So the silence has been broken not via a press release from JFLAG or an entry on their website but this letter from one man activist Maurice Tomlinson who is also a Consultant to AIDSFREEWORLD some eight days after the infraction has been committed against LGBTQI people worldwide and which our government gladly participated in, we essentially supported the removal of sexual orientation from the realm of judicial killings: (Jamaica votes In favor of the amendment to remove sexual orientation from the resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (79))
A gentleman who we have come to respect greatly Mr. Tomlinson seems to be doing the damned thing publicly putting his career and life on the line but the JFLAG group hasn't done a good job of educating or communicating with the LGBTQI communities the very rights spoken of in this letter, how much do the ordinary folks out there really understand? so they can speak alongside the rights group that speaks on behalf of us all these years bearing in mind their 13th anniversary comes up in December. More "ordinary" voices need to be added to the mix now, this idea that only "qualified" people are the ones to do it all is not good enough, more voices, the louder the message. In fact it is widely viewed that it is JFLAG's presence that impedes Mr. Tomlinson's positions from getting better public support from sections of the LGBTQI community itself, hence the low turn out at public agitations when they are organised.
Have a read of the letter below as published in today's Gleaner and also see the recent snub the organization experienced from the Jamaica Pegasus where they tried to book meeting space.
The letter reads:
THE EDITOR, Sir:At the Universal Periodic Review of Jamaica's human-rights situation, held before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on November 9, the head of the Jamaican delegation, Senator Marlene Malahoo-Forte, misinformed the world about Jamaica's human-rights record with regard to gays.
One of her more glaring inaccuracies was that Jamaica has a documented policy to protect women, girls and homosexuals! No such policy exists.
Her statement that "Jamaica does not condone discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation" was startling, in light of our prime minister's very public statement to the British Broadcasting Corporation that no gays will form part of his Cabinet.
She also said that in Jamaica "there is no legal discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation". This belies Section 79 of the Offences Against the Person Act, which discriminates against gays by criminalising any form of intimacy between two men, whether done in private or public.
As a lawyer, a former member of the director of public prosecutions' office and resident magistrate, Senator Malahoo-Forte must surely know about this infamous section.
A fanciful notion
She also denied the existence of "credible" evidence of continued human-rights abuses against gays. Yet, when the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays requested a meeting with the prime minister to discuss these abuses, they were denied.
From the senator's presentation it would appear that effeminate gay Jamaican men can now walk openly downtown Kingston without fear of attack. Truly a fanciful notion. No wonder 11 countries were unimpressed with her presentation and called on Jamaica to end its homophobic laws and policies.
I am, etc.,
Maurice Tomlinson
maurice_tomlinson@yahoo.com
ENDS
Anyway thanks to Maurice for putting it out there. I never really expected the Minister to do any thing seriously regarding LGBTQI rights despite the election promises and artificial concerns shown by the Prime Minister in previous correspondences with the J.
Peace and tolerance
H
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