A law to bar discrimination against gays came a step closer yesterday when Government backbencher tabled a private members bill.

Progressive Labour Party backbencher Renee Webb hopes MPs will debate it soon after returning for the next session which starts on May 5.

And Ms Webb has also tabled a motion for the House to establish a truth and reconciliation committee based on the South African model. She said such a body had helped that nation heal the bitterness left over from the apartheid era.

Speaker of the House of Assembly, Stanley Lowe has yet to rule on whether Ms Webb?s private member?s bill can be taken up as he may decide Government?s own human rights bill, already tabled by Community Affairs and Sports Minister Dale Butler, must take precedence.

Ms Webb is optimistic her bill will go forward within a couple of weeks of Parliament resuming although she will have to work with both sides of the House on a date. She said if MPs were allowed to vote on their conscience rather than answer to party bosses the bill would pass. A similar free vote in 1994 abolished the law making homosexual acts criminal.

?I don?t know the numbers but I think most people in parliament support human rights.?

Her Human Rights Amendment Act will outlaw discrimination against people for their sexual orientation.

Ms Webb said she had witnessed first hand horrific revelations in South Africa including a Policeman who said he and colleagues had kidnapped children and thrown them to alligator swams to bet on which kids would swim to safety.

?The idea is to go through the healing process and the only way you can do that is to recognise and speak the truth.?

She said Bermuda is still a racist place.

People now thought everything that happened to them was due to race. ?We need to get over it and move forward. It can be televised ? be as transparent as possible. There?s no repercussions. In South Africa there were some horrible stories but you don?t get criminally charged.?

The Bermuda version might hear from Tucker?s Town blacks evicted and dispossessed of their property when they were moved to Harrington Sound.

The committee could also help bust myths said Ms Webb.

Racial issues needed to be resolved particularly with Bermuda examining independence. Asked what good it would do for someone to answer for the sins of long dead ancestors Ms Webb said: ?If people are still going to be in denial and say everything is all well and good then Bermuda will still be where it is.?

Asked how anyone can be held accountable for other?s actions Ms Webb said: ?We are all accountable for where we are today.?

But she added that ultimately people were only responsible for their own actions and the process would help stop people constantly blaming others.

Asked if people would really want to dig up the past and put it on display in a small community said: ?If it doesn?t work, fine. But at least we discussed it.?