The Tribune

By KORTNEY RODGERS

WITH the highly anticipated constitutional referendum less than 90 days away, Bahamian citizens are concerned about the impact these amendments will have on the country.

The referendum, aimed to revise the country’s Constitution, is centred around four different issues, which Prime Minister Perry Christie has said are “bound together by a common thread: the need to institute full equality between men and women in matters of citizenship and, more broadly, to eliminate discrimination in the Bahamas based on sex.”

However, with the vote set for November 6, some have fears that there is not enough time to educate the public on the important issues.

“This process has been coloured by severely troubling ambiguity,” said 22-year-old women’s rights advocate Shanae Strachan.

“There are no billboards, no commercials, no rallies, and no strong outcry from the community. There must be a strong educational campaign launched immediately, if not, postpone the referendum,” Ms Strachan added.

Therapist and life coach, Harrison Thompson, 26, is against gender discrimination, stating that “never should discrimination happen on the basis that one is indeed a female.”

Concerned about protecting Bahamian culture, Mr Thompson told The Tribune that focus should, however, be placed on the country’s current social reality.

“Bahamian men and women are having more unwed births to foreigners than ever before and we must get ready to be accepting of Haitian-Bahamians, Jamaican-Bahamians, and Cuban-Bahamians as our own citizens. I ask the question, are we ready?” Mr Thompson asked.

Mr Thompson, who believes the country must have strict criteria in place to protect its identity as a nation, says he thinks the third bill is “blatantly an obstruction to protecting our culture and weakening social identity.”

“I do not believe children conceived abroad by way of unmarried Bahamians should be given citizenship, whether male or female,” Mr Thompson said.

Bill four, which seeks to end discrimination based on sex by inserting the word “sex” in Article 26 of the Constitution, has been the source of some debate regarding its possibility that it will eventuality lead to gay marriage. However, both young people say the Bill has nothing to do with homosexuality.

“The fact that this concern has even been raised is indicative of the fact that many Bahamians, including some of our elected officials, are woefully misinformed and uneducated on the doctrine related to the specific bill, and as a result have instinctively reverted to taking on a primitive mindset and myopic view on what should be an otherwise straightforward issue,” said Ms Strachan.

Mr Thompson said: “A simple understanding of the Marriage Act, which encompasses a man and a woman being brought together under holy matrimony, does enough to ease my mind and does well to dispel a hidden agenda we think the government might have.”

“After seeing how the inclusion of the word, ‘sex’ to mean gender only and with the preservation of the Marriage Act, I have no problem voting yes on this amendment,” he added.

Bill one would allow a child born outside the Bahamas to a Bahamian mother and non-Bahamian father to have Bahamian citizenship. Bill two would allow a foreign man married to a Bahamian woman the same right as the foreign spouse of a Bahamian man to seek Bahamian citizenship.

Bill three would allow an unmarried Bahamian father to pass his citizenship on to a child born to a foreign mother, and the fourth Bill seeks to end discrimination based on sex.