The Bishop of The Bahamas has given his support to four constitutional amendments that seek to banning sexual discrimination.

The Church of the Province of the West Indies’ Bishop of The Bahamas has given his support to four constitutional amendments that will be presented in a national referendum next year banning sexual discrimination and liberalizing the country’s immigration laws. In his presidential address to the 113th meeting of synod in Nassau held at Christ Church Cathedral (pictured), the Rt. Rev. Laish Boyd dismissed claims that banning sex discrimination would give gay rights activists a legal foothold to allow same-sex marriage. “These amendments are about establishing gender equality and seek to equalise the means of transmitting citizenship.” Same-sex marriage fears were “steering the discussion into matters that simply do not arise. I consider it to be a red herring,” he said on 16 Oct 2014. “We cannot have different strokes for different folks, ie, different rules for men and women,” he said. Fears that liberalizing the country’s immigration laws would see an influx of Haitian and Jamaican immigrants overrun the country were misplaced, he said. “There are thousands of persons who have been in this country for decades, some of them all of their lives, many who know no other country,” he said. “If we are going to be just and fair, there must be a discussion about a path to regularisation and even citizenship for some of these persons.”