It is indeed a sad day when recently at a prominent lunch establishment four men in business attire had the audacity to pass around pornographic video captured on a cell phone. Said video was prominently displayed as if these patrons wanted nearby young professional women to view it. Who can these young women turn to if our leaders too care not for their equal rights? Vulgar language and the continued dismissal of women's rights cannot be tolerated in Parliament.
Overt sexual language has no place in Parliament. But in The Bahamas our male dominated leadership finds language flowered with sexual undertones appropriate for use in debate. Women, underrepresented in politics and unequal in constitutional rights, incur sexual harassment daily with such behavior proffered as acceptable by our male politicians. "Testicular fortitude" is all too ubiquitous in Parliament, the media and conversation. In June, Opposition Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis challenged Prime Minister Perry Christie to "be a man" on bringing the gender amendments back to the House of Assembly.
No one will forget outrageous comments made by Leslie Miller, MP, in the House on beating women because they asked for it. It is of no surprise then that the 2014 U.S. human rights report on The Bahamas notes that "violence against women continued to be a serious, widespread problem". The government counters such a statement by touting the completion of The Bahamas' strategic plan to address gender-based violence (GBV) under the responsibility of Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin. Women live in The Bahamas under a hostile and discriminating environment promulgated by those elected to represent them.
Our elected politicians are steadfast to uphold the constitution to perpetuate gender discrimination under the guise of citizen equality. Yet for all the postulating by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) on gender equality, it has nothing to show for it. As The Nassau Guardian has noted, the gender equality referendum has been delayed four times since the PLP was elected in May 2012. And let's not forget that the PLP rejoiced over the failure of the constitutional amendment referendum in 2002, an irony lost on our attorney general, Allyson Maynard-Gibson. "I'm so happy that we are here at this stage. I think we have to handle this very carefully because we don't know when we are going to have this opportunity again," she said. Yet, her own party, the PLP, squashed the opportunity for gender equality over a decade ago.
Given the present climate of the House and its overt hostility towards women, such sentiments as expressed by the attorney general mean little to women wrongfully denied gender equality. We agree with Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis that gender discrimination has no place in the modern Bahamas.
In July he said: "I think it's very important, in this day and age, entrenched discrimination against genders ... has no place in a modern Bahamas." Yet, the leadership of both parties has set an unfortunate tone for parliamentary discourse. Despite three years of promises to bring forward a constitutional referendum, our male leaders prefer to compete over who can exert greater "testicular fortitude". Unfortunately, such despicable bantering is repeated by young men much to the detriment of their young female counterparts.
Bahamian women fight every day against instances of verbal and physical sexual advances. But who do they have to turn to when such sexual language is heralded in the halls of Parliament? It's time to end gender inequality. With less than two years left before the next election the PLP should act quickly to finally rectify a wrong it so gallantly championed more than a decade ago.
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