Dwayne Jones' life, Call to Action and gay taxpayers - Caribbean IRN Update August 2013

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 Jamaica 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 about the case filed by Maurice Tomlinson on the laws preventing homosexuals from entering Trinidad & Tobago.

In Barbados, Prime Minister Stuart speaks to the religious community about arguments against
homosexuality. St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas also

The 19th August was a day selected by the Catch A Fyah Feminist Network around a Call to Action : Everyone has a right to be! . The event was commemorated in Guyana, Jamaica and Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago as reported on the RedforGender blog.

In Dominica, the group Miridom presents some views from the LGBT community around discrimination.

In St Lucia, AIDS Free World and United & Strong work with the Royal St Lucia Police and other police from the Eastern Caribbean around Human Rights and LGBT Sensitivity training. This news item from HTS News tells more.

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The Caribbean IRN recently concluded its course on Critical Sexuality Studies. Angelique Nixon writes on the ARC blog about the exciting possibilities of the course.

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British Guiana 1898 : Punishment for Sodomy meted out to Nabi Baksh and Mohangoo on the Mersey

Between 1838 and 1917, the British brought indentured labour from India to the then British Guiana. An 1898 report from the Governor of British Guiana to the Colonial Office in England reports on the punishment meted out by the Surgeon Superintendent of the Mersey against two men Nabi Baksh and Mohangoo for committing sodomy. "Nobibux was put in irons and Mohangu, after blistering his penis, was made to holystone from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. " The Surgeon Superintendent said that he had "known of cases where the penis had been blistered, as a prevention treatment, in cases of Masturbation with boys" When the ship docked in British Guiana, there was an investigation which included testimony from others on the ship. This report was donated by author Gaiutra Bahadur. Ms Bahadur got the report from the Colonial Office Correspondence books at the UK National Archives at Kew, United Kingdom while doing research for her soon to be...

WRITE IT IN FIRE: TRIBUTES TO MICHELLE CLIFF :Call for Submissions

Michelle Cliff (1946-2016) was a remarkable writer who claimed many identities she was taught to despise: Lesbian, Black, Woman, Jamaican. She wrote powerful novels, essays, stories, and poems that make us rethink what it means to love, to hope, and to have community. She also carved space for same-sex loving and diverse sexualities in the Caribbean by representing our desires fiercely and by being deeply rooted in place. She continues to inspire us to write our stories, our sense of self, in fire. “ A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives – our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings ― all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. ― Michelle Cliff, “Claiming An Identity They Taught Me To Despise” “ Who can say how many lives have been saved by books?” ― Michelle Cliff, Everything Is Now: New and Collected Stories “ It was Zoe, and Zoe alone, I thought of. She snapped into my mind, and I remem...

Caribbean LGBTIQplus citizenship - Caribbean IRN Update Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, December 2025

(Snapshot of results of Jan 2026 Google Image search of Caribbean LGBTIQ) Hurricane Melissa Recovery Equality for all Foundation Jamaica and other Caribbean LGBTIQ+groups mobilised to respond to the devastating effects of Hurricane Melissa. Living and laws Equality for all Foundation launches its 'Queer Agenda' which does not include anything about making all Jamaicans gay. Jason Jones writes about the "dreaded “savings law clause” which preserves colonial homophobia in parts of the Caribbean Guyanese businessman Harold Hopkinson talked about the personal impact of homophobic discrimination on his family as he called for change in legislation, and another businessman Omkaar Sharma also called for repeal of the anti-gay laws. The Protected Areas Trust is responsible for oversight of Protected Areas in Guyana. The Gender Policy was adopted in 2025. The Policy recognises gender diversity beyond the binary, and that sexual orie...

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