Reactions continue to come in on the UK's stance on AID to anti gay laws hosting nations

Continuing from the post previous to this reactions have been coming in from all quarters regarding the so called threat by Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom on aid removal from countries who continue to host anti gay laws on their books. The particular tranche of aid that maybe affected is a bilateral one known as general support. When the story first broke by UK newspapers it was suggested that it was African countries but somehow while Ghana has responded to it our local politicians are also joining the throng. The supposed feeling that we are being dictated to on this issues has struck again and may not auger well with regards to the timing of this given the legal challenge to the buggery law by a coalition of activists to the ICHR

The so-called “anti-sodomy law” in Jamaica has cast a destructive pall over the lives of gay Jamaicans. It has fed a homophobic society in which gays and lesbians are harassed, mocked, vilified, beaten and killed simply because of their sexual orientation. Driven underground, many fear that seeking an HIV test will brand them as homosexual, and therefore criminal. The national prevalence of HIV is over 30 percent among men who have sex with men, compared to a rate of 1.6 percent in the general population. The petition establishes clear ties between the country’s active promotion of discrimination and its AIDS epidemic.Tragically and unconscionably, the Government of Jamaica is determined to sustain its discriminatory legislation. The petition brought by AIDS-Free World makes clear that this law tramples on the American Convention on Human Rights, to which Jamaica is a party, and violates numerous guarantees contained in other international treaties that the country has signed and ratified. Jamaica’s law legitimizes abuses against homosexuals by state actors, including the police. It also encourages vigilante justice by private citizens, most of whom believe that the “anti-sodomy” law grants them permission to commit acts of violence against sexual minorities. Because the Government and its highest officials support and enable homophobia, the only possible way to end the persistent violation of the human rights of gay Jamaicans is to strike down the law as soon as possible and usher in an era of tolerance.

Minister of National Security Hon, Dwight Nelson explained on Nationwide Radio November 2, 2011 that he and his ministry were not going to bow to any pressure especially when it never came from or through formal diplomatic channels so he won't respond or fear but those same diplomatic channels will be used to in essence mitigate any suggestion of removal of well needed aid, he also pointed put that the aid was vital as it was used to rehabilitation programs for deportees who are helped to rejoin society, training and support. He said if that aid was cut Jamaica could not afford to run such a program at this time.

Meanwhile a more nervous sounding State Minister of Foreign Affairs Marlene Marlene Malahoo-Forte cautiously tackled the issue when asked by a television interviewer on October 31 she said among other things that the move by Britain is nothing new and changing laws by themselves is not the way to go. "We are sovereign nations and each country has to be allowed room to work out issues understandably countries with an interest on an issue will bring pressure to bear on others  but we are a sovereign nation and we are committed to protect our people need to work out the issues, There are a number of ways that the matter can be addressed if it is a matter that can be dealt with bilaterally then we can begin through the diplomatic channels but the issue has to be addressed from many angles there are issues on the ground that would require the input of the Jamaican people .................. it doesn't matter how many laws we legislate we cannot legislate how people think, I think its time to invest more in educating our people I think that is the more appropriate starting point but it is also important for a discussion to b started in an earnest way to deal with the real problems that arise out of this issue."


Sadly the same mistake is made even by the learned that homosexuality is illegal and the reporter who did the interview with the minster also erred hence in my view whether consciously or not reinforce the very stigma we are trying to move away from.


Reactions in print have also been coming too with a tersely worded letter in today's Gleaner with the usual Leviticusal bashing:

'To Hell With The United Kingdom!'

THE EDITOR, Sir:


 THE UNITED Kingdom stated that if we fail to change our buggery laws, then it will withdraw its financial aid. In a time of scarcity, we certainly need financial aid in order to ease the burden of the hard times faced by our people.However, being a Christian country, we will follow the principles of the Bible, in that righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to every man. Leviticus 18 vs 22 states, "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable". According to the principles of the Bible, buggery is detestable in the eyes of God. How can we ask Him in our anthem to bless our land and yet allow what is an abomination to be practised in our country?In the Bible, we see how Sodom was destroyed by God's mighty hand because of this detestable practice. In present time, we see how the mighty America is crawling on its knees because many of their practices are contrary to the word of God.We thank God for the role of the Church in our country.


 I must say if it wasn't for the prayers of the saints, our country would have suffered the same fate as Sodom.We say 'to hell with United Kingdom'! We will not bow to their ungodly demands. Their financial aid will lead to people having AIDS.In our country, God comes first and in His holy scriptures it is clear that the righteous will never be forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.Jamaica. WE ARE ALREADY BLESSED.Andrew James
Seaforth, St Thomas

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said that any such legislative change must be driven by the public interest, “It is a matter that parliament should have the opportunity to debate, looking at the pros and cons just like the capital punishment individual parliamentarians can take a position as to whether or not it should be changed that is it should be repealed or modified as the case maybe,” he continued ” I am not too sure that the homophobia is caused from the laws, these laws have been in existence from time in memorial I think it is fear to say that um Jamaicans do not consider homosexual behaviour to be acceptable the question is whether these views can be changed over a period of time.”


