If you walking with another man, they say they think you funny…
I wish they would mind their own business
—Eddie Minnis and Der Brudders
Before he died so tragically way back in 2000, Archdeacon William Thompson had quite an intellectual debate with an English priest who came to The Bahamas who was openly gay. Archdeacon Thompson was resolutely opposed to gay men and gay priests and the whole gay theme and agenda. But he said that what gave him pause was when the priest said to him this thought. Supposed this is actually something which is conferred by nature and not a learned behavior as you think, the same way that your skin is black and there is nothing that you can do about it, but people hold it against you, and prejudge you because of it in the same way that they prejudge you because of the colour of your skin.
In 1924, the legislature of Maryland passed a bill which made it possible for people who had amongst other maladies epilepsy to be sterilized. The theory was that these people should not pass on their mental illness to another generation and so should be sterilized. Science now tells us that epilepsy is not a mental illness at all, and our moral and changing standards now tell us that even if it were a mental illness that is not a reason to sterilize someone.
The point of the last story is that majorities are many times wrong and just because it is a majority opinion does not make it right, fair or just. Just remember how Galileo was made to recant his assertion that the earth moved around the sun in the face of scientific evidence. The Roman Catholic Church punished him for his views and only in this century had to formally relent that their position was wrong. Too late to help Galileo.
On the platform on Washington D.C. on the 21st January, Barrack Obama, the American president, revered by Bahamians, argued for marriage equality, saying what he said during the run up to his re-election campaign even more explicitly that until our gay brothers and sisters have the same equality that everyone else has for the person they love, then our work is not done.
What was that which Martin Luther King Jr. said: judged by the content of your character.
In a world forum a far far away from The Bahamas, the Attorney General of The Bahamas Allyson Maynard Gibson addressed the issue of amending the constitution of The Bahamas to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation in Geneva, Switzerland on 23rd January. The excerpt from her presentation is quoted in exten so below. She said that there is no positive discrimination against gay people in The Bahamas. It of course leaves open the question of whether there is discrimination in another form. She said that in 2006 when the last constitutional commission under Paul Adderley held its hearings there was no appetite for including sexual orientation in the constitution. She touted the fact that same sex relations in private are lawful in the law of The Bahamas, one of the few Caribbean countries where that is so.
The present law was introduced to Parliament by the late Paul Adderley and in its original draft contained 20 year penalties for consensual sex between same sex couples. It created a new offence called lesbianism. Mr. Adderley in introducing it said that the government had to put its stamp in law against morally objectionable behavior. He later told the story of his children asking him after that statement in which world was he living and he changed his mind on the subject.
The Europeans have always been concerned about our attitudes and laws toward that and the death penalty. Some European states are saying that there can be no financial development assistance from them as long as there is discrimination against gays and as long as there is a death penalty. Thankfully one supposes, The Bahamas does not need the assistance, so our intransigence on the subject can safely continue.
In the Constitutional Commission, the present incarnation headed by Sean McWeeney Q.C. a succession of religious leaders have insisted that there is no need to include discrimination against gays in the constitution. Many of them did not want The Bahamas to vote for a resolution at the UN which would have decried violence against gay people. That this would be the unchristian thing to do, according to them. Further, many of them wanted the constitution amended so that marriage will be defined as between a man and woman. In this atmosphere, it was an act of bravery for the government’s spokesman in Europe to suggest that the issue of discrimination against gays should be studied. Although not enough, it was the right thing to say and to do.
As we watch with complete amazement and fright at the hysteria, irrationality and illogic and prejudice that goes on with the debate on gambling, other personal rights stand to lose big time by the same prejudice. This is an amazing and interesting society which votes against its self-interest. What is also frightening, perplexing is how the political appetite for this is non-existent and good people who know better go scrambling for the tall grass at the very hint of a discussion on the subject. Not me, they quickly cry.
These same pastors, politicians and civic leaders leading the no vote are surrounded by gambling every day. Yet the simple question of regulation becomes a fundamental act of dishonesty on their part.
Gay men and women surround them as well in this society, everywhere. They depend on them to sing in the church choirs, to direct the choirs, to run the Sunday schools, to read the bible passages on Sunday, to build the buildings, to fix the cars, to administer to the sick, to paste the Junkanoo costumes and to win medals in track and field, in the public service, who run for political office. Yet if such an argument for equality were to break out here in The Bahamas all hell would break loose, lost in illogic and prejudice and dishonesty. A portent of the hysteria is one FNM representative in Parliament is constantly accusing others of the unspeakable sin. She has “gaydar” which surpasses all understanding.
There appeared at the Constitutional Commission to be one lone voice for some rationality on the topic and that was the President of COBUS,the student union president Ernesto Williams who argued that yes there was a need to ensure that there was no discrimination based on orientation. Brave man. He too is right. Best of luck there. By drawing attention now in this piece, we shudder to think what will happen to him now.
Earlier, one of the young politicos was drummed out of office because he dared to suggest that discrimination against gays was wrong. Such is the skittishness about this subject that even when these halting declarations are made, they are accompanied by the declaration: “well I am not one”. The law has changed so significantly in the UK that it is no longer thought to be defamatory to say that someone is homosexual. The real answer is even if you were so what.
Kudos to Simeon Hall, the Baptist Bishop, for his attacks on homophobic church men, and their selectivity when it comes to sin. The rest of us will cower in our fear, wallow in our prejudice and people will inevitably suffer simply because the society will not come into the modern era and stand up for what is right to do.
Source: BahamasUncensored
