By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

WHILE in Grand Bahama yesterday, Pastor Cedric Moss spoke to a number of Bahamians about why they should vote No to three of the Constitutional Amendment Bills in the gender equality referendum on June 7.

Pastor Moss, who is with the Think Bahamas group which supports only the first Bill, came to encourage those in Freeport who support the “No” campaign and to share their views on the bills so people can cast informed votes.

He was a radio guest on Dove Radio at noon and also spoke to a number of residents at a meeting at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Eight Mile Rock.

“This is the right fight. Right is on our side and truth is on our side. The Constitutional Commission and the “Yes” Campaign simply want Yes votes; they don’t care how they get them, and a lot of the commercials they are running are half truths and in some cases outright lies,” claimed the Nassau pastor of Kingdom Life Church.

Pastor Moss explained that Think Bahamas is a little different from the other vote “No” groups because they support bill one, which seeks to give Bahamian women who are married to foreign men the right to pass on their Bahamian citizenship to any child of that union no matter where that child is born. “We encourage voters to support it because we think it is good, but we do not support the others,” he said.

He believes that citizenship should not be based on marriage. “We do not think it should be a constitutional entitlement … and we also do not believe a person should be able to get citizenship without renouncing other citizenships they hold.”

In regards to bill three, Pastor Moss explained that even though they agree that unmarried Bahamian women should be able to pass on their citizenship to a child born in the Bahamas or abroad, they do not believe that the same right should be given to unmarried Bahamian men who father children with foreign women. He said the child should take citizenship of the mother and apply for his Bahamian citizenship at 18.

Pastor Moss believes that bill four will radically change Bahamian society. “The proper thing right now is to put a pause on it, but the government, in my view, has some agenda with bill four.”

He noted that the Bahamas should have adopted the approach taken by Jamaica when it amended its constitution. “Jamaica’s approach was different in that they did not use the word sex. They said you will be protected from discrimination for being male or female. In addition, they did not add that prohibition with the others like race, political opinion, colour, creed or class, they put it in a separate clause because they recognise you do treat men and women differently, equal but differently. I think we can follow the model of Jamaica and do it properly,” he said.

Pastor Moss also claims that the government rejected recommendation 25 of the Constitutional Commission. “That would have been protective in that it would stave off any constitutional challenge about same sex marriage and would have made the position clear that same marriage is not permitted under the Constitution or current law,” he said.

“That is on page 125 of the Constitutional Commission’s report and the commission is trying to hide it from people … They recommended something that got rejected and it seems to me (the government) rejected it because they want to set the stage for same sex marriage by rejecting that,” he claimed.

Mr Moss also claims that the Yes campaign is not being honest in their discussions. “They are saying because I am voting no to bill four, I am against women and do support equality for women. I support equality for women,” he said.