also see:
Jamaica should refuse British aid – Families Against State Terrorism convener ………………

Miss Sobers among other things said:“It might have been possible that some of those monies may have been earned by people who are gay, who to tell? perhaps we really ought not to take it if we are so concerned, on the other hand do we really need to be so involved with what happens in the bedrooms of consenting adults that it interferes with our ability to help our budget along?The people of this country can make that choice if they care so much about a law that cannot be enforced therefore is really useless.”She was speaking recently at a press briefing along side Lord Anthony Gifford to launch an action to challenge the law overseas via the Inter American Commission for Human Rights. Can it be that they have deliberately decided not to send anyone since the issue of homosexuality will be discussed? If so that’s very cowardly.


Of Commonwealth, Buggery Law And Ditching The Queen (Gleaner 02.11.11)


There is no doubt that the debate has just begun on this as the country reacts one hopes that we do not see a fallout in the community via reaction from anti gay persons resulting in homophobic violence as we have seen in recent years.


Peace and tolerance


H

'Police should not be expected to clean up mess left by politicians'

Rights activist says cops given basket to carry water
BY TANESHA MUNDLE
Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com

HUMAN rights activist Yvonne McCalla-Sobers yesterday June 12th called for additional resources to be given to the police in order for them to conduct their duties efficiently.

The police, the rights activist said, have been given 'basket to carry water' and that the constabulary should not be expected to clean up the "mess" made by politicians over the years.
Yvonne McCalla-Sobers, head of the rights group Families Against State Terrorism, addressing Observer reporters and editors

Addressing editors and reporters at the Observer's weekly Monday Exchange at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston, McCalla-Sobers said the expectations of the police were unfair, adding that police officers were being mandated with an impossible task of cleaning up crime without the necessary resources.

"The police deserve better treatment, and better treatment means they deserve the resources that they need...," said McCalla-Sobers, president of the rights group Family Against State Terrorism (FAST).

The police have, for years, called for more resources to strengthen their fight against crime and violence. In addition to the calls for more police officers, the constabulary has over the years called for more motor vehicles, state-of-the-art equipment to help in forensic investigation, and more bulletproof vests, among others.

McCalla-Sobers, at the same time, said politicians were the root cause of the problems in most communities affected by crime, and they should not leave the problems up to the police to fix.
"...The police do not deserve to be put out there on the front line cleaning up what mess politicians make," she said.

McCalla-Sobers said, too, that it was not the duty of the police to implement social intervention programmes in crime-riddled communities in an effort to provide other alternatives for the residents.

"The police cannot do that. The police have a job and social intervention is not their job," she said.
McCalla-Sobers said that even though intervention by the police in some inner-city communities had in recent times shown a decline in crime in those areas, there has not been the necessary intervention by relevant government agencies to ensure that stability remains.

Citing police intervention in inner-city communities in Kingston such as Hannah Town, Tavares Gardens, better known as 'Payne Land', and Parade Gardens in 2004 as examples, she said the police were expected to restore calm to those areas with the expectation that the relevant authorities would follow up with the necessary social intervention. "But it did not happen," she said. "Social intervention is not their (police) job."

However, she said the police needed everyone's support.

"The police need our support, but they also need our support to act in ways that do not increase alienation in the community. We have to support a kind of policing that is going to do what the military called building hearts and minds. If we treat the innocent badly they will become supporters of the tyrants," McCalla-Sobers said.

"Outdated" Bail Laws to be changed but Buggery Laws remain ... how convenient Mr.Golding?

I remember reading somewhere and posting in one of my blogs a press release on Bruce Golding and outdated buggery laws, indeed I dug up my archives and found it. It was done back in March 2009 by AIDSFREEWORLD and was published on GLBTQ Jamaica September 24, 2009 in it's entirely, read it here.

It highlighted among other things the question of liberalizing the buggery laws in Jamaica to which the Prime Minister on his feet in the House of Parliament said no thus in effect keeping archaic legislation to maintain popularity.

In the excerpt highlighted in orange the AIDSFREEWORLD group continued by espousing
"A gay man and his lesbian sister are shot in the chest in front of their families, in their home. A pastor praying at the funeral of a gay man is confronted by an angry mob. Someone chases a lesbian down a Kingston street, catches her, slits her throat, and leaves her to die in a bloody puddle.

She didn’t die, and she and other victims of vicious homophobia told us their stories. We came away appalled, although homophobia is very familiar in all the countries in which we work. Appalled because homophobia, sexism and bigotry are rolling out the welcome carpet for HIV/AIDS, and we feel more strongly than ever that unless homosexuality is decriminalized, the pandemic will not stop killing.

“Know your epidemic” has long been a mantra of international AIDS organizations. It makes sense. We know, from UN data, that in certain countries in the Caribbean, prevalence rates among men who have sex with men (MSM) are as much as 20 times higher than in the general population. Jamaica’s and Trinidad’s adult HIV prevalence rates are 1.6% and 1.5% respectively, compared to 31.8% and 20% among MSM.

