By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE University of the Bahamas declared its independence from “undue influence” yesterday after the Bahamas Christian Council protested an LGBT-related event planned for this month.

Pride Bahamas, an organisation concerned with social justice and empowering the country’s LGBTI+ community, will host a series of events from October 4 to 10 to celebrate pride, including a forum scheduled at UB.

Bahamas Christian Council president Bishop Delton Fernander and several dozen senior pastors held a press conference at UB yesterday, objecting to the event.

In response, UB chair Allyson Maynard Gibson said: “University of The Bahamas was established by University of The Bahamas Act 2016, which establishes a Board of Trustees “ … which shall … be free from undue influence from political, religious, or other external bodies and shall protect the institution from such influence.”

“The School of Social Sciences will host a forum entitled ‘Black Bahamian Subject Formation: From Non-Subject to Subject Part II’. It is hoped that students and citizens will continue to engage with UB, the national tertiary institution, as it carries out its fiat, among other things, to encourage our students (and all Bahamians) to “… exercise critical thinking”. 

“Forums such as this are the places where, as a part of UB’s national development mandate, our national spirit will be enriched and developed, as people with differing views engage in civil discourse and our students and citizens develop a better understanding of different viewpoints.” 

Bishop Fernander said he accepts that universities foster debates, but does not expect UB “to be used as a propaganda tool for special interests”. 

“The interests of the country, the interests of the people, the interests of the people of God who stand up for righteousness, should be what is used for taxpayer dollars to push forward in our country,” he said. “We are the people sending our children to these classrooms.”

 “This week, I believe, engenders a sense of anxiety in our country because we’re concerned that we are playing not only on the younger minds, but now we’re playing on the young leaders of tomorrow that we want to be prepared to lead our country in a better way.”

 Bishop Fernander suggested Christian Council members will attend the event if it is not cancelled.

 For his part, Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas (UTEB) President Daniel Thompson told reporters he was taken aback by the outrage. 

 He said as an academic institution, UB cannot discriminate against anyone.

 “This is not the Baptist Community College, neither is it the Anglican seminary,” he said. “This is the University of The Bahamas, and so we do not judge people based on their religion. We do not judge them based on their sexuality. We do not judge them based on their gender or ageism.

 “Again, people are free to express themselves outside the gates. They’re free to express their opinion, and I welcome the expression, but my members who are involved in an academic discourse on sexuality have a right to speak freely, and their academic freedom must be protected.”

 “When I speak as an academician, I speak based on my academic freedom. When I’m outside the gate on Sabbath when I attend my church, I speak in my religious capacity, but when students enter these walls, when scholars enter these walls, when Bahamians enter these gates, they enter with the freedom of expression as an academic institution.”