Two Words & A Comma On Human Rights Act
Today advocacy group, Two Words and a Comma, highlighted previously released educational material to help clarify the proposed amendment to the Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation as a protected grounds of discrimination.
A statement from the group said, “Recent public comments about this amendment make it clear that there are several ongoing misconceptions in the community about the proposed legislative changes.
“We want to clarify these misunderstandings and encourage the public to take the time to read this material and become clear on the government’s proposed amendment to this important piece of legislation.”
The advocacy group also added, “When this Bill is debated, we hope that our politicians will take the opportunity to stand up against discrimination and say on record that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is not acceptable. This amendment is another stepping stone towards a more just and tolerant society and this is of benefit to us all.”
The bill is due to be debated tomorrow [June 14] in the House of Assembly.
Their flyer is below, you can click to enlarge it or read the PDF version here.
I support your efforts.
One suggestion for the above flyer is to not use white type on a black background. It makes what you have written harder to read, which is obviously not what you want.
B** all **** boys.. str8 up.. read the bible no man to man .. gays get no respect.. not even in the church.. from the lord dont respect a ****** neither should we.. take them gay right somewere else.. cant have my child growin up around that
Jesus had 2 daddies….. n u still big him up. lmao. ***
That has got to be the most ignorant statement ever.
@hollywood, what if your child grows up and comes out to you that he/she is gay?? Will you still be a homophobic bigot? Btw it takes two heterosexual people to create a gay person, maybe to eradicate gays, we should ban heterosexual sex!
Indeed Sir George .
One of the most vocal proponents within the Two Words and A Comma group is a courageous young man and father of a young son who has accepted the fact that he knows not what his young son’s sexual orientation will end up being.
He is bold and wise enough now to be taking the stand to make sure that his son will , whatever transpires , be protected from all forms of discrimination and bigotry.
Id’ love to some day meet the guy . He’s light years ahead of most of his fellow Bermudians.
Imagine if you grew up and went to school and all the school children at your school found that you live with your 2 daddies and they both are gay. You would be teased, made fun of, and you would be psychologically damaged for the rest of your life. Your moral compass would be f***d.
Here’s an idea:
How about, instead of forcing folks to be afraid to be who they are, we, instead, try to get rid of some of the hate?
Whose fault is it that kids would tease, make fun of and psychologically damage another child because of who their parents are? Certainly not the victim…
You do know the bible is not real right! Lol, living in a world full of ****! And Bernews don’t you dare censor **** because you let a woman curse on video a few weeks back. And no I’m not for either side but rights and respect are due to every human being.
P.S ……F U Bernews! I told you not to.
This is deeply depressing to realise that people are so bigoted. Once upon a time people said the same sort of things about other sexes, religions and races.
God did not write the bible ! Jesus did not write bible 2 the sequel!
@hollywood
Then you and your kid had better move to another planet. There is nowhere on this EARTH that you can get away from them. Also we don’t need or want people like you around.
Can’t have your children growing up around such hate and discrimination either. And you have the nerve to use the Bible in your hate rant with cursing as well? Don’t you realize you sound any better than those in the 60s who said, “God don’t like no n****rs”?
Here’s what the bible has to say on a few other things..
Like Slavery
“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)”
“When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)”
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)”
And a few other gems:
Death for Hitting Dad
Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)
Death for Cursing Parents
1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB)
2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)
Death for Adultery
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)
Death to Followers of Other Religions
Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)
Kill Nonbelievers
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)
And my two personal favorite:
Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night
But if this charge is true (that she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)
Kill Followers of Other Religions.
1) If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)
2) Suppose a man or woman among you, in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, has done evil in the sight of the LORD your God and has violated the covenant by serving other gods or by worshiping the sun, the moon, or any of the forces of heaven, which I have strictly forbidden. When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then that man or woman must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NLT)
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You can’t pick and mix, buddy. It’s either all or nothing.
STOP USING THE BIBLE TO DISCRIMINATE PEOPLE. JESUS never said one bad thing about being gay. His teachings are clear love everyone. He would support love and he would support gay marriage as any logical being!
Hardly.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.”
Matthew 5:17
Jesus didn’t write the Bible ..so it’s fair game, really.
I think the bible is a wonderful compilation of stories and gives us insight on history ,to use it to deny anybody basic human rights or to oppress people just shows a total lack of compassion and intelligence .
