Caribbean IRN Blog

    1959. British Guiana. Ruimveldt Police Station. Sex around 1pm on a Sunday afternoon The news report in the Guiana Graphic of July 28th 1959 reports that Miss Broad Street and another man have a charge for committing 'unnatural act' in the Rumveldt Police Station one Sunday Afternoon around 1pm.   If the police reports are true, what does it say about the sheer audacity of Miss Broad Street and the other man just after having the very public 'all male wedding'?  Image donated by Dr Nastassia Rambarran of We Were Always Here: Queer Caribbean Histories  In 2026 Guyana,  Sherwood Clarke,  G eneral Secretary of the Clerical and Commercial Workers Union (CCWU) uses Labour Day  to speak out against discrimination against LGBT citizens saying that "CCWU and FITUG believe that Guyana is strongest when we include everyone in our workforce, including our LGBT citizens. LGBT people are our neighbours, family, friends, and co-workers. They are an int...

(Snapshot of results of Jan 2026 Google Image search of Caribbean LGBTIQ)   Hurricane Melissa Recovery  Equality for all Foundation Jamaica and other  Caribbean LGBTIQ+groups mobilised to respond to the devastating effects of Hurricane Melissa.    Living and laws Equality for all Foundation launches its 'Queer Agenda' which does not include anything about making all Jamaicans gay. Jason Jones writes about the "dreaded “savings law clause” which preserves colonial homophobia in parts of the Caribbean  Guyanese businessman Harold Hopkinson talked about the personal impact of homophobic discrimination on his family as he called for change in legislation, and another businessman Omkaar Sharma also called for repeal of the anti-gay laws.   The Protected Areas Trust is responsible for oversight of Protected Areas in Guyana. The Gender Policy was adopted in 2025. The Policy recognises gender diversity beyond the binary, and that sexual orie...

 Spiritual Work  "Spiritual work, 100% guaranteed .gay lovers togetherness.. lesbians together .." is advertised in the Sunday Chronicle in Guyana in the Spirituality section.   The healer though probably needs to help the Government of Guyana as the United Nations Human Rights Committee recommends among other things that : "Adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that explicitly addresses all spheres of life and prohibits direct, indirect, and intersectional discrimination on all grounds including race, ethnicity, age, nationality, religion, migration status, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and ensure access to effective and appropriate remedies for victims of discrimination; Combat violence and discrimination against persons based on their sexual orientation and gender identity and ensure that offences motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation, or real or perceived gender identity are investigated promptly and establish specifi...

Extract from "Copies or Extracts of Despatches relating to Chinese Immigrants recently introduced into the colonies of British Guiana and Trinidad - c1853 "   Lashes.. There are references to "unnatural intercourse" and 'unnatural crime" on board the ship Samuel Boddington coming from China to Demerara in 1853. The crime was punished by lashes and "pitching" . Punishments were meted out to Nabi Baksh and Mohangoo in 1898 as part of the colonial justice. The Caribbean is referenced in a report by the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal Borloz who " explores the impact of colonialism and decolonization on the continued formation and perpetuation of harmful social mores associated with sexual orientation and gender identity, and how these relate to the enjoyment of human rights." Jamaican activist Maurice Tomlinson  writes his resignat...

Composite Image derived from Left - Cuba Conga 2023 Yamil Lage/AFP , Right - Barbados Pride from Barbados Today   Pride A conga against homophobia and transphobia was held in Cuba in May 2023 , returning for the first time since 2018.     Pride Month in June was commemorated by Pride Barbados , concluding in a march.  The Guyana Pride Festival was held in June and included the Pride Parade .   In July,  Pride Parade was held in Cayman Islands and in Martinique Pride Trinidad and Tobago was celebrated in July. St Lucia Pride Week was held in August for the fifth time. Pride Week in Belize was held in August., around the anniversary of the Court ruling which struck down the sodomy laws in Belize. The theme for Bermuda Pride was 'Homecoming'. Pride Ja was celebrated in August in Jamaica.  The Pride March in Guadelope had six persons.  The US Embassy in Bahamas raised the Pride Flag, and US Vice-President Kamala Harris reportedly e...

By Shivsharan Trasi - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,       Laws and rights The Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE) and the Saint Kitts Nevis Alliance for Equality (SKNAFE) welcomed the ruling of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court on 29 August, 2022 which said that the buggery laws were unconstitutional.     In December 2022, the S upreme Court of the Republic of Barbados ruled that similar legal provisions were unconstitutional. The Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba ruled in favour of  same-sex marriage in Aruba and Curaçao,   Colours Caribbean in Cayman Islands says the UK Privy Council ' continues to enable the oppression of LGBTQIA+ people in the Caribbean by reversing progressive lower court decisions and upholding the enforceability and constitutionality of anti-LGBTQIA+ laws in those states (most of which were themselves introduced by the UK)." But legislators in ...

