Skip to main content

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! )

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

JFLAG at 15, Mandela, Sizzla and Usain Bolt in a dress - Caribbean IRN Update December 2013

Happy 2014 to everyone - this update covers December 2013 and the New Year's period which had some interesting activity in the work to advance LGBT equality. In December, J-FLAG celebrated its 15th Anniversary, and produced a timeline of the years of LGBT advocacy in Jamaica. ( Click on image to see full size ) Nelson Mandela's role in advancing LGBT equality was recorded in an article in the Stabroek News from Joel Simpson in Guyana In Barbados, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart responds to Barbados GLAD to say that  Barbados remains committed to lending its voice in calls for an end to discrimination against "persons of differing sexual orientation. " Jamaican pastor Sean Major-Campbell continues to speak out against discrimination, a counter to the religiously fuelled homophobia experienced in many parts of the Caribbean. SASOD has published four episodes of its Interacts series on the film festival. Episode 1 is at http://youtu.be/b_Od3Vu_...

Pride in the Caribbean and changing times - Caribbean IRN Update April, May, June 2019

L - Image from BBC News , R - Image from Nation News Barbados Pride in the Caribbean Police arrested LGBT Cubans who decided to march against homophobia , after the Cuban government cancelled the IDAHOBIT  March. The organising committee though said the other activities in academic spaces would continue. NOW Grenada features GrenChap on the 17 May. In Guyana, the pride events and the Pride parade  went ahead without any challenges. While t he Trump administration might be seen to answering the prayers of some Caribbean Christian leaders to save them from gay marriage ,  the US Embassy in Belmopan, Belize held a Pride Month celebration .  In Guyana, the US Ambassador spoke at a IDAHOBIT cocktail. Guyana's Pride celebrations are part of  an article about Global Pride events .  Vogue features Zeleca Julien from Trinidad&Tobago as one of the "LGBTQ voices around the world which would not be silenced."  Jamaica born Stacey Ann Chin is...

Spiritual work 100 per cent guaranteed - Caribbean IRN update January, February, March 2024

 Spiritual Work  "Spiritual work, 100% guaranteed .gay lovers togetherness.. lesbians together .." is advertised in the Sunday Chronicle in Guyana in the Spirituality section.   The healer though probably needs to help the Government of Guyana as the United Nations Human Rights Committee recommends among other things that : "Adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that explicitly addresses all spheres of life and prohibits direct, indirect, and intersectional discrimination on all grounds including race, ethnicity, age, nationality, religion, migration status, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and ensure access to effective and appropriate remedies for victims of discrimination; Combat violence and discrimination against persons based on their sexual orientation and gender identity and ensure that offences motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation, or real or perceived gender identity are investigated promptly and establish specifi...