Whilst the Bahamas have recently supported a number of recommendations put forward by the Human Rights Council to combat discrimination and persecution on the grounds of sexual orientation, Amnesty International argued that the Government of the Bahamas has ‘failed to translate these into concrete policies at the national level’. It notes that a discriminatory legal framework and a paucity of government initiatives addressing anti-homosexuality have resulted in a little positive gain in societal attitudes towards homosexuality at a local level. 

Freedom House has argued that the lack of initiatives and reform can be explained by the fact that the Government of the Bahamas remains ‘strongly opposed’ to homosexuality. This can be demonstrated by their banning of films such as Brokeback Mountain in 2006, and their censorship of NGOs that try to raise awareness of LGBTI issues.

There have been a number of cases where men have been acquitted of murder on the basis of the so-called ‘gay panic defense’ (based on Article 107(4) of the Penal Code) whereby the defendant ‘claims he panicked and killed because the gay man made an unwanted sexual advance upon him’. In 2009 Frederick Green-Neely was acquitted for the murder of Dale Williams on the basis that Williams had expressed that he was sexually attracted to Green-Neely, and had made an advance on him. In 2010, a similar defence was used in the murder trial of Latherio Jones, who was sentenced to just three years probation for the murder of Trevor Wilson in 2004. The President of the Court of Appeal in the latter case was quoted as saying that ‘one is entitled to use whatever force is necessary to prevent one’s self-being the victim of a homosexual act’. In early 2013, Amnesty International expressed that they were ‘extremely concerned’ about these judgements, and the way in which Article 107(4) of the Penal Code had been used to justify discrimination and attack on LGBTI persons. They also note that ‘courts often use the likelihood that the victim intended to commit an “unnatural crime” as grounds to justify the defendant’s self defence’.