BELIZE! BELIZE! - Caribbean IRN Update August 2016

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Six years after Caleb Orozco went to court in Belize to challenge s53 of its Criminal Code, the Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin handed down a decision. Section 53 makes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature’, which includes anal sex, a crime punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment. The court ruled that s53 is unconstitutional.

The Government of Belize and the opposition agree to leave the decision alone. Some of the Christian groups want to appeal.

The case had its own Caribbean integration nuance - in addition to the parties from Belize, the Guyana born Judge and the legal advisory team which included lawyers from Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana and other places.

The press conference after the decision is reported by 7 News and available in the video.

The Jamaica Gleaner publishes an editorial on the decision and in another editorial, endorses Maurice Tomlinson's case against the Jamaican buggery laws.

J-FLAG reports that Pride Jamaica 2016 was an immense success - read from Petchary about it. Some Jamaican citizens protested the United States support of the Pride while there were other reports of the US Embassy being overwhelmed with visa applications.

Rich Queens, Scary Queens and other impressions of Jamaica's LGBTQ community are "artistcally" portrayed in Gully Queen .

Jamaican Angeline Jackson talks of her activism as part of her recovery from corrective rape . In St Lucia, Donovan Monerville talks about being a warrior. In Guyana Joel Simpson tells his story in Stabroek News.

In Barbados, commentator Tony Best writes about Dr Rinaldo Walcott..

The Caribbean Review of Books reviews Mala Mala, a film which reflects on the life of transgender Puerto Ricans.

Please share the Caribbean IRN Call for Submissions : Write It IN Fire : Tribute to Michelle Cliff.

Don't forget to check out "Love, Hope, Community: Sexualities & Social Justice" - the latest issue of Sargasso: Journal of Caribbean Literature , Language and Culture

This volume is co-edited by Rosamond S. King, Lawrence La Fountain Stokes, Katherine Miranda and Angelique V. Nixon. The volume is available for purchase ($10 for individuals, $25 for institutions)

For more information write to: sargassojournal (at) gmail.com

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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...

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St Lucia The Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE) alongside United and Strong welcomed the ruling of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court which struck down St Lucia's 'buggery' laws . This is the latest ruling in a five country challenge brought by ECADE. St Lucia joins Barbados, Belize, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica in creating what ECADE's Kenita Placide described as a vision " .. that our Caribbean can and must be a place where all people are free and equal under the law." Exclusion, inclusion and gay sex without marriage In Trinidad and Tobago , Dr Terrence Farrell writes about the 'savings law' clause which the Court of Appeal used to preserve t he colonial homophobia despite the 2018 judgement w hich struck down the buggery laws. The TT Pride Parade 2025 was described as lively . In StPride SVG was held for the third yea r , organised by Equal Rights and Opportunities SVG and others. In Ba...

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