizing same-sex marriage would benefit the local economy: "We don't want to balance our books by bringing the sex industry – whether it is same sex or not – to the Virgin Islands",