Transgender visibility, Gay Marriage - Caribbean IRN Update January, February, March 2019

Guyana Trans United leads March for Transgender Visibility - 31st March, 2019 , Georgetown, Guyana

"Transgender rights are human rights" the marchers called as they walked past the Brickdam Police Station where many transwomen had been locked up , and passed the courts where transwomen were told to find God or asked to leave the court room. "I thought the Cathedral was a bar" one young transwoman who did not visit Georgetown regularly said as the marchers walked through the area around St George's Cathedral, in Guyana.

Some Church people in Trinidad & Tobago object though, as the Church Council and Rebuild TT say that LGBTI people do not deserve human rights.  This all started when a politician, Bhoe Tewarie told religious groups to accept LGBT citizens.

Politicians across the Caribbean seem to be coming out in support of their LGBT constituents.
In St Kitts & Nevis, a young person asks Ministers about LGBT rights, and the Ministers said that there are protections for LGBT citizens.  In St Lucia, the National Security Minister  also said that it was time to review the buggery laws.





The Attorney General of the Bahamas defends LGBT protections, even as Canada warns LGBTQI
tourists to the Bahamas.

In Jamaica, the head of the Jamaica Tourist Board says ' Gay tourists are welcome ', prompting the Gleaner Cartoon.

Cartoon Jamaica Gleaner 5 February, 2019

In the Cayman Islands, Love Wins as Chief Justice  Smellie rules in favour of Chantelle Day and Vickie Bodden Bush in their petition to be married. The judgement said that decision to reject the petition to marry was discriminatory.

In Cuba though, the Churches continued to protest gay marriage.

The Barbados Government has included sex workers and LGBT citizens in the new Social Justice partnership. In Barbados, a businessman plans to open a gay bar.

Cricket, inherited like the sodomy laws from the British colonial powers, was another place where gay rights was discussed as Trinidadian Cricketer Shannon Gabriel is banned for a homophobic comment, a too harsh sentence which other people thought was an injustice.

UWI Researcher Carla Moore discusses her recent work on LGBT in Jamaican Prisons, in which she reports on the discrimination faced.

In Guyana, SASOD and GTU engage the transportation sector to stop discrimination in public transportation.


Music
Buju Banton leaves prison and begins a Caribbean tour. Stacey Ann Chinn reflects on his return to Jamaica. Barbados LGBT activists say they have no problem with Buju performing. There is a report that Buju has said bye bye to Boom Bye Bye.

Colin Robinson reflects on the Calpyso season, giving a gay man's perspective on Hooking Meh and on Kurt Allen who sang about weed and lgbt. Saucy Wow said she never encouraged hate towards anyone after a video surfaced.

 Calypso Rose had apparently long supported gay rights. Machel Montano also calls for respect for the sexual orientation of others as he invokes God to ask why people saying he was gay.





Performance
Colin Robinson mourns the passing of Edwin Erminiy, theatre creative in Trinidad & Tobago . Newsday TT reflects on playwright Godfrey Sealey .

Dominique Jackson, author of The Transexual from Tobago, talks Pose.

Jamaican author Marlon James writes about his mother.
Newsday reviews "Sailors Looking for Langston' by Barbadian Adam Patterson and Trinidadian Andre Bagoo




Don't forget to check our collection at Caribbean Sexualities – Love | Hope | Community – Sexualities & Social Justice in the Caribbean and share it with others.

The collection includes selected pieces from the Sargasso Print Edition, as well as special online features, including "Write It In Fire - Tributes to Michelle Cliff" (prose, poetry, visual and performance art).