Caribbean IRN Blog

16 year old Jamaican Dwayne Jones spoke a bit about his life a fewmonths before he was murdered. This interview was replayed  in this CVM Live News broadcast Some other details of Dwayne' life are in this AP article  which gives insight into the stories of powerlessness felt by many LGBT youth. Queen Ifrica's call for no gays at the Jamaica Independence Celebrations drew outrage from LGBT Jamaicans at home and abroad. The Ministry of Youth and Culture issued a cautious statement , while in Toronto, Canada a publicly funded appearance was cancelled. The controversy is summed up in this article in the Jamaica Star   Gays Celebrate Independence , too   Equality Jamaic a continues to engage the diaspora in stories to support the calls to engage the Jamaican politicians in condemning the increasing homophobic violence as Maurice Tomlinson reports in  this blog The litigation in the Caribbean against homophobic laws continues, and this Newsday Trinidad article speaks a

The mob murder of 17 year old Dwayne Jacobs in Jamaica is a brutal reminder of the danger which many LGBT people face in their communities. July also saw in Haiti, the mobilising of 'anti-gay' marches which resulted in violence towards Haitian LGBT persons. The Government of Haiti issued a response to the violence (document shared by CARIFLAGS) and the Jamaican Minister of Justice Senator Mark Golding also condemned the murder of Dwayne Jacobs. No one has been arrested. The Southern Poverty Law Centre launched  a report Dangerous Liaisons: The American Religious Right & the Criminalization of Homosexuality in Belize    which questions the role of the United States  religious groups in fueling the anti-gay rights initiatives in Belize.  There have been marches and other kinds of public interactions over Belize's Gender Policy as reported in this News 5 collection. However, other alternative religious views are being articulated such as those of Reverend Dr C