Fiji will never have same-sex marriage, says PM

Fiji’s prime minister has said the country will never have same-sex marriage while his government is in power.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said on Monday (8 April) there had been rumors of churches administering same sex marriages.

But, he said according to Fiji Village, this should not happen in churches.

And, he said, Fiji is a god-fearing country that will never accept same-sex marriage.

His party, FijiFirst, would not allow same-sex marriage despite an increasing awareness of human rights in the country, he said.

LGBTI Pride in Fiji

Fiji is a small country in the South Pacific Ocean with a population of just under 900,000 people.

Homosexuality is legal in the country. It became the second country in the world to enshrine the rights of LGBTI people in its Constitution. South Africa was the first country to do so in 1994.

But, LGBTI people still face discrimination and violence, sometimes even at the hands of their own families.

Last year, police promised to get serious about LGBTI abuse after two transgender people were killed in the space of a year.

In 2012, police cancelled an already approved Pride March at the last minute because it ‘did not realise that this was a march for gays and lesbians’.

Even Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is not very supportive of LGBTI people. He famously said in 2016 that all LGBTI people in Fiji should move to Iceland and stay there.