Declaring his full support of the constitutional referendum bills, former Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes challenged members of Parliament
to "lead", even in the face of opposition from some of their constituents who do not support the amendments.
His statement comes after several opposition members withdrew their support for bill four after they consulted with their constituents.
Bill four seeks to end discrimination based on gender.
However, there are concerns that the bill will lead to challenges in support of same-sex marriages.
"The argument about gay rights, that's totally extraneous and has nothing to do with this," said Sir Arthur, who spoke to The Nassau Guardian this week.
"I think the representatives of the people have to recognize this. A representative has the responsibility to lead his people. He must listen to his people, dialogue with his people, but there are times when he or she must lead and say to the people, 'Look, this is the way we ought to go. This is the right way. I can't advise you or go along with you if you want to go in another direction which is contrary with our principles.'"
The government amended bill four to address concerns related to same sex marriages by defining the word sex as male or female.
However, the opposition members said they want the government to further amend the bill to make it unlawful to discriminate based on a person's sex "at birth".
While not responding to the opposition members, Sir Arthur said the question is clear enough.
"I hope that we don't attempt to make any amendments to make us look silly in the eyes of the world," he said.
"...The bills are clear. You don't want to add things that are extraneous. I won't go into any details about that, the homophobic thing. I don't know why we are making that an issue in this.
"We are going to have that debate sometime in the future but that's not involved in this particular issue. I hope the Bahamian people would seize this opportunity to do the right thing and bring us in line with the democratic countries of the world."
Sir Arthur said he finds it "mind boggling" that some Bahamians are still opposed to equal rights for women in a 21st Century Bahamas.
"Women are just as capable as men," the 86-year-old said. "It is stupid just to have to say that. It is just so patently obviously."
Sir Arthur said he was surprised when he heard Bahamians proudly declare their opposition to some of the bills on various local radio and television shows.
"That is surprising that people can talk like that in this day and age," he said. "What is also surprising is, having regard to our history as a people where most of the majority of Bahamians suffered so much from discrimination and inequality, that we would want to apply that to somebody else. That's mind boggling.
"You would have thought that somebody who was discriminated against would be the last one in the world who would want to discriminate."
Sir Arthur called on Bahamians to support the referendum. He said the object of the referendum is simple: to bring about equality between men and women.
"I support all four of the bills as they are and in their entirety," he said.
"We ought not live in a society where whole groups of people are discriminated against because of their accidents of birth like color, race and even creed and certainly we shouldn't discriminate half of the population, which are women."
The referendum has been delayed to sometime next year.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian