Host of Honestly Speaking, Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline has said he will support a person’s right to love whoever they want to love. Photo: Facebook

Premier Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) (right) during his appearance on the Too Inquisitive podcast in June 2026. Photo: YouTube

Host of Honestly Speaking, Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline said the United Kingdom or anyone else should not instruct the Virgin Islands that they are mandated to marry same-sex couples by law. Photo: Internet Source/File

His comments come as the Virgin Islands (VI) constitution negotiating team prepares to meet with the United Kingdom (UK) in July for the first round of negotiations.

Premier Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7), who will lead the team, revealed that the issue of same-sex marriage will be brought up. During a recent appearance on the Too Inquisitive podcast, the Premier explained that while same-sex marriage is not accepted in the Virgin Islands, the current constitution does not discriminate against same-sex couples.

Expounding on his point, he said, “We’ve decided that same sex marriage is not something that we recognise here…this doesn't mean that you won't have any form of government recognition of same sex relationships, which could be in what you call, like, a civil partnership act”. According to Premier Wheatley, this civil partnership recognition for same-sex couples would clear the path for social security benefits and inheritance to be granted to surviving partners.

During the Tuesday, June 16, 2026, episode of Honestly Speaking on ZBVI 780 AM titled ‘What We Know Is Not True Part 3’, Skelton-Cline acknowledged the position the VI is in where the UK seems to be “pushing” the topic of same-sex marriage and the government’s intentions to bring it as a referendum to the people.

Love who you want to love

“Now as for me, Claude Skelton-Cline, I am not here to tell you who you should love, you should love whoever it is you want to love.”

He added that in VI’s “Judeo-Christian tradition”, gender specificity is clear where male is male and female is female and that marriage is between a man and a woman.

“We believe that as part of our cultural mores and ethical appropriation. You can love whoever you want to love, and I will fight for your right to love whomever it is you want to love….I will fight for your right in any civil union and to be the beneficiary or the benefactor of the partnership with the one you choose to love. I will fight with you for that.”

Skelton-Cline said he, however, will not support the UK or anyone else telling the VI that they are mandated to marry same-sex couples by law.

2 things can be true at once

Skelton-Cline said he can understand how some “Christian folk” might feel because “they don’t understand how two things can be true at the same time and how you can advocate for the right of people to have the right to love who they want to love”.

These “Christian folk”, he said, should stand on their philosophical or theological position about what constitutes marriage without denying persons who choose to be in other unions the civil rights and liberties that are afforded to persons who are married in a so-called traditional construct.

“If you and your partner are involved, have a committed relationship and you and us, by law, want to will land or whatever it is, whatever rights, civilly, that a traditional married couple has, then I’ll fight for your right to have that.”

He reinforced that being forced to accept something that contradicts the local cultural mores and using it to withhold rightful freedoms should not be accepted.

“You cannot negotiate with a gun to your head.”