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 the 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 featured in a call to Queer your Pride

Barbadian Didi Winston is featured in Slate "I don't just win, I conquer"

Trinidadian Andre Bagoo writes in the Caribbean Beat July/August 2019 issue  "There’s something to be said about affording people the time and space to come to terms with who they are, to quietly nurse the realisation of being queer without the pressure of public scrutiny. Equally, the visibility of Pride is, for me, as potent as prayer, as moving as meditation, as authentic as heading to the beach and letting warm salt water kiss your weary feet"

Jamaican Neish MacLean writes "We mark pride in the Caribbean, not because things are perfect but because our existence requires that we celebrate our journey and take a moment to, embrace and lift up each other up"

Image from Queer Liberation March Instagram 

Marchers in the Queer Liberation March held in New York  City , USA  name Guyana and St Vincent and the Grenadines as they recognise Queers persecuted by colonial laws.



The Pride TT takes place during July - the launch was held outside the Parliament

Bermuda Pride will be held in August.  Curacao Pride will be in September.  Montego Bay Pride  and Pride Month Suriname will be in October




Changing times..

The Jamaica Observer editorialises, with rainbow flag , that "times are a -changing "as they laud the hosting of a Trans Health and Wellness conference in Kingston.  The Bermuda same-sex marriage judgement helped the Cayman Islands judgement reports the Royal Gazette.

The new Anglican Archbishop of the West Indies,is  Rt Reverend Dr Howard Gregory,. In 2017, he had written to Jamaican law makers to call for a repeal of the Jamaican buggery laws.

J-FLAG reports on its Facebok page results of tolerance by parish after the most recent Awareness, Attitude & Perception Survey.  CBS News has a documentary on the Rainbow Railroad, and they visit Jamaica.
Trinidadian Dillian Johnson is featured in a UK documentary about asylum seekers. Dalia from St Lucia is in an article about LGBT refugees in Canada.

Barbados Today editorialises that Barbados is best when it feels like home to all.  In Trinidad, transgender citizen Kia leads a protest against the support for Venezuelan migrants. Colin Robinson writes about his positions of admiring Kia's brilliant organising, and of supporting the migrants.

A gay man will file a constitutional challenge to  Dominica's sodomy laws. He will have the support of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and other organisations.   The British High Commissioner to Guyana hopes that Guyana will repeal buggery laws

The Bahamian Appeals Court rejects a "gay panic defense" and upholds the manslaughter conviction of a  man who said he killed another man who 'drugged him up and touched his hip'

In Guyana, SASOD works with the Region Four health authorities to certify the Herstelling Health Centre as offering equal and non-discriminatory care to LGBTQ citizens

Attacks on LGBT citizens
In Barbados, a man is ordered to pay compensation to trans activist Alexa Hoffman , more than one year after he attacked her with a meat cleaver. An attack on a transgender citizen leads to commentary in St Vincent and the Grenadines about cross-dressing and the law. The Vincentian court dropped charges of fraud against a cross-dressing teenager. There were reports of attacks on the teenager.



The police have not arrested the identified man who attacked SASOD's Joel Simpson.

The Government of Guyana condemned the attack.


The Guyana Police also seem to be taking a long time to respond to an attack on Guyana Trans United's Gulliver (Quincy ) McEwan  as she reports "TRANSGENDER FEARS FOR SAFETY AFTER THREATS FROM A NEIGHBOUR by  Safetv2 Headline News




In Belize, a call is made for special training for the police to address security of the LGBT community. Police training has been  held in other Caribbean countries.


Organising..

In Belize, Transcolours works with UNIBAM and Planet Romeo to open a safe house.

In Guyana, a new organisation EQUAL(Empowering Queers Using Artistic Learning)  Guyana is launched.

In Barbados, Raven Gill forms Butterfly, an organisation to advocate for transgender rights.





Colin Robinson reflects on the formation of CAISO , on the tenth anniversary.


Art and writing

The death of gay Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina resulted in tributes from Trinidadian writers Amir Denzel Hall and Colin Robinson ; and and from Dr Selwyn Cudjoe.

Reggae artiste Tony Rebel says that gay artistes should come out

Andre Bagoo reviews Marlon James' "Black Leopard, Red Wolf"

The book 'Son Rising' set in Grenada by Grenadian sociologist Dr Wendy Crawford-Daniel challenges homophobic views.

Volume 2 of the collection SexPolitics: Trends and Tensions in the 21st Century – Contextual Undercurrents includes a chapter "Sexuality Research, Sexual Politics and Sexual Rights in the Anglophone Caribbean" by Christine Barrow.


Haitian architect and photographer Zarita Zevallos embarks on a project to 'Break the barriers of Caribbean masculinity'


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).