REN?E Webb is confident that her efforts to force through legislation that will make it illegal to discriminate against homosexuals will succeed in the House of Assembly next week.

Both the governing Progressive Labour Party (PLP) and the Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) plan to allow their MPs to vote on the issue according to their consciences, rather than along party lines, the has learned.

And now Government backbencher and former Tourism Minister Ms Webb has high hopes that her proposal to make an historic amendment to the Human Rights Act 1981 will succeed.

She will put forward her amendment a week today.

"I think the majority of Members of Parliament are right-thinking people and so I expect it to go through," Ms Webb said yesterday.

She believed that MPs would have the courage to put their belief in good human rights legislation ahead of their fear of losing the "church vote".

"We live in a secular society, not a theocracy, so the church cannot dictate what the Government should and should not do," Ms Webb said.

Community Affairs and Sports Minister Dale Butler confirmed yesterday that the vote on Ms Webb's amendment would be a conscience vote on the PLP side of the House.

And Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert said the UBP plan was also not to have the whip in place, although that was still subject to possible change.

The Human Rights Act makes it illegal to discriminate against people for age, race, or disability, but it is still not illegal to deny someone employment or housing on the basis of their sexual orientation.

"I think that most people support Human Rights legislation that ensures that all people are treated equally before the law.

"This issue has been discussed since 1979. In 1994, there was discussion over whether it should be put into law, but it was thought that the time wasn't right. It appears that the time is never right for some people."

Ms Webb was one of eight PLP MPs who voted for the Stubbs Bill in 1994 and she said the amendment she was proposing was long overdue.

In December last year, this newspaper attempted to contact all 36 MPs, bar Ms Webb, to ask whether they would support her amendment and also whether they thought discrimination against homosexuals was wrong.

Not all the MPs received the e-mails and eight responded, seven from the UBP and only Finance Minister Paula Cox, from the PLP.

All said they thought discrimination against gays was wrong and that they couldn't give an opinion on Ms Webb's amendment until they knew its exact wording.

Ms Cox also said there was an "absence of data and evidence that this is a significant issue in terms of numbers of persons who have been discriminated against due to sexual orientation" and therefore she felt she could not support the amendment.

The most vocal opponents of Ms Webb's amendment are likely to come from the churches, rather than political circles.

When the Stubbs Bill was being debated 12 years ago, the Christian Coalition conducted island-wide prayer vigils and marches on Parliament to stop passage of the bill.

They prayed out loud for God to guide MPs in making "the right" decision.

Marchers stated they believed homosexuality was indecent and against the teachings of the Bible.