A gender-critical Christian dance group is asking for an investigation after a senator who upheld their disqualification from a contest withdrew his ruling.Â
The Praise Academy of Dance Barbados was disqualified by the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) last October for allegedly exceeding “the bounds of fine taste” and making “defamatory claims”.Â
The teenagers, who were supported by the Christian Legal Centre, had planned to compete within the competition with a performance called ‘Speak Life’, which presents a Christian viewpoint of gender identity and sexual orientation, and states that there are only two genders.
Their disqualification was upheld in November by Senator Gregory Nicholls, who was acting as arbiter within the dispute with NIFCA.Â
He has now written to the group’s legal representatives confirming that he has rescinded his decision.Â
“I accept … that a fair-minded informed observer would conclude that there was an actual possibility of bias in the current matter,” he wrote.
“I even have due to this fact decided to rescind my arbitral decision of November seventeenth, 2023, within the interest of fairness to all parties concerned.”
The withdrawal of his ruling doesn’t affect the unique decision of the NIFCA to cancel the performance.Â
Attorney Davida Maynard-Holligan, who’s representing Praise Academy of Dance Barbados, said that the dance group’s experience “sent a chilling message to Christians in Barbados”. He is asking for an impartial investigation into the senator’s actions.
“While we’re encouraged that Senator Nicholls has withdrawn his ruling, the unique ruling against the group stays in place and justice is being delayed,” he said.Â
“If we had not challenged and exposed what had happened to the group, there is no such thing as a way that Senator Nicholls’ would have withdrawn his ruling.
“What he did due to this fact stays a highly concerning precedent which mustn’t ever occur again on this island.”Â