News broke in 2017 of a letter written by 289 Christians to President Donald Trump to shine a moral beam from the City Upon a Hill.  Activists in St Maarten , St Lucia , Guyana and the Bahamas have commented on the letter. The Caribbean is probably sunny and bright enough. Another kind of American interest though, seems to be countering the Pastors as American tourists are said to be 'improving queer life' in Cuba.  T asheka Lavan mourns her birth place Antigu a while on a visit to Cuba. Transit Havana is a film about gender reassignment  in Cuba. In Jamaica, the LGBT citizens are assured of the support of the Canadian Government though Pride walking Prime Minister Trudeau knows that advancing LGBT rights in the Commonwealth is a 'delicate task'.  "This is Who I am"  is another film  about being LGBT in Jamaica. Dancehall and Gay bashing   seem to inspire some International stars according to the Jamaica Observer. Jamaica was al...

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 J amaica Star also reports on the launch of Outpages, whose developers failed to respond to request for interviews. In Cayman ...

On Left - image from thepolitic.org , Right - image from San Pedro Sun Divergence Recent votes at the United Nations on the role and function of the SOGI expert show the tendency of the Caribbean to keep voting against gay rights at the UN. Global politics might be the reason as countries like Suriname which does not criminalise homosexuality and Guyana where the political parties committed to equality for all in the last elections seemed to succumb to things other than family values and colonial culture . Trinidadian Colin Robinson writes about being   thrown out of a meeting he was invited to by the Office of the Prime Minister.  He and others protested the lack of representation of communities affected by HIV/AIDS on the National AIDS Co-ordinating Committee. Jamaica continued to provide nuances to the story of the homophobic Caribbean. J FLAG celebrated its 18th Anniversary at the US Embassy in Jamaica, while Jamaican refugee Gareth Henry tells his story of ...

Image from Guyana Chronicle Guyana's Minister of Social Protection , Ms Volda Lawrence called for Inclusion of LGBT  while addressing participants at a cocktail reception. She has subsequently come under fire for not dealing with allegations of child abuse made against a colleague , and for making disparaging remarks about the persons who made the accusations. Magistrate Dylon Bess though, did not heed Minister Lawrences' call and  refused to allow Twinkle access to his courtroom, in defiance of the court judgement on the cross dressing laws. The Guyana Trans United protested the discrimination. The A ppeal on the decision is to be heard. In Bermuda, t he Rainbow Alliance has opposed the announcement by the Government to have a referendum on Marriage Equalit y. They noted that the campaigns for the referendum will intensify the homophobia in the society. In Barbados,  the Minister of Labour t, Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo  was firm that the Bajan Government wa...

The Caribbean Sea continued to move between  Bermuda where the Supreme Court ruled that unmarried couples including same-sex couples can adopt children, and Trinidad & Tobago where they had a lil bacchanal when Senator Cudjoe suggested that Trinidad & Tobago 's adoption law would have to consider same sex adoption.  However , Minister Coudray said that they are not so advanced . This is a Trinidadian video production  Coming Out Stories and Steups Productions Present: LGBT Rights in T&T In Jamaica, TVJ mutes a gay man's Grammy Award speech as Queen Ifrica said  the reggae artistes slammed gays to get applause , and music manager Copeland Forbes said t hat gays made the Jamaican music industry suffer. However, J-FLAG said they are open to dialogue with the artistes. The   P ublic Defender in Jamaica Arlene Harrison - Henry commits to rights for all including LGBT Jamaicans.   J-FLAG announced its Top Achievements  in LGBT ri...

In Jamaica , a judge rules that the New Kingston sewers are public places so the police should not harass the LGBT youth who are living there . A  group of Christians visits the youth and prays with them . In St Lucia, a Gay cruise ship visits St Lucia and HTS TV had this news story http://youtu.be/s-WAK6nLuVg HTS TV does a poll about the acceptance of homosexuals http://youtu.be/YJR3rVJoxAg In the Dominican Republic, LGBT activists from REVASA, DIVERDOM and COIN call for an end to discrimination. http://youtu.be/N8tb5S0NEwk In Grenada, Groundation Grenada discusses its 'Discrimination is Discrimination' Campaign which takes on the murder music in the Caribbean Jamaican activist Dane Lewis and Belizean activist Caleb Orozco participate in a panel discussion to talk about the American export of hate through several religious organisations. http://youtu.be/aC679lSazYw The New Local Mag from Trinidad & Tobago does a two ...