The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie said leaders of conservative countries must consider how their nations could “co-exist in a world” where global attitudes towards social issues like homosexuality are shifting.

Mr Christie said that while governments must not seek to change the conservative ideas of its people, they must consider how to react to changing global social realities.

He emphasised the importance of striking the right balance between “people’s rights of access” and the imposition of restrictions on them.

“America has now legalised same sex marriages,” he said. “It’s happening. And so you have to assume therefore in the region we have this kind of discussion all the time amongst prime ministers about the conservatism that exists in our countries. How do we coexist in a world where the vice-president of the United States has said culture of countries do not trump human rights?

“Human rights are then elevated to the highest levels. And therefore you see the traditional norms of the world being changed and the levels of what was phobia are being rejected and are now becoming norms. Countries like the Bahamas have to look very carefully at it, not to change it, but how do you go about accepting it?”

Mr Christie’s statements came while speaking to students of the College of the Bahamas’ journalism programme on Thursday. His comment about homosexuality came in response to a student’s question seeking his thoughts about the publication of graphic, sometimes violent images on social media sites like Facebook.

“When you see freedom to the point where graphic sexual acts are put on the Internet, where persons are being exposed and where our kids don’t have that filtered to them, you may be discerning, you may be strong enough to understand it but there is something drastically wrong with that and you don’t have the right to impose upon me what might be your liberal views in life,” he added.

“There are certain things like respect, sobriety and discipline that have to exist in a country because if you try to give an instant exposure to young people who cannot filter that and have the discipline that you have, you have a problem.”

The issue of gay rights is a hot-button one in the Bahamas. The government has faced pushback from some people, even some Progressive Liberal Party MPs over the fourth Constitutional Amendment Bill about concerns that it could one day lead to legal gay marriage. However, the government has dismissed this argument and has stressed that the Bill only seeks to end discrimination based on sex from the Constitution.

Last August during a debate in the House of Assembly on the four Constitutional Amendment Bills, State Minister for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez noted that the US government placed sanctions on Uganda for outlawing homosexuality, suggesting that the Bahamas must be sensitive to the implications of how it addresses certain social issues.

However, Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins stood on a point of order and accused Mr Gomez of using scare tactics to gain the support of Bahamians on the amendment.

The government has repeatedly said that it has no intention of legalising same-sex marriages or revisiting its laws on the matter.

In the speech last year referred to by Mr Christie, US Vice-President Joe Biden spoke about inspiring global action against anti-gay violence and discrimination. According to NBC News, Mr Biden declared that protecting gay rights is a “defining mark of a civilised nation and must trump national cultures and social traditions”.

He called the matter the defining “civil rights issue of our day”.

“I don’t care what your culture is,” Mr Biden told an audience. “Inhumanity is inhumanity. Prejudice is prejudice is prejudice.”

He added the American government had been instructed to prioritise the promotion of gay rights abroad.