Mottley Crew

Mia Mottley is the eighth Prime Minister in Barbados history, and the first woman to hold the post. She was elected in May 2018 in a landslide that saw her Barbados Labour Party ( BLP) win every one of 30 seats in the island’s Parliament. She was first elected as an MP in 1994 and was the youngest ever Queen’s Counsel in Barbados.

Mottley is reportedly “pro- LGBT rights” — when she was Attorney General in 2001 she commissioned a study on laws that affected HIV interventions. This concluded it was critical to overturn the country’s anti- sodomy law, although it’s never been acted upon. And in 2003 she spoke for the decriminalisation of both homosexuality and prostitution.

Interestingly, her political opponents have sought to make an issue of rumours around Mottley’s own sexual orientation, of which she has never spoken, with a former speaker of the house, Michael Carrington, suggesting: “If she is gay, then she should come out and say so, so people know what they are getting as Prime Minister.”

A former Environment Minister, Denis Lowe, went further – using homophobic slurs. “The Barbados Labour Party is led by a self- proclaimed wicker,” he said, using derogatory slang for lesbian. “[ She] doesn’t have any liking for men except those who don’t have balls.”

Gratifyingly, both men were swept from power as the people of Barbados — Rihanna included – demonstrated at the ballot box that Mia Mottley’s sexuality, either way, is a non- issue.