The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Paradoxically, Pastor Cedric Moss is both correct and incorrect. In an Op-Ed published on April 16 in The Nassau Guardian, he wrote that we are having a “dishonest debate” about “gender equality”.

This is true, but not on the grounds that Pastor Moss provides. Pastor Moss advises Bahamians not to vote to remove the constitutional provisions that allow for inequality between Bahamian women and men because we are “equals before God.” But this is disingenuous reasoning. The Constitution we have was not created by God. It was created by men (and I am using this latter term both literally and metaphorically).

It is, therefore, imperfect, containing so-called “disparities” that allow for the unequal treatment of Bahamian women and men. We are at a critical juncture where we, as a people, can have genuine input on the type of Constitution we would like to be governed by. Is it one that promotes equality regardless of whether a person is born male or female?

Or is it one that continues to entrench differential treatment based upon whether someone is born a baby girl or a baby boy?

And this is where Pastor Moss and others of his ilk are (indirectly and perhaps unknowingly) correct. We are not talking about gender equality here. We are talking about the equality of the sexes; of Bahamian women and men. Sex and gender, for all their interchangeable usage in our every day talk, are not the same. Sex is biological; gender is not. People are born with certain physiological characteristics that classify them as a particular sex. In the alleged debate we are having, this equates to our use of “women” and “men”/ “female” and “male”.

Gender, on the other hand, is not strictly about whether you have male and/or female sexual organs. It is about how you identify, how you perform the roles that are assigned to you by society based upon certain notions of femininity and masculinity. It is, in effect, a social construct.

I will thus concede Cedric Moss and others like him some ground. We are not having a debate about gender equality. This referendum is not about making “genders” equal. As a society contemplating change to its Constitution in the 21st century, we are being resolutely cautious. We are proposing change based upon the equality of the sexes, of those who are biologically “men” and “women”.

We are not, it must be pointed out, deciding whether to amend the Constitution to reflect the equality of people based on sexual orientation (which is why it is so difficult to understand the misinformation (panic?) that is being generated around Bill No. 4).

Where I steadfastly disagree, however, is that this is not a debate about equality. It is first and foremost an issue of equality – the equality of all Bahamians, whether born a baby girl or a baby boy, now and in the future. We are being given the power – and most importantly the responsibility – to decide whether we want inequality between women and men to remain enshrined in our Constitution. Make no mistake about it. The citizenship “disparities” of which Pastor Moss speaks are much more than mere “differences” between the sexes.

These “disparities” translate into differential treatment of Bahamian women and men in various areas of the law. The differential treatment of people based upon the sex they are born into is inherently unequal and unjust. If we (rightly) contend that a person should not be treated unequally to another because they are born black, white, hearing impaired, blind or insert-any-other-characteristic-you-can-have-at-birth, why would we think that it is just to treat a person as a non-equal because she or he was born into a particular sex? It is illogical.

Finally, I want to be clear, should we vote “yes” on June 7th, we are doing so not because we have anything to prove to the outside world (ah, finally, Bahamians are up to speed with the rest of the “modern” world when it comes to removing legally sanctioned inequality between women and men from their constitution; ah, finally, Bahamians are making their domestic law reflect important international treaties they have already ratified in this area).

No a “yes” vote on June 7th is about proving to ourselves that we have what it takes to bear the “progressive” mantle that we were given at Independence. It is about carrying forward the flame of “free” that we have fought for since then. It is about bearing witness to the fact that we are all created equally in the image of God and that we, as a people, can reflect and recognise this in our Constitution.

KRISTY A BELTON, PhD

Nassau,

April 29, 2016.