LGBTQ rights still lag in Pacific region despite Cook Islands’ move to lift gay sex ban

The Cook Islands follows other Pacific Island nations in wiping colonial-era sodomy laws from the statutes, beginning with the Marshall Islands in 2005

But bans, which uphold a widespread prejudice against LGBTQ people, remain in place in other parts of the vast Pacific Islands region that is home to 12 million people

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A rainbow flag flies outside a restaurant in the Cook Islands. Lawmakers in the tiny island nation of 15,000 people passed a bill on April 14 to decriminalise same-sex sexual relations. Photo: Facebook/Pride Cook Islands

Published: 5:00am, 25 Apr 2023Updated: 5:43am, 25 Apr 2023

A move to decriminalise gay sex in the Cook Islands is a welcome step, but LGBTQ people in the Pacific Islands region still lack basic rights and risk discrimination – or worse – at every turn, activists say.

Lawmakers in the tiny island nation of 15,000 people passed a bill on April 14 to decriminalise same-sex sexual relations, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, although the law was rarely, if ever, enforced.

The measure is expected to become law on June 1.

Announcing his support for the change in parliament, Prime Minister Mark Brown said the law outlawing homosexual activity – a vestige of British colonial rule – was “a discriminatory and unjust law that goes against our constitution and our values as a nation”.

“We have freedom to love who we want to,” he said.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown announces the decriminalisation of gay sex among consenting adults, on April 15. Photo: Facebook/Mark Brown

Activists had campaigned for change for more than a decade and the long-awaited parliamentary vote caused “elation”, said Karla Eggleton, who leads Pride Cook Islands, an LGBTQ group.