Dear Editor,
I am writing today not as a lawyer, politician, or expert, but as a regular citizen who is tired of seeing old laws controlling people’s private lives while pretending to protect “morality.” The recent bigamy charge that has everyone talking has only confirmed something many of us already knew: Antigua and Barbuda’s bigamy law is outdated, unfair, and no longer reflects the real lives people are living in this country.
Let me say plainly what many are afraid to say out loud—our bigamy law needs to be abolished. Not amended. Not softened. Abolished.
This law was written in a completely different era, long before social media, long before “relationship choices” became an actual conversation, and definitely long before grown adults could freely say what works for their lives. Yet here we are in 2025, still dragging people before the courts because the law cannot tell the difference between abuse and adult choice.
The state should not be deciding how many consenting adults someone can love.
We are always preaching “live and let live,” “mind your business,” “freedom of choice”—but the moment people actually live by those values, the law is waiting to punish them. That is hypocrisy, and it is time for it to end.
The recent interviews on the street show exactly what we have known for years: Antiguans are not all on the same page about marriage, and that is perfectly fine. Some people want one partner. Some think it’s silly to criminalize someone’s relationship choices. Others say they could never share a spouse. Some feel it should depend on agreement. A few say their culture back home accepts multiple wives. And some say the law should stay.
But here’s the truth:
A free society does not need everyone to agree on someone else’s relationship. It only needs space for each person to make their own choice.
If a woman doesn’t want her husband to have another wife—that is HER boundary.
If a man wants only one wife—that is HIS boundary.
If three adults decide they want to build a household together—that is THEIR business.
What we should NOT be doing is dragging consenting adults into the criminal justice system, wasting police resources, and pretending we’re protecting society when the only thing we’re really doing is policing private relationships.
We already struggle in this country with domestic violence cases, missing children, robberies, land disputes, and financial crime. Yet we are comfortable using police time to investigate who married who?
That is not justice. That is a distraction.
And for those who argue “it’s the law of the land,” let me remind them:
Bad laws do not deserve respect.
They deserve reform—or abolition.
People love reminding us that “in other cultures” multiple wives are normal. Well, the Caribbean has always been a mix of cultures. We preach cultural pride all year long—until it conflicts with an old British law we never bothered to update.
Let’s be honest: our bigamy law is a leftover colonial statute built on one religious view of marriage, pushed onto us at a time when we had no say in our own governance.
We can’t be shouting “sovereign nation!” on one hand and blindly upholding colonial marriage laws on the other.
A modern society should not be criminalizing:
• consenting adults,
• private agreements,
• alternative family structures,
• choices that do not harm anyone.
If someone lies, manipulates, abuses, defrauds, or deceives—that is a different issue entirely.
But that can be handled with laws targeting fraud, not laws policing how many people stand under a gazebo at Fort James.
Marriage should not be a crime scene.
Antigua and Barbuda cannot call itself progressive while clinging to a law that punishes adults for living their private lives differently from the norm. We talk every election about “modernization,” “freedom,” “independence,” and “human dignity.” Well, here is a chance to prove we actually mean it.
Repeal the bigamy law.
Respect adult choice.
Let people build their homes as they see fit.
Let us finally step into a society where consenting adults are free to determine their own happiness—without fear of handcuffs for choosing love the “wrong” way.
Sincerely,
A Concerned and Tired Antiguan Citizen
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Get the hell out of here with your idiocy.
Stop trying to normalize lust!
Time to stand for RIGHTEOUSNESS that exalteth a nation.
“Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people. … Righteousness will exalt the people and sin diminishes a people.” ~Proverbs 14:34
“Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his WIFE [singular] , and the two will become one flesh.” ~Genesis 2:24
“Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.”~1 Corinthians 7: 2-5