Assembly, Bermuda took a progressive step when MPs voted to decriminalise homosexual acts.

That vote was close and "the Stubbs Bill's'' passage required acts of courage by a number of Members of Parliament who were aware that a vote in favour of decriminalisation would costs them support in the next General Election.

Now Opposition Senator Patricia Gordon-Pamplin's announcement in the Senate that she supports once again making gay sex a criminal act may open up the debate once more.

It is ironic that Sen. Gordon-Pamplin should make her statement known on the same day that it was revealed that the Rev. Goodwin Smith will be the next chairman of the Human Rights Commission.

Dr. Smith was one of the leaders in the fight against what became known as the Stubbs Bill, named after the late United Bermuda Party MP Dr. John Stubbs, who brought the private bill to Parliament.

Dr. Stubbs died soon after its passage, and no other Member of Parliament has since shown the political courage to take the next step -- to make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation an offence under the Human Rights Act.

Instead, we seem to be going backwards with Sen. Gordon-Pamplin's move to have the Stubbs bill repealed.

The Senator says she is mainly motivated by the fact that many of the constituents in Pembroke West Central, where she unsuccessfully sought election to the House of Assembly, were disturbed by the Stubbs bill.

"We live in a very strong Christian community and we have to be very sensitive of what our Christian friends believe,'' she told her colleagues.

Sensitive, yes, but it should be remembered that the question of whether homosexuality is a sin is undecided in many Christian churches. And the fact is that many Bermudians follow beliefs other than Christianity -- if they follow a religion at all.

In the end, decriminalisation was not so much a question of morality as it was about privacy.

Government Senator Calvin Smith pointed out that the real tests was whether Bermuda wanted Police literally coming in through the windows to arrest people for an act which is essentially private. The House of Assembly said this was no longer something it should accept.

Sen. Smith also suggested that Sen. Gordon-Pamplin's motivations were more political than moral.

This is because the PLP has had close ties with fundamentalists churches and some PLP MPs made themselves quite unpopular with their constituents when they voted in favour of decriminalisation. Thus the UBP could make the PLP squirm by exploiting an issue on which they are vulnerable.

It is hard to know if this is the case. It should be remembered that a great many UBP MPs voted for the bill as well, and this issue could be as divisive for the Opposition as it would be for the Government.

In the end, Sen. Gordon-Pamplin erred in attempting to challenge the Government on the issue at all; the Stubbs Bill was a "free'' or "conscience vote'' without party discipline.

Each MP and Senator had to make up his or her mind. Any effort to reintroduce the bill should be as a private member's bill as well, so efforts to play party politics on this would be futile.

It is to be hoped that, as Legislative Affairs Minister Lois Browne Evans said in the House of Assembly on Friday, that this issue is dead and it should remain buried.