Tag Archives: Jamaican LGBTQ Community

Ellen Page Shows Support in Kingston at Jamaica’s First LGBT Pride Event

Out actress and Hollywood A-lister, Ellen Page was on-hand to show her support for the first ever Pride Jamaica, in Kingston.

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Last week it was reported that the local LGBT advocates and supporters were preparing for a week of Pride events – including a flag-raising opening ceremony and open-mic cabaret night.

However, due to security fears (in a country notorious for its widespread homophobia) organisers decided that a parade should not take place. Instead, they arranged a flash mob event to take place on Saturday in Kingston, outside of Emancipation Park.

And Page was a surprise attendee at the opening ceremony, which attracted around 40 participants.

According to Page’s social media account, the actress had been in Jamaica in the days leading up to Jamaica Pride on a self-dubbed #gaycation.

https://instagram.com/p/52Rsd-QQyW/

 

The Pride week events were timed to coincide with Jamaica’s annual Independence and Emancipation celebrations, as organizers thought the theme of ‘emancipation’ was appropriate to LGBT Pride.

Page will be soon seen in her much anticipated new movie Freeheld, playing the partner of Julianne Moore in a true-life story of a same-sex couple battling for equal rights.

 

Jamaican Government Revises Security and Safety Policies To Combat LGBT Bullying In Schools

Jamaica’s Ministry of Education has revised the School Security and Safety Policy guidelines in order to include the protection of LGBT youths from bullying within schools across the island.

The guidelines will be implemented by the start of the new academic year in September.

Jamaica’s Minister of Education, Rev. Ronald Thwaites, reminded the public that the guidelines would address acts of bullying by and against all persons.

Bullying not only affects this society (LGBT), as we have heard reports of issues with regards to older students interfering with younger students, issues of gender also arise, all of which offer a clear position on offering zero tolerance for bullying of any sort. The manual is now being prepared and will be fleshed out in short order.”

However, the Inner-City Teacher Coalition proclaims that the guidelines favoured LGBT students and that heterosexual students faced more bullying from groups practicing an alternative lifestyle is much more widespread.

Reverend Thwaites added that the government had the right to protect all its citizens including the LGBT community.

A number of civil society groups, including members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender), fraternity, have raised with me, issues of bullying. It is of serious concern and the policy of Government and of the ministry (of education) is to protect the sexual integrity of everyone, so the fact that they raise the concern would be an important issue for us.”

The Jamaican government has received criticisms from local and international human rights group over the country’s homophobic culture. Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller ran on a campaign to improve the conditions of the LGBT community in Jamaica, and this move is seen as a step in that direction.

Jamaican Lesbian Couple Wants to Get Married Before They Die

As far as LGBT rights goes, Jamaica has a pretty abysmal track record. Sexual acts between two men are still punishable by law (they face up to 10 years of imprisonment if caught), and levels of anti-LGBT violence in the country are incredibly widespread.

There are regular reports of ‘corrective rapes’ of non-heterosexual women and it’s not uncommon to hear about gay men being stoned or beaten to death – and these crimes are often overlooked by the police, who fail to acknowledge them as a hate crime.

In the past few years, Jamaica has been criticised by both the United Nations (who said that the country allowed legalised homophobia) as well as by President Barack Obama who recently spoke about the need for equality in the country when he visited the island earlier this year.

However, the country has a long history of homophobia due to British colonialism and the religious beliefs of its citizens too.

As a result, Jamaica’s current landscape makes same-sex marriage – or any LGBT rights at all –  a far off possibility.

This is a shame for lesbian couple Carla and Krystal, who recently gave an interview with the Jamaica Gleaner saying that they hope to get married in Jamaica before they die.

Speaking to the publication, Carla said that:

My partner and I used to contemplate marriage. Perhaps we were naive at first, but that blossomed into a bit of boldness. I’m not sure if my partner knows how disheartening it has been for me, when I sometimes sit in solitude and question why things have to be this way. Why are people so opposed to allowing lesbians to marry each other?

She has always been there for me when I was unemployed and on the verge of depression. She always provided emotional support like no other, and who remains equally, if not more committed to us and the prosperity of our union, and yet, I am not allowed to marry her.”

Carla also added that when the time is right, she and Krystal would like to challenge Jamaica’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms; these state that marriage is a human right. Though, Carla also realises that she will have a hard time getting two-thirds of Jamaica’s government to rule in favour of a same-sex marriage ruling should she go ahead with that legal battle.

Jamaican Parliament Set to Review the Country’s Sexual Offences Act

Jamaican Parliament is set to review the country’s Sexual Offences Act. The Jamaican criminal code currently prohibits sex between men through the colonial era buggery law, but the 2009 introduction of the Sexual Offences Act further criminalised same-sex relations.

