Tag Archives: Prime Minister of Jamaica

UK Black Pride Demands Justice for Jamaican LGBTs

Yesterday, UK Black Pride (Europe’s largest not-for-profit organisation for African, Asian and Caribbean-heritage lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people), proudly announced a collaborative project with UK Lesbian Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG), to show solidarity with Jamaican LGBTs fighting for their dignity and justice in their country.

UK Black Pride and UKLGIG will host a screening of Channel 4’s documentary ‘Unreported World: Jamaica’s Underground Gays’ on Friday 13 June 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 LGB and T people in Kingston, Jamaica, as they try to live their lives.

“UK Black Pride’s message of love without borders resonates with our community of Black LGBT people whose families hail from all corners of the world. We must put every social and political pressure that we can muster to demand dignity and respect for our Jamaican sisters and brothers so come out and join us!”

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, UK Black Pride’s founder and Executive Director

Whilst homosexuality is not illegal on the Caribbean island, Jamaica’s anti-sodomy laws prohibit acts of gross indecency (interpreted as any physical intimacy between men in public or private). Such acts are punishable by 10 years of hard labour in prison. This law and hardened social and cultural attitudes mean that violence against the LGBT community is rife.

UK Black Pride is inviting those who have been affected by the issues raised in the documentary, and those who want to learn more about the situation in Jamaica, and those who want to show solidarity with Jamaica’s LGBT community, to join them us at this film screening, which will be followed by a panel discussion and fundraising reception with lesbian and gay rights activists and legal professionals, including: Wayne Simmonds; PJ Samuels; Vernal Scott, Ana Gonzalez and Phyll Opoku-Gyimah.

You can register for your FREE ticket here. You can also show support by signing a petition that calls on Portia Simpson Miller, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, to provide safe and clean accommodation for LGBT youth who are escaping persecution in Jamaica. Sign here: http://chn.ge/1j5O46U


Watch the trailer for ‘Jamaica’s Underground Gays | Unreported World Shorts’