“Nottage: Vote Hurt by Same-Sex Marriage talk” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “With momentum ahead of the June constitutional referendum appearing to be with the ‘no’ campaign, National Security Minister Dr. Bernard Nottage said yesterday that talks of same sex marriage will negatively impact the vote on amendments to the Constitution.

‘It will impact the vote negatively because the question and amendments have nothing to do with that’ he told reporters during an interview following a House of Assembly session yesterday.’

‘The fact that these matters are being brought up now is a bit mischievous because it would appear as if there are very responsible people in our community who are prepared to suggest that (the bills have to do with same sex marriage) when they know full well they are not connected.”

Excerpt from [the] Prime Minister (Perry Christie) tabling of four Constitutional amendment bills.

Bill #4: The Bahamas Constitution (Amendment) (No. 4) Bill, 2004.

Finally, Bill #4 seeks to end discrimination based on sex.  This involves the insertion of the word ‘sex’ into Article 26 of the Constitution so as to make it unconstitutional to discriminate on whether someone is male or female.

It is for me to caution, however, that the bill makes it clear that the existing exception will continue to apply. In particular, this bill will not make same –sex marriages lawful.  Such unions are already treated as void under the Matrimonial Act and the genesis of this particular legal position pre-dates the Independence Constitution.  This will not change under the proposed amendments to Article 26.”

The Prime Minister’s clarification to this situation is about as clear as that of Dr. Bernard Nottage leading up to the ‘Gaming Referendum’/Opinion Poll, when asked to give clarification to the question, “Do you support the regulation and taxation of web shop gaming?”, the question was how do you regulate and tax something that is illegal but the answer from Minister Nottage at the time was that legalize was implicitly implied in the word regulate, this lead to unnecessary confusion, the failure of the ‘Gaming Referendum’ and of course the rest is history and the question now is, are we headed in the very same direction?

As the Prime Minister proclaims “Not on my watch”, implying that the success of Bill #4 will not lead to same-sex marriages on ‘his watch’ because as he put it, “Such unions are already treated as void under the Matrimonial Act”, I would like to ask if we change the Constitution to PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION based on ‘sex’ and two of the same ‘sex’ wish to wed, then will the Matrimonial Act trump the Constitution which will now say that you cannot discriminate based on sex?

Yes, Dr. Nottage is right that some mischief is being created by some people, but the minister must also admit to the fact that a lot of the negativity toward the upcoming referendum has come about due to the confusion created by an inept and incompetent government.

Then there is the issue of the distrust created by the overturning of the ‘Gaming Referendum.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is within their nature.

END