NASSAU, Bahamas – An MP of the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is getting no support from his party or the government following his suggestion that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community be exiled to a private island.

In fact, the PLP is distancing itself from the controversial comments Leslie Miller made in an interview with The Tribune newspaper, in which he denounced the LGBT community.

“… Put them on a nice island and just play with each other for the rest of their lives if that’s what they want to do. Because they ain’t going to make babies, so soon they’ll die. You got to be able to produce to have the next generation so that will be the last generation of them,” the Tall Pines MP said.

“I will be the first one to make a contribution to them. I’ll give them $1,000 right now. Build them a nice beautiful setting on a nice cay and say ‘This is Eden right there; go right there’.

“To us it would be Sodom and Gomorrah but to them it would be Eden. Put them in Eden with beautiful flowers and beautify the place. This has got to stop. When is enough, enough, man?”

Miller has since tried to downplay the comments, telling media that he was only speaking in jest.

But chairman of the PLP Bradley Roberts said Miller’s comments “do not reflect the policy position of the Progressive Liberal Party or the government of The Bahamas”.

The debate about same-sex relations has come under the microscope recently, as citizens prepare to vote on constitutional amendments that some believe will open the door to same sex unions.

The PLP insisted, however, that the constitutional bills before the Bahamian people “have absolutely nothing to do with same-sex marriage, the expressed concerns of the LGBT community and the entrenchment of these laws into our constitution will not bestow any new rights on members of that community.”