Most of you are gay because you got molested by someone. That is not natural it was wrong then and its wrong now.
Facts please…
false…
Oh wow, I hope no one you love or care about ever gets molested because we can tell how much you would support them. Lord forbid it’s your own child.
That was meant for @kat, not @Lea.
I do not believe that the human rights act should be changed. At the same time, I do not believe that people should be discriminated against on the grounds of their sexual orientation. However, I am willing to put money on it that if the human rights act is changed then nothing will be safe and homosexual’s will then start to target marriage and complain that they should be allowed to marry one another. Marriage should be left between a man and a woman.
“Marriage should be left between a man and a woman.”
Why?
So, you think the HR Act should be changed so there is not discrimination against gay people, but you don’t want it to actually be changed because of ignorance and fear of things which have nothing to do with the proposed change.
Even the Laws of the land and Courts are adhere to Biblical commands to govern.
One doesn’t need to be a behavioural psychologist to know that pretty much everything we do as humans, is in response to something.
We can discover our motivation simply by asking – Why We Do What We Do?
“Even the Laws of the land and Courts are adhere to Biblical commands to govern.”
- Except the fact that our laws quite blatantly contradict what the bible actually says in reference to marriage already. ie. That men are allowed more than one wife. Why the fuss about changes to man/woman marriage when we aren’t allowed man/woman/woman marriage? Once again…christian hypocrisy at its best.
You mean like the ban on divorce and adultery?
Forcing rape victims to marry their rapist?
Your claim is completely and quantifiably incorrect.
In-deed, God himself ordained marriage between a man and a woman.
Which god?
God LOVES The Sinner, not the sinful act (s)….
Genesis 1: 26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
Verse 27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God create he him, male and female create he them.”
Leviticus 18: 22, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind, it is abomination.” KJV
Leviticus 20: 13, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them.” KJV
Right. But until men have vaginas or anal sex becomes the new norm, there is a distinct difference between the way heterosexual and homosexual couples do things.
Hey, ya’ll realize that this ammendment for no discrimination based on sexual orientation goes both ways, right? Those who are straight etc also can’t be discriminated against either. Cuz bigots come from every background. “Don’t care if you hate who I’m attracted to, you can’t discriminate against me based on it because it’s against the law!” Think of it that way…
You think i care what you people have to say 99 percent of you comment are ****** anyways i would expect that from you gay folk lol go suck a *** lol
I know Holly, and with you, she wouldn’t.
Go suck a what?
Hw bout we go suck a “hollywood”
Rather than condemning bloggers such as ‘Hollywood’ and ‘The power or words’ we should be grateful to them for so clearly illustrating the type of bigotry than people who are not considered to be heterosexual have to endure on a daily basis. They provide clear evidence that people who are seen to have a different orientation are discriminated against, contrary to the suggestion by some of our politicians that the is no such prejudice.
As a happily married, monogamous heterosexual I never cease to be amazed at the bigotry of my fellow human beings who have no hesitation in displaying their hatred and contempt to people who they believe share their own views.
On the issue of passing the amendment to the Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation, it seems that some of our politicians want to constantly raise the issue of prohibiting gay marriage in the false belief that our churches will somehow be forced to marry same sex couple, while some talk about the moral implications of granting equal human rights to gays while quoting the bible to support their argument.
What they fail to point out is that no-one tries to legally force our churches to marry persons who are divorced. Some denominations will do so, while others such as the Roman Catholic Church have a long standing policy of not allowing divorcees to re-marry. It will be exactly the same with same sex couples. It is possible that some denominations may eventually decide to marry same sex couples while others will probably never agree to do so. I would be the first to fight for the right of churches to decide for themselves whether they will marry same sex couples, and this would be easy to guarantee through legislation if ever it became necessary.
However, it is totally uneccessary for our Government to prohibit same sex marriage. Not only is it uneccessary, it is a waste of time and completely unenforcable. Why unenforcable? Because same sex Bermudian couples can already travel abroad and marry in other countries, and then return home as a married couple. And what would we do with them? Throw them in jail. Will our government try to a null their marriages? How?
