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Remembering Joseph Sanchez, Tiffany and others; recognition and Betta Must Come - Caribbean IRN Update January 2014

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Memories and calls for Justice

 In Guyana, Guyana Trans United organised a march to call for justice for Tiffany Holder and others. This march was reported in different media.




http://www.stabroeknews.com Stabroek News 12 January, 2014 
The day after the march in Guyana, 18 year old Joseph Sanchez was killed In Belize,


The following reports and blogs paint a picture of the circumstances around his murder.

Plus TV
7 News Belize
News Channel 5 
UNIBAM's Analysis of Hate Crime vs Hate Incident
Aria Lightfoot's blog : Joseph Sanchez is Dead but Who am I?



There was also a statement from the US State Department.


 Recognition
In St Lucia, Kenita Placide, is voted St Lucia Star's People's Choice for 2013 Person of the Year.
Kenita Placide : Co-Executive Director of Saint Lucia’s United and Strong Inc, Eastern Caribbean Co-ordinator at CariFLAGS (Caribbean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities and Co-ordinator of the Alternate Women’s Secretariat of ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association. )
Jamaican lawyer and scholar, Tracy Robinson, is named as Rapporteur on the Rights of Women as well as on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual, Bisexual, and Intersex Persons (LGTBI) for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)



Dancehall and rights work in Jamaica

In Jamaica, Queen Ifrica continued to make news with her homophobic stance. These comments, and the controversy over Sizzla's Grammy Nomination result in a revelation from a dancehall publicist - Rickardo 'Shuzzr' Smith.

UW Lecturer, Annecka Marshall joins the New York Times Room for Debate

The documentary Battle Lines : Javed Jaghai vs the State tells the story of the court challenge to Jamaica's sodomy laws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oas9F9cPV0Q



J-FLAG's Dane Lewis participates in an LGBT rights panel at Davos as reported on Huffington Post.



Caribbean Media commentary on 'gay rights'

Op-eds in the Caribbean media to call for shifts in attitudes towards LGBT persons now include a commentary by Dr Isaac Newton in Caribbean News Now  and an editorial in the Guyana Times "Commonwealth Homophobia"

The Publisher of the Amandala News in Belize wrote this piece about the man who lived two lives and faced violence. Amandala is not known for supporting LGBT equality.

"Make the Caribbean Gay" seems to the call from the President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association and others according to this story.


Scholarship
The December 2013 Special Issue of the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies titled " Caribbean Feminist Research Methods for Gender and Sexuality Studies; "
Guest Editors: Kamala Kempadoo, Halimah DeShong & Charmaine Crawford

It features an essay by Rosamond King and Angelique Nixon, both board members of the Caribbean IRN.







Betta Must Come

The CODE Red for Gender Justice eMas Caribbean Blog Carnival  includes pieces from queer writers and producers about loving the Caribbean.

Maurice Tomlinson did this video,  Betta must come , speaking of his experiences as a gay man growing up and living in Jamaica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jJsAW-VMy_A
Please support  Dwayne's House for Homeless LGBT Youth in Jamaica.


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