Combine these figures with the fact that in the Dominican Republic, for example, 78% of MSM report having sex with women, and what do we know about the epidemic? We know that gay men fear for their safety and lives, and that they enter heterosexual relationships in order to stay safe. So the virus spreads to women.

We believe “know your epidemic” means not just knowing (and often blaming) the epidemic’s victims. We believe it means knowing what makes populations such as sexual minorities and women so vulnerable to the virus. MSM are not to blame for the high prevalence rates in their communities: the bigotry and legalized homophobia that drive them underground are.

The world has always blamed the oppressed for their own problems. MSM certainly don’t want to contract HIV, but their communities drive them underground and prevent them from seeking out prevention. Research data shows that when stigma is lowered, so are infection rates.

We simply cannot contain the epidemic – in Jamaica or anywhere else – if we don’t acknowledge the barriers facing those in high-risk groups. Those barriers include bigotry, fear, hatred and legalized discrimination."

The old laws from our colonial masters on buggery are kept non-the-less of course for the main reason as a popularity carrot dangling infront of a dumb donkey as in the public as we have seen in recent times, I need not remind you of them but visit the tabs on Charter of Rights , Hypocrisy & homophobia and Buggery Law on GLBTQ Jamaica, also see the similar tabs here on GJW for a roster of posts on the matters.

In Parliament recently on June 3, 2010 the Prime Minister found it necessary however to justify changes to the bail acts among others in response to the mounting pressure from civil society on the incursion in Tivoli Gardens and political criminals, those respective bills and acts by the way are younger than the old buggery laws as appearing in the original Offences Against the Persons Acts as were handed down to us from our colonial masters. In his opening remarks the Prime Minister in Parliament during the debate on the six crime bills now laid before the house said that some of the laws were outdated and needed to be changed to reflect the new realities that now obtain however when such sentiments were expressed as have been so done time and again in relation to the Buggery Laws with possible decriminalisation, privacy and freedom of consenting adults they were all shot down in the name of so called moral grounds of course used as convenient tools to prop up the government's image with the opposition and the religious right happily playing along.

The Bills for review are: an Act to amend the Bail Act; an Act to further amend the Firearms Act; an Act to amend the Offences Against the Person Act; an Act to amend the Parole Act; an Act to make interim provision in relation to the grant of bail in specified circumstances; and an Act to make interim provision extending the powers of arrest and detention under Sections 50B and 50F of the Constabulary Force Act.

One of the two contentious Bills, the Bail Act, proposes what Mr. Golding described as a "significant" change in the approach to bail. The Act, if passed, will be in place for one year and will allow the state to imprison a person charged with violent or certain drug-related offences for up to 60 days without bail.

The Prime Minister said, however, that the new Bill would require that the detained person must be taken before a judge, not later than seven days after he is held, where the judge can review the matter to determine whether he should be released, and thereafter if he is not released, he must be taken back before the court in intervals of 14 days.

The other Bill seeks to extend the powers of arrest and detention under sections 50B and 50F of the Constabulary Force Act, so that a person can be detained for up to 72 hours, instead of 24 hours, without being charged or taken before a magistrate.

It also provides for the arrest and detention of a person outside of the locality of a curfew or cordon, if a divisional commander or a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force at the rank of Assistant Commissioner is satisfied that there is reasonable ground for suspecting that the person is about to commit, or has committed a crime within the area of the curfew or cordon.

The GLBTQ angle:
Given our ticklish environment here towards homosexuality imagine if a gay, lesbian or transgendered person is held for any reason and such a person maybe in dressed in full drag or presents aesthetically as the opposite of their obvious gender as we saw in a public case recently of a crossdresser in a police station in central Jamaica then I wonder what would obtain? that person may be deliberately made to be exposed to the rest of the jail, holding area or prison population and what guarantee of safety and fairness do we have for that GLBTQ member?
We have seen cases before where detainees are outed to the other incarcerated persons which have led to beatings with very little support or intervention from the correctional officials to stop the abuse. Imagine such abuse now obtaining when one is held for 72 hours without charge only to be released battered and bruised for on a premise of innocence with very little recourse. Disturbing isn't it?

It is questions like these I would have expected Jamaica Forum for Lesbians Allsexuals and Gays, JFLAG to have been asking in joining the other rights groups such as Families Against State Terrorism (FAST), Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) and Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights (IJCHR) in recent public criticisms in as far as seeking justice for GLBTQ people in this whole mess after all some of those groups had representatives present at the recent International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) silent protest in New Kingston, why not join them and speak out or the IDAHO move was just a directive from the main sponsors then it dies there? Follow up!

The irony of ironies is that the electorate of old is not dormant or sleeping anymore we are watching issues more closely and commenting and will act if needed, a culture that he, Bruce Golding has helped to foster when he was out of power from the days of his Presidency of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) to his re-entry into the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Peace & tolerance

H