It is noteworthy than some of our fellow Christians always quote the bible when they castigate people who are gay. But those same persons NEVER quote the bible to condemn the abomination of adultery. Not only is adultery an abomination, it is also specifically condemned in the Ten Commandments, and the punishment for doing so is explicit and clear. If we were to use the bible to decide on what is moral and was is unlawful, then surely adultery would be at the top of the list! Please let me know if our churches start a campaign to criminalize adultery and deny human rights to adulterers.
I would like to think that when our politicians debate this amendment to the Human Rights Act tomorrow they will follow the lead of almost every leader of the PLP who voted to de-criminalize homosexuality under the Stubbs Bill. For the record these included The Hon. Frederick Wade, The Hon. Alex Scott, Dame Jennifer Smith, The Hon Ewart Brown, and the champion of human rights in Bermuda, Dame Lois Browne-Evans. They stood up for what they believed to be right, and if they were voting tomorrow I have no doubt whatever that they would all vote to approve the amendment to our Human Rights Act.
It matters to God, our Heavenly Father, who LOVES EACH of us.
Our Heavenly Father is God of all, and as believers, we must stand for what is right, especially when it comes to blatant abominable practices and attempts to over-ride/ dis-regard what the Bible CLEARLY speaks against.
Our Leaders have a great responsibility, and must/ should invite God’s guidance when it comes to legislative decision-making, which should be bathed in prayer.
“For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” — Luke 12:48
You know, I get so tired of hearing about your god.
My god is Thor. He caries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a cross. Enough with your god.
If you believe in the bible, I guess you never shave, cut your hair, let women speak in church, wear polyester /. Cotton blends, eat pork, eat lobster, gossip, curse, seek revenge, or bear a grudge? Right?
That is correct, Sandy. So, “Poo-er of Words”, where exactly do you get your kosher meat? Cause if you don’t eat meat that has been butchered and prepared in exact accordance with God’s word, or if you eat shell fish, or if you eat dairy products along with meat, you are in violation of God’s law and should be killed. Sound good to you? You are either ignorant or a hypocrite; either way, you are a bigot.
Jesus was a guy who — in a culture that virtually demanded marriage — was a single guy, spent most of his time with twelve men, singled out three of them for leadership and one of them is known in the Bible as ‘the one whom Jesus loved,’. Me thinks he was gay!!!! Lmao
Wow these comments are sad…..God loves the sinner not the son, he send Jesus to die for our sins. I do not support gay marriage but i dont care what others do. I personally think marriage is for man and women to reproduce like Adam and Eve but im not going to sit here and judge them. We all sin and God will deal with our sins on judgement day. Bless up
What about men and/or women who can’t reproduce… Should they be barred from getting married as gay people currently are? Marriage is not about reproduction. That’s an asinine definition/argument to make. It is only a symbolic gesture to show others that you are in love (as well as making a commitment to the person you are marrying…although straight couples have shown this not to always be the case).
@The Power of the Word. You are clearly a firm believer in literally every word in the Holy Bible which you continue to quote ad nauseum. You obviously believe that we should deny equal human rights to anyone who is homosexual and have provided numerous biblical quotes to buttress your argument.
I know you will find this hard to believe and difficult to comprehend but there are lots of folks in our community, and especially young people, who believe that it is totally hypocritical to use the bible to deny equal human rights to persons who you may consider to be immoral but who are NOT, and I repeat NOT breaking the laws of our land in any way.
In order to correct that hypocrisy could you please elaborate on your position, based on the teaching of the Holy Bible, with regard to adultery. According to my copy of the bible it is an abomination to commit adultery, and it would appear to be a particularly heinous offense against God because he chose to include it in those Ten Commandments he handed down to Moses, and his word is also quite specific with regards to the punishment for this particular abomination – death. There are no ands ifs or buts on this one (I could quote other so-called abominations in my bible which are nothing short of nonsensical – if you want a perfect example just look up the first abomination!)
Do you believe that committing adultery should be punishable by death? Should it be criminalized in order to save our common morality? Should we deny human rights to adulterers? Should our churches refuse to marry anyone who is divorced (just as the Roman Catholic Church continues to do so.)
I tthink it is vitally important that you not be seen as a hypocrite who picks on selective verses of the bible to condemn one group of people you deem to be not worthy of enjoying equal human rights while ignoring others who are so blatantly disobeying God’s holy word.