The Tribune

It wasn’t fears of same-sex marriage that scuppered the referendum, it was distrust of the government, says Malcolm J Strachan . . .

After months of debate and years of education campaigns, the gender equality referendum has come and gone.

As a nation, there was an overwhelming vote of ‘No’ to all four bills with the Vote No campaign claiming a victory over the ‘global homosexual agenda’.

Their ignorance could not be more clear.

There is no global gay conspiracy. What we do have in this country however, is a failing education system, widespread ignorance, misogamy and xenophobia.

That is the Bahamas we are building.

The Bahamian people did not vote ‘No’ because they were convinced of the No Campaign’s message, or worried about gays or same-sex marriage in the main. The people of the Bahamas voted ‘No’ because they have lost faith, and trust in their Government.

No factions

Don’t get us wrong; there is a large segment of our society which honestly believes that men and women are not equal. This is a fact that we must come to grips with. Some men, and women, truly believe this. They quote scripture to support their argument, and their bush-league pastors reinforce this message on a weekly basis, and so they voted ‘No’.

Another faction voted ‘No’ simply because of a lack of clarity in bill 4, and a belief that it would be a gateway to homosexual marriage. These people were told, ‘if you don’t know, vote no’ and so they did. No matter how many times this issue of ‘same-sex marriage’ was struck down, it continued to raise its head like a never-ending game of whack-the-mole.

Additionally, there is a segment of the society which believed that the bills did not go far enough; or they were worded incorrectly; or they were not retroactive ... and so on and so on. These people therefore voted no. Their argument being that as the bills were not perfect in the first instance, they would vote to ensure that discrimination remains in place until the Government could ‘get the bills right’.

We hear, and understand this. Our only concern however, is that all this grouping has done is ensure that no Government, at least for the next 15 years, will ever attempt another referendum, for fear of a repetition of these results.

Another group voted ‘No’ in the gender equality referendum out of a belief that their vote was worth ‘nothing’. This was due the Government’s now infamous ‘U-turn’ on the Gaming Referendum in 2013. These people felt that the Government would do whatever it liked anyway (as it did back then) so why bother? To put it simply, the people lacked trust in this administration.

Another faction was the segment of society which felt that this issue had nothing to do with them, as it would only impact the ‘white’ or the ‘elite’ amongst us. They never imagined themselves being married, living abroad, or their sons or daughters having children with foreigners.

To them, such lofty ‘problems’ were far from their daily struggles of everyday life. The fact that the likes of Lynn Holowesko and Lady Sharon Wilson were picked as the faces for the Yes Campaign heightened this disconnect in their minds, and emphasised the “them vs us” mentality that was created. No matter how many times Lady Wilson shared her story of being from Bain Town, her immense wealth identified that she is no longer there, and has nothing in common with the people she was attempting to connect with. It’s a sad reality, but one that exists.

Faulty campaign

But these were all things that the general public knew, well before the results of the referendum began to trickle in. What is worse, the Government knew it as well. A fortune was spent on research and polling, which all highlighted the above, and yet the campaign failed to acknowledge or address these concerns. We can only imagine that foreign consultants (whom the PLP love so much) were brought in to tell the Government what they already knew; that the people have lost faith in you, and they do not trust you anymore. Your decisions of the past, from 2002 to now, have come back to haunt you.

A question that we must now ask is: if this research and polling were conducted and it did not reveal the aforementioned, why does the Government continue to spend so much money on it? Clearly the data being presented was not reliable and someone has been had. These latest referendum results should not have been a surprise - to anyone.

It was forecasted on radio programmes, on social media, in the churches and around dining room tables across the nation. So why did the nation’s leader seem so surprised? What was he being told that we weren’t?

Where the

vote won

Ironically, the only constituencies where a Yes vote prevailed for any one of the questions were seats held by FNMs. Some may suggest that this may have more to do with the socio-economic status of the residents in those constituencies. Or, it could be that FNM MPs were more successful in educating their people on the issues. Even in Long Island where the questions were rejected, you can see that the numbers were closer than any other island.

So what does this tell us? Well, mainly, the PLP does not have a mandate to lead.

In any other jurisdiction, the Prime Minister would go back to his people via a general election. But we live in a young democracy where governments are not so quick to give up power and yield to the voice of the people.

This is not to say however that the people would not vote for the PLP if a snap election were called tomorrow. Unfortunately for the FNM, Dr Hubert Minnis did more damage to the party by his public flip-flopping on the issue. After voting Yes in Parliament, and authorising the campaigning for a No vote, the party could not have a clear and united voice. Once again, Loretta Butler-Turner had to be the only national voice for which the party could be proud. We hope for her party’s sake, and the country, that she is successful at their upcoming national convention. The FNM, and the Bahamas at large, can not afford for Dr Minnis to remain as leader of the Opposition for much longer.

Where to now?

So where do we go now? We have ensured that discrimination remains in our Constitution for at least the next two administrations. Thousands of Bahamian men and women, born and unborn, will remain constitutionally unequal.

Ultimately, the only ones to blame are ourselves. The bills were not perfect, yes, that is clear. But they were a start. The education campaign was late, and imperfect, but at least they tried. The Government may have been looking for a feather in their cap for the next general election, but it was a just cause. Their heart (if they have one) was in the right place.

As Bahamians now, all we can do is regroup and prepare ourselves for the upcoming general elections next year.

As we made our voices heard last week, we must make sure they are heard just as strongly and resolutely in 2017. We still have a country to build, and for many of us, this is the only country we have.

• Comments and responses to insight@tribunemedia.net