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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Nassau -- The YES BAHAMAS campaign notes with interest that a small group of pastors have come together to campaign against Bill # 4. This is tantamount to a rejection of equal rights for our sons and daughters.
Pastor Mario Moxey is quoted as saying “The reason why we’re focused on bill number four is that we feel it would open the door to same-sex marriage.”
The pastor may “feel” that way, but the facts do not support him.
The Constitution of The Bahamas prohibits racial and religious discrimination in Article 26. The proposed amendment (#4) would ensure that the same Article also prohibits discrimination against men or women. That would simply mean that men and women cannot be treated less favourably than the other under any law or act by public officials and that Parliament would be prevented from passing new laws that would discriminate against men or women.
Bahamian men and women have the same responsibilities as citizens; they should have the same rights as well.
Any suggestion that giving men and women equal rights would somehow lead to same-sex marriage does not have any basis in fact or law. The lawyers who drafted Amendment Four went out of their way to guide future courts, by defining “sex” as “male or female”, so that no judge could interpret “sex” as “sexual orientation”. .
Bahamian law specifies that marriage must be between a man and a woman (Matrimonial Causes Act, Section 21[1][c]), and amendment four will not change this. This law (MCA) is specifically exempted by Article 26(4) of the Constitution from being in conflict with the non-discrimination provision of Article 26, and is also saved by article 30 as a pre-existing law from being incompatible with any constitutional rights. Thus, the Constitution already recognizes that marriage can only be the union of one man and one woman.
The Constitutional Commission continues to hold sessions across our islands, so that Bahamians with questions about these proposed amendments can speak directly with top legal experts.
We are leading this campaign for our sons and daughters, for our grandsons and our granddaughters. We want them to grow up in a Bahamas in which they are offered the same rights in the Constitution and the same protections under the law.
Pastor Moxey was quoted as saying, “It’s a matter of chess moves and how you play this game in order to be successful.” But this is no game, this is our country, and to sow the seeds of doubt among Bahamians as to what is at stake in this referendum is serious indeed.
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