The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

PROPOSED constitutional reform will be successful if the government can dispel misinformation over alleged linkages to same sex marriage, Bahamian religious leaders said yesterday.

Bishop Arnold Josey, of Commonwealth Baptist Church, said he felt public concerns over the amendments centred around perceived ambiguity of the wording of the constitutional amendment bills, and not disagreement with women’s rights.

Mr Josey spoke on the sidelines of an informational forum hosted by the Constitutional Commission for religious leaders at the British Colonial Hilton yesterday.

He added that he felt it was the primary reason the issue was rejected when it appeared as a consolidated question in the failed 2002 referendum.

Mr Josey said: “The time is right for this, it’s a discussion that should have been had, but the time is always right to do what is right.”

He said: “I think with the educational people going around and allowing people to hear, and so you take away the ignorance because you’re going to hear ignorance and nonsense out there. Too much of that is in our country as it relates to issues like this, this should not even be a big deal, it’s only right.”

Mr Josey added: “I believe that women should have equality, I have no problem with that. My only thing was that we preserve this wonderful thing that God gave us called marriage, that we don’t pollute it with these gender issues. It was all mixed up (in 2002), and they’re talking about (needing) more education, but I don’t believe it was that what stopped it. The main thing was that the gender thing came in there and it was all bundled together.”

Lyall Bethel, senior pastor at Grace Community Church, was also present at the forum. However, Mr Bethel said he would reserve his comments until he had read through all of the documentation and considered the issues fully.

The first bill would enable a child born outside the Bahamas to a Bahamian woman to have automatic Bahamian citizenship at birth.

However, the government does not plan to have the clause operate retroactively. Other bills to be debated include allowing a Bahamian woman who marries a foreign man to secure for him the same access to Bahamian citizenship that a Bahamian man has always enjoyed under the Constitution in relation to his foreign wife.

The third bill seeks to remedy the one area of the Bahamas’ Constitution that discriminates against men based on gender. Presently, an unmarried Bahamian father cannot pass his citizenship to a child born to a foreign woman. The bill would give an unwed Bahamian father the same right to pass citizenship to his child that a Bahamian woman has always had under the Constitution in relation to a child born to her out of wedlock.

The fourth bill seeks to end discrimination based on sex.

This involves the insertion of the word “sex” in Article 26 of the Constitution to make it unconstitutional to discriminate based on whether someone is male or female.

Prime Minister Perry Christie has maintained that the fourth constitutional bill would not legalise same sex marriages in the Bahamas. Mr Christie admitted that people were anxious about the issue, but said that lawyers have told the government it is doing “the right thing” as the language in the bill conforms with that of laws and constitutions of other countries.

He added the government is not going to change the wording of the amendment that has sparked heated public debate.

Yesterday, Constitutional Commission member Loren Klein explained to forum participants that the word “sex” was used simply to connote the physical distinction between man and woman, and not gender, which he said was a more psychological construct.

Mr Klein, chief counsel in the chambers of the Attorney-General, said: “It’s important to bring information and clarity to the bills that are currently before Parliament and what they are intended to change and bring about to the law. I think there is a lot of mis-education out there, there’s a lot of confusion, and we simply need to bring some clarity to the process.

“People have certain fears because we live in the world,” he said.

“There is not just a domestic context but an international context, and they will have certain fears and we just need to allay these fears that it is not what is intended.”

Mount Arrat Baptist Church Rev Dr Gloria Ferguson, and Agape Baptist Church Pastor Helen McPhee said they still needed more information on the bills before they could engage their congregations; however, both women agreed that the initiative was a good step towards constructive discussions.

The referendum is set for November 6.