Violence, and political support for LGBT citizens - Caribbean IRN Update July 2015

Image from https://blackatlanticresource.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/noctambules-the-hidden-transcripts/

In Guyana, two men kill Noel Nephi Luthers. The police have the pictures of the killers but there have been no arrests.

Thin Slice talks about her relationship with Samuel Bristol who went on a murderous rampage in July 2014.

In Barbados, Darcy Dear from UGLAB talks about gay bashing.

The Trinidad Guardian writes about being 'Transgender in T&T', and Alessandra Hereman's story from Guyana is told in a Voices of Youth  blog.

In Belize, a man is charged for assaulting Caleb Orozco.

July began with the CARICOM Heads of Government dealing with a petition to preserve Caribbean families and to resist pressure from foreign governments and so on.

CARIFLAGS also wrote to ask the Governments to ensure that Caribbean LGBT citizens are ensured of the protection of their rights , same as any other citizen. The UN Secretary General also talks to the Caribbean leaders about LGBT rights.

The US Gay marriage ruling generated some anxiety in the Caribbean.  Caribbean activists responded - in Barbados, B-GLAD said there are more pressing matters, ; GRENChap in Grenada welcomed the ruling but said that there were different issues at this stage while in Guyana, SASOD says that legalization of Gay marriage is not on their agenda

In the Cayman Islands, the Human Rights Commission calls on the Government to recognise same-sex relationships. The US Virgin Islands registers its first same sex marriage. The question of equality was addressed by a Dominica lawyer in a public forum.

And, Trinidadian Colin Robinson writes eloquently about "The Right not to marry".

 In Guyana, the Guyana Times has an editorial "The Right to Life" and Kaieteur News seems to answer in the affirmative to its own question "Is Gay Marriage a choice for Guyana?"

How are public officials in the Caribbean dealing with LGBT citizens? In Jamaica, the Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites says that gays have rights too after he responds to critics of  the new safety manual in schools which will target the bullying of homosexual students.

In Belize, Minister of Housing - Michael Finnegan says that 'people have a right to be what they want to be' in response to a September pride event. Belizean lawyer Lisa Shoman talks about this event and the law.

PrideJA gets support from the Jamaican Minister of Justice, Mark Holding.

The Mayor of Kingston, Angela Brown-Burke is also expected to support PrideJa.

In Guyana, SASOD continues its education campaign against workplace discrimination and in Jamaica, J-FLAG trains health workers to deal with the LGBT population. J-FLAG has also added videos from the 3rd Annual Larry Chang Symposium to its Youtube Channel.

Support is withdrawn for performances by musicians from Jamaica and Suriname who had homophobic lyrics.

The Trinidad Express reported about  the Centre for Indic Studies's June symposium "Queerying Hinduism" . The exhibition "Noctambules : the hidden transcripts" in Port-au-Prince showed perspectives on queer life in Haiti


Pride News reports on the participation of Maurice Tomlinson, Erin Greene and Vidyaratha Kissoon in the Pride & Prejudice : Pan Am in the Human Rights region conference. (Pride News is not an LGBT pride magazine! )