LGBT seeking Justice - Caribbean IRN Update January 2017

L - Caleb Orozco from Pink News, C- Yvanna Hilton and Audrey Tjong a Sie from DWT, R - Winston Godwin and Greg De Rouche from The Royal Gazette

In Suriname,  transgender citizen Yvanna Hilton has won the right to change her gender at the Census Office after a year long court battle. In Bermuda, preservers of marriage continue to pray as the court hears the case brought by Winston Godwin and Greg De Roche .

Caleb Orozco from  Belize collects the 2017 David Kato Vision and Voice Award in the UK.
See his speech on Youtube

There is news from Cuba that activist  Nelson Gandulla Díaz is harassed and prevented from leaving the country. There is no news of Mariela Castro's response.

The Jamaica Star reports that Mayor of Maypen , Winston Maragh is concerned about a gang of homosexuals warring with a gang of heterosexuals.  The Jamaica Star also reports on the launch of Outpages, whose developers failed to respond to request for interviews.

In Cayman Islands, Colours Cayman  pledges to work for LGBT equality in the face of the opposition in the territory.

The Miami Herald reports about the Santurce neighbourhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Chicago Tribune describes four countries to celebrate Carnival Curaçao is described by head of the Tourism Board -""Our melting pot history has led to a progressive 'live and let live' philosophy that has long welcomed the LGBT community,"

The article though does not mention anything about the melting pot history of Trinidad, Barbados and St Lucia and whether LGBT people are welcome to carnival there.

A gay cruiser writes about going through the Puerto Rico, St Martin and St Kitts.


The book  Race, Sexuality and Identity in Britain and Jamaica: The biography of Patrick Nelson, 1916-1963 by Gemma Romain is announced.

According to the blurb "This is the first biography of the extraordinary – but also ordinary – life of Patrick Nelson, whose experiences touched on some of the most important and intriguing historical themes of the 20th century.

Nelson was a black migrant to interwar Britain; an aristocrat's valet in rural Wales; a gay man in 1930s London; an artist's model; a law student, a recruit to the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps and POW in the Second World War. Through his return to Jamaica after the war and his re-migrations to London in the late 1940s and late 1950s/early 1960s, he was also witness to post-war Jamaican struggles and the independence movement as well as the development of London's post-war multi-ethnic migrations. Drawing on previously unpublished letters sent to individuals such as Bloomsbury group artist Duncan Grant (his former boyfriend and life-long friend), paintings and newspaper articles, Gemma Romain explores the intersections of these diverse aspects of Nelson's life and demonstrates how such marginalized histories shed light on our understanding of broader historical events."