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and now St Lucia !!.. Caribbean IRN Update May, June, July 2025

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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 the colonial homophobia despite the 2018 judgement which struck down the buggery laws. 

The TT Pride Parade 2025 was described as lively .

In StPride SVG was held for the third year , organised by Equal Rights and Opportunities SVG and others. 

In Barbados, the Stigma Register Project reported that little progress has been made on removing discrimination against LGBTQI+ people, sex workers and those living with HIV.  Equals Barbados launched Pride with a symposium.

Guyana Trans United started their Pride 2025 celebrations with a discussion which reminded that Pride was a Protest. 

And as Guyana prepares for Elections 2025, SASOD developed a manifesto . SASOD hosted a Town Hall with representatives of the some of the political parties contesting the elections.

The representative of the ruling PPP/C, Minister Rodrigues said that the PPP/C's employment of her is "speaks volumes,” .  The Vice President Jagdeo said afterwards that the PPP/C will support laws to remove discrimination (which includes the laws against consensual male sex) . However, he said there would be no gay marriage.

 There are no reports about how Minister Rodrigues feels about the representation of LGBTQI citizens in the PPP/C without legal marriage. 

SASOD's manifesto did not call for gay marriage,even as SASOD hopes for acceptance of LGBTQIA+ families.

 One citizen did ask about the position of one party with a very active homophobe in their mix. Another citizen did ask about more possible sanctions from the USA if the politicians go with the LGBT Agenda. No one asked as yet about hellfire and damnation and all the oil disappearing.

 Guyana Together has also consulted with Trade Unions about the repeal of the gay laws.

 In Cuba, transgender citizens can now change their gender markers without requiring surgery.

In New York , the Caribbean Equality Project continued the Big Truck as part of the NYC Pride. 

In Haiti, the loss of Hotel Oloffson is described as a loss to the LGBT community. The new penal code in Haiti is stripped of the protections against anti-LGBT discrimination.

 

Writing

Trinidadian Poet and activist, Colin Robinson's papers (53 boxes of them) are now available at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library . 

Please do check out  Gender, Sexual Citizenship and Epistemic Injustice in the Caribbean by Charmaine Crawford, PhD 

Follow the social media of Caribbean organisations to find out more about their activities .

 

Feature Image attribution Darwinek, CC BY-SA 3.0, and Benson Kua, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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