Earlier this month, Labour MP Diane Abbott, the chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Jamaica, reiterated calls for the country to move away from its anti-gay stance.

Jamaican LGBT rights lawyer Maurice Tomlinson has sent an open letter to all members of the country’s Parliament urging for reform.

It reads…

“The law does not prevent HIV: The Sexual Offences Act of 2009 preserves the ban on private consensual adult male same-gender intimacy found in the 1864 Offences Against the Person Act (the anti-sodomy law). However, despite the continued existence of this colonially imposed law, Jamaica has the highest HIV prevalence rate among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Western Hemisphere (33%). Hence, the law violates the right to privacy of consenting adults, with no societal benefit.”

Maurice Tomlinson

Mr Tomlinson said the legislation is “unfair to women” and “hurts women”

“Law preserves the 1864 Offences Against the Person Act, which provides for a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for anal rape and life imprisonment for vaginal rape. Hence, if a man raped a woman anally he would get significantly less time than if he raped her vaginally. This is patently unjust.”

Maurice Tomlinson

Mr Tomlinson accused Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller of a “blatant betrayal” for refusing to abolish Jamaica’s buggery law.

As part of her election campaign in 2011 Mrs Simpson-Miller vowed to review the legislation. However, since then, the issue has remained unresolved.

Young and Gay: Jamaica’s Gully Queens

 

Young and Gay: Jamaica’s Gully Queens

Watch the unofficial video for “Beautiful Girl” by Vybz Kartel, the “voice of the Jamaican ghetto” at Noisey.

In Jamaica, attacks, murder, and rape are common occurrences against LGBTI people, with little to no retribution or justice brought against those responsible. After being forced from shacks, derelict buildings, and their own families, many homeless LGBTI Jamaicans have found refuge in the storm drainage systems of Kingston — known locally as the gully.

For trans girls and gay men unable or unwilling to hide their sexuality, the sense of community and relative safety the gully provides acts as a welcome sanctuary, and for many, a hope of change to come.

VICE News travelled to the New Kingston area to see what LGBTI life is like in Jamaica — where just being who you are can mean living a life underground.

Watch this powerful report from Vice

UK Black Community Shines Spotlight on Justice for Jamaican LGBTQ Community

UK Black Pride was proud to join UK Lesbian Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) to stand in solidarity with Jamaican LGBTQ people who are fighting for their right to dignity and justice by co.hosting an event on Friday 13 June.

Almost 50 participants attended a special screening of the Channel 4 documentary ‘Unreported World: Jamaica’s Underground Gays’ at the offices of Wilson Solicitors LLP in London. The documentary sees Team GB Paralympian, Ade Adepitan, interviews Sachaberry and Krissy who movingly expose, in sometimes disturbingly graphic detail, the systemic extent of violence and homophobia against LGBT people in Kingston, Jamaica, as they try to live their lives.

Whilst homosexuality is not illegal, Jamaica’s anti-sodomy laws prohibit acts of gross indecency(interpreted as any physical intimacy between men in public or private). Such acts can be punished by 10 years of hard labour in prison and violence against the LGBTQ community is rife.

The UK Black Pride and UKLGIG screening was followed by a panel discussion and fundraising reception with lesbian and gay rights activists and legal professionals

PJ Samuels spoke about the negative role of some popular culture, including dancehall music, artists who promote “murder music” that advocates homophobic prejudice. Samuels also noted the omission of any reference to lesbians in the documentary but made clear that this invisibility did not mean Jamaican lesbian and bisexual women do not suffer.

Vernal Scott, a gay Christian, described his efforts to coordinate a meeting with the Jamaican High Commission in London and gave personal testimony about his experience of growing up with his conservative Christian mother, who was shown in the Unreported World documentary as a church attendee with a megaphone. Scott underlined the key role that conservative interpretation of religions has played to propagate homophobia.

James Stuart of Wilson Solicitors LLP described Britain’s asylum system and stressed the need to raise awareness and funds to help LGBTQ asylum seekers while audience members called on UK Black Pride to raise the issue of Jamaican LGBTQ rights with the Jamaica High Commission and to maintain engagement with Stonewall to lobby the British government for fairer asylum rights for LGBTQ people.

Closing the meeting, UK Black Pride’s Phyll Opoku-Gyimah confirmed that it would make a donation to Dwayne’s House, which gives care and support for homeless LGBT youth in Jamaica and committed to its lobbying by asking people to sign a petition calling on Portia Simpson-Miller, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, to provide safe accommodation for LGBTQ youth fleeing persecution in Jamaica.

Sign the petition here: http://chn.ge/1j5O46U