Caribbean IRN Blog

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 ...

Public debate  In the Bahamas, the Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell makes statements about aid a nd LGBT equality even as the Nassau Guardian reports that  Gays recall fears of living in the Bahamas In Belize, UNIBAM writes about How Self censorship, threats and negotiations undermine rights. In Trinidad & Tobago, the discussions on Constitutional Reform included the debate about gay rights in the constitution.  Colin Robinson from CAISO was able to explain in a TV programme.   Colin Robinson - CAISO - on Constitutional Reform from globewriter on Vimeo . Colin Robinson also wrote in the Guardian about Rights, Child Molesters and the Constitution . In Trinidad as well, the Vatican Representative urged Catholics to shun the gay debate even as a Catholic priest Father Stephen Geofroy urges that T&T must enshrine BASIC dignity of all human beings   .  Trinidadian artist Leroy Clarke makes some comments about how Homosexuality Fuels C...

Memories and calls for Justice In Guyana, Guyana Trans United organised a march to call for justice for Tiffany Holder and others. This march was reported in d ifferent media. http://www.stabroeknews.com Stabroek News 12 January, 2014  The day after the march in Guyana, 18 year old Joseph Sanchez was killed In Belize, The following reports and blogs paint a picture of the circumstances around his murder. Plus TV 7 News Belize News Channel 5  UNIBAM's Analysis of Hate Crime vs Hate Incident Aria Lightfoot's blog : Joseph Sanchez is Dead but Who am I? There was also a statement from the US State Department. Recognition In St Lucia, Kenita Placide, is vote d St Lucia Star's People's Choice for 2013 Person of the Yea r. Kenita Placide : Co-Executive Director of Saint Lucia’s United and Strong Inc, Eastern Caribbean Co-ordinator at CariFLAGS (Caribbean Forum for  Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities and Co-ordinator of the ...

Demerara Waves March against slothful police probes into killing of homosexuals Saturday, 11 January 2014 19:07 Add new comment Published  1 2 3 4 5 (3 votes) Denis Scott Chabrol “Sex workers rights are human rights”, “Sex work is work,”, “LGBT rights are human rights”,  “Anti-man rights are human rights” and “We want to justice,” were among the chants by members of the transgender and sex worker community who marched through sections of Georgetown to demand justice for the number of gays who were killed last year. The march was held to coincide with the first anniversary of the killing of 19-year old Wesley “Tiffany” Holder on January 11, 2013 and the dumping of his body near the St. Phillip’s Anglican Church.  The others were Delon Melville whose body was found aback Mocha in August and 36-year old Nandkumar Purnwassie also known as Vishaul, Champa and Darshinie whose battered body was found on a street at Anchor Ville, Port ...

Happy 2014 to everyone - this update covers December 2013 and the New Year's period which had some interesting activity in the work to advance LGBT equality. In December, J-FLAG celebrated its 15th Anniversary, and produced a timeline of the years of LGBT advocacy in Jamaica. ( Click on image to see full size ) Nelson Mandela's role in advancing LGBT equality was recorded in an article in the Stabroek News from Joel Simpson in Guyana In Barbados, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart responds to Barbados GLAD to say that  Barbados remains committed to lending its voice in calls for an end to discrimination against "persons of differing sexual orientation. " Jamaican pastor Sean Major-Campbell continues to speak out against discrimination, a counter to the religiously fuelled homophobia experienced in many parts of the Caribbean. SASOD has published four episodes of its Interacts series on the film festival. Episode 1 is at http://youtu.be/b_Od3Vu_...

In Grenada, a  march against men's immorality organised by the Grand Anse Seventh Day Adventist Church starts chanting "Man to man is so unjust, woman to woman is even worse " . However, activists were present and the discussion about the March was taken up in the media. (These news clips are from the CC6 Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/CC6Grenada  ) Post by CC6 . The second clip features Nigel Mathlin from GrenCHAP responding to the march Post by CC6 . The Caribbean Women and Sexual Diversity Conference was held in September 2013 in Curacao. Kenita Placide spoke in this interview on DBS News in St Lucia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWnuYKCaq2Q The blogs from participants Latoya Nugent and  Ulelli Verbeke ; and the articles in the Trinidad Guardian and St Lucia Voice tell some of the results of the conference. The first hearings for the challenge to the immigration laws brought by Maurice Tomlinson against Be...

An editorial in the Kaieteur News of Guyana speaks to the Plight of the Homosexuals, while a BBC documentary (first aired 9 November, 2013) addresses Jamaica's Gay Divide. Earlier in October, the police conducted a raid in Jamaica on some of the homeless gay youth as reported in this news item http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d2lCYwg5K0 . Their belongings were burnt and no alternative accommodation was found for the youth. SASOD launches a video with the Envisioning Project entitled Homophobia in Guyana at http://youtu.be/Y2SKNiZnkrg which tells the story of Jessica and Maeve . On Monday 28th October, 2013 SASOD and other Guyanese organisations made submissions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)  on "Violence, Sexuality and Gender Issues Affecting Children in Guyana" . The IACHR urged the government to take leadership in ensuring Human Rights. The hearing can be viewed at http://youtu.be/vFTa6ZL1UBk . The launch of the...