Ren?e Webb declared herself encouraged yesterday by a poll on her bid to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, despite it revealing 48 percent opposition.

Ms Webb said while she believed support was gathering for her efforts, she was surprised at the apparent lack of backing within the black community.

The House of Assembly controversially failed to debate her Human Rights Amendment before throwing it out in May, sparking a pro-democracy rally. Ms Webb, a Government backbencher, plans to bring her bill back before the House during the next Parliamentary session.

The survey, commissioned by , showed marked a marked variation in the level of support for the bill according to age, race and gender.

Overall, 40 percent of the 405 people questioned by Research Innovations earlier this month supported her plans. However, 48 percent opposed them and 12 percent were unsure of their stance.

While 68 percent of white people and 73 percent of people of mixed race declared themselves behind Ms Webb's move, just 19 percent of black people backed it.

Along gender lines, 56 percent of men declared themselves opposed, compared to 42 percent of women. The others declared themselves undecided.

Of those in the 18-35 age bracket, 36 percent were for. In the 36 to 54 year-old range 38 percent backed the bill. In the 55 years plus category showed 47 percent in favour.

Commenting on the survey, Ms Webb said it showed that support had grown in comparison with past statistics on the topic she had seen. She put this down to publicity such as the pro-democracy rally and a recent edition of the 'Youth Talk' television programme. She said that while 48 percent of people declared themselves opposed, she found it "very encouraging" to see that an overall majority - 52 percent - where either supportive or undecided.

"Overall your poll shows that the older you are and the more money you have, the more likely you are to support it," she added, speculating that wealth and age might be linked to how educated people are on human rights issues.

"Along racial lines I find it interesting that whites overwhelmingly support it and was surprised at how little support there is in the black community. That was not an impression I had gotten. The black community will all too often be silent if they don't support you but very verbose if they do. Most people who spoke to me supported it."

The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church opposed her bill. Asked whether she felt religion was behind the apparent lack of support from the black community, she said she believed both religious and cultural reasons were behind this.

"You can't say that 65 percent of black people are religious" she remarked of the number who said they were opposed.

"The poll points to the fact that there's still work to be done within the black community which needs to understand that having come from a legacy of being discriminated against yourself, you would do well to be aware of what discrimination means and not be the perpetuator of discrimination in any form."