Christian dance group in Barbados demands investigation after arbiter admits bias
A Christian dance and theatrical group in Barbados is demanding an investigation after a senator and arbiter admitted "a real perception of bias" and rescinded his ruling to uphold the group's disqualification from a national competition after they challenged trans ideology during their performance.
Legal representatives for Praise Academy of Dance Barbados received a letter from Barbadian Sen. Gregory Nicholls admitting that "a fair-minded informed observer would conclude that there was a real possibility of bias" in his ruling last November, according to the United Kingdom-based nonprofit Christian Legal Centre, which represents the school in the small Caribbean nation.
"I have therefore decided to rescind my arbitral decision of November 17th, 2023, in the interest of fairness to all parties concerned," added Nicholls, a member of the Barbados Labour Party.
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In October, the state-owned National Cultural Foundation (NCF) and judges with the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) disqualified the academy for allegedly breaching "the bounds of good taste" and making "defamatory claims" with their dance performance titled "Speak Life."
The performance, which was put on by teenage students and can be viewed on YouTube, depicts a 15-year-old girl who struggles with her gender identity but who ultimately learns to embrace her biological sex because of the Bible.
Dialogue in the show includes the affirmation that sex is biologically fixed according to one's chromosomes, and one of the lines says, "It's not a choice, you don't get to pick, that's the science, period!"
The show also unfurled banners quoting Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
After being disqualified, the dance group filed a complaint with Nicholls, who served as arbiter for NCF.
According to Barbados Today, news of the story hit the press, and Nicholls has since parted ways with the organization after rescinding his ruling.
Nicholls confirmed to the outlet that he was "no longer the arbiter of NCF having rescinded my decision [in] the matter due to an error made in my correspondence."
"I made an error in my communication with the legal counsel for Praise Academy where I misstated the capacity in which I was responding to their letter. This was long after the arbitration decision was made and I sought to clear that up in subsequent correspondence," he continued.
"[Praise Dance Academy] has not accepted that it was a misstatement in my letter to them and as such, I had no choice but to rescind the award and pave the way for the current Arbiter or some other person chosen by NCF to make the determination in the matter," he added.
Attorney Davida Maynard-Holligan, who has been representing Praise Academy of Dance Barbados, praised the rescission but noted in a statement that the original decision by NIFCA judges to disqualify the group remains unchanged.
Together with the Christian Legal Centre, the academy is calling for "an impartial investigation" into Nicholls' ruling and what led to it.
"While we are encouraged that Senator Nicholls has withdrawn his ruling, the original ruling against the group remains in place and justice is being delayed," Maynard-Holligan said.
"If we had not challenged and exposed what had happened to the group, there is no way that Senator Nicholls would have withdrawn his ruling. What he did therefore remains a highly concerning precedent which must never happen again on this island," the attorney continued.
"The ruling sent a chilling message to Christians in Barbados, especially young students, who do not believe in and refuse to conform to confusing and harmful gender identity ideology and extreme teaching," he said, adding that Nicholls' public ruling "amounted to an LGBTQ takeover of our legal rights and freedoms in Barbados and cannot go unchallenged."
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
