By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

LYNN Holowesko, co-chair of the YES Bahamas campaign and former Senate president, yesterday insisted that she and other members of the campaign were “fully interested in, prepared for and capable of” a public debate on the gender equality referendum.

Mrs Holowesko, speaking to The Tribune during the YES campaign’s Exuma launch, revealed that the group has received “several” offers to debate or discuss the legal ramifications of the proposed amendments.

She said the YES Bahamas campaign, as a part of its educational operation, welcomes an open debate on the issues.

She indicated that such a move would only magnify the assertions being put forward by the YES Bahamas group in its open forums and public presentations.

According to Mrs Holowesko, the “real life, heart-wrenching” stories often shared by those in attendance have become the campaign’s best “selling points”.

She added: “Because we as Bahamians all know someone who each and every one of these bills would affect on a personal level.”

“It’s one thing to read words on a piece of paper, but it is another thing to actually see the sincerity in your face and hear it in your voice when you discuss these bills.

“That’s why these kinds of efforts are essential. The community meetings, the radio appearances and the face to face discussions,” she said.

“I want people to know that I myself lived through and I am still living through the repercussions of the lack of bill one. I have four children, all with my American husband born at a time when I lived in America.

“Opting to move back home, my children were not afforded the right to be Bahamian through the Constitution despite me being a citizen of this great country.”

“When you widen the scope of these discussions and get the legal minds in and get the opposing views and allow the voting public a chance to ask questions; you get a full and best understanding and that is what we are working to achieve,” she said.

On Sunday, Think Bahamas! a group opposing three of four Constitutional Amendment Bills said it formally wrote Mrs Holowesko and her fellow co-chair Senate President Lady Sharon Wilson looking to gauge interest in a live debate.

Group spokesperson Pastor Cedric Moss told reporters that it would be “beneficial” for voters across The Bahamas to hear simultaneously from both the YES Bahamas campaign as well as those on the vote ‘no’ side.

Mrs Holowesko led a team to Exuma on Tuesday.

In addition to launching the campaign’s Exuma operation, the team fielded the island’s first town forum of the gender equality referendum.

As a part of that forum, some 50 Exuma residents had an opportunity to openly discuss the legal and social ramifications of all the four proposed amendments.

Tuesday’s community meeting was held at the Kettle Centre in Hooper’s Bay.

The YES Bahamas campaign yesterday launched its educational hotline to answer questions and aid the public with information related to the constitutional amendments.

The hotline is available weekdays from 5pm to 9pm and 9am to 1pm on weekends.

To contact the hotline, call 322-3010/11/12.