Advance in Quest for HIV Vaccine

By MARK SCHOOFS

HIV research is undergoing a renaissance that could lead to new ways to develop vaccines against the AIDS virus and other viral diseases.

In the latest development, U.S. government scientists say they have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered. They are now deploying the technique used to find those antibodies to identify antibodies to influenza viruses.


The HIV antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. The trick for scientists now is to develop a vaccine or other methods to make anyone's body produce them as well.

That effort "will require work," said Gary Nabel, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was a leader of the research. "We're going to be at this for a while" before any benefit is seen in the clinic, he said.





The research was published Thursday July 8, 2010 in two papers in the online edition of the journal Science, 10 days before the opening of a large International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where prevention science is expected to take center stage. More than 33 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2008, and about 2.7 million contracted the virus that year, according to United Nations estimates.

Vaccines, which are believed to work by activating the body's ability to produce antibodies, eliminated or curtailed smallpox, polio and other feared viral diseases, so they have been the holy grail of AIDS research.

Last year, following a trial in Thailand, results of the first HIV vaccine to show any efficacy were announced. But that vaccine reduced the chances of infection only by about 30%, and controversy erupted because in one common analysis the results weren't statistically significant. That vaccine wasn't designed to elicit the new antibodies.

The new discovery is part of what Wayne Koff, head of research and development at the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, calls a "renaissance" in HIV vaccine research.

Antibodies that are utterly ineffective, or that disable just one or two HIV strains, are common. Until last year, only a handful of "broadly neutralizing antibodies," those that efficiently disable a large swath of HIV strains, had been discovered. And none of them neutralized more than about 40% of known HIV variants.

But in the past year, thanks to efficient new detection methods, at least a half dozen broadly neutralizing antibodies, including the three latest ones, have been identified in peer-reviewed journals. Dennis Burton of the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, Calif., led a team that discovered two broadly neutralizing antibodies last year; he says his team has identified additional, unpublished ones. Most of the new antibodies are more potent, able to knock out HIV at far lower concentrations than their previously known counterparts.

HIV is a highly mutable virus, but one place where the virus doesn't mutate much is where it attaches to a particular molecule on the surface of cells it infects. Building on previous research, researchers created a probe, shaped exactly like that critical site, and used it to attract only those antibodies that efficiently attack it. That is how they fished out of Donor 45 the special antibodies: They screened 25 million of his cells to find 12 that produced the antibodies.

Donor 45's antibodies didn't protect him from contracting HIV. That is likely because the virus had already taken hold before his body produced the antibodies. He is still alive, and when his blood was drawn, he had been living with HIV for 20 years.

While he has produced the most powerful HIV antibody yet discovered, researchers say they don't know of anything special about his genes that would make him unique. They expect that most people would be capable of producing the antibodies, if scientists could find the right way to stimulate their production.

Dr. Nabel said his team is applying the new technique to the influenza virus. Like HIV, influenza is a highly mutable virus—the reason a new vaccine is required every year.

"We want to go after a universal vaccine" by using the new technique to find antibodies to a "component of the influenza virus that doesn't change," said NIAID director Anthony Fauci. In principle, Dr. Fauci said, the technique could be used for any viral disease and possibly even for cancer vaccines.

Some of the new HIV antibodies discovered over the past year attack different points on the virus, raising hopes that they could work synergistically.

In unpublished research, John Mascola, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center, has shown that one of Dr. Burton's antibodies neutralizes virtually all the strains that are resistant to the antibody from Donor 45. He also found the reverse: The antibody from Donor 45 disables HIV strains resistant to one of Dr. Burton's best antibodies. Only one strain out of 95 tested was resistant to both antibodies, he said. Dr. Mascola is one of the authors of Thursday's papers.

Click Image for full article.

Peace and tolerance.

H

Latent homosexuality & misconceptions creating havoc?

Jamaica has been described as the most homophobic space in this side of the world given our cases of beatings, alleged murders of gays, murder music, harsh public sentiments and scorn, prejudicial media outputs and negative pronouncements by politicians. Not to be outdone are the failed attempts to convince the country on a whole of the decriminalization of buggery from our law books, an inherited set of laws from our colonial masters.

As of late I have been questioning whether our homophobia is real on its own right in terms of heterosexuals who have a problem with gays or is it an end product of several other items at work in our society over the years that include same sex attracted persons or persons who practice gay sex undercover? We didn't arrive at this place in a single go of course just going from memory it took us several years and occurrences for us to be in the place where we are today. The late seventies of course when Gay Freedom Movement the first gay advocacy group in Jamaica was formed the society was not so caustic towards the lifestyle given all the misconceptions added over the years.

The main occurrence that I feel that helped to influence the rampant homophobia we now see was a horrible case of carnal abuse/murder of a young boy in the early nineties where he was found to have been sodomized as well as was reported in the autopsy report. Jamaica however was well on the way to homo hate with other dancehall acts directing more "softer" lyrics calling gay men number two etc before that. Then came Buju Banton's "Boom Bye Bye" 1992 song which openly advocated the death of gays by gunshots. This song drastically changed the mood of the nation towards gays and lesbians but as indicated before it wasn't the only one. The song was originally recorded in 1988 but re-recorded later in 1992 when he was 18 years old.

Here are some of the other negative occurrences that have influenced our homophobia to now:

1. The previously strong output of murder music using ever new names to stereotype gays and lesbians
2. Tacit support of murder music by mainstream media in continued homo hate
3. The public humiliation over the years of gays and lesbians by the state and other citizens
4. Multiple cases of homophobic and lesbophobic violence that have gone for the most part unresolved
5. Forced evictions and ostracism of profiled gay and lesbian persons without any recourse
6. Tabloid newspapers prejudicial and stereotypical articles on male homosexuality
7. Deliberate joining of paedophilia and adult male homosexuality to justify homo hate (Beenieman's BBC appearance was one such occasion)
8. Use of the nation's homophobia by the political establishment to gain or maintain popularity
9. Manipulation of draft legislation to keep old laws on the books such as the Charter of Rights 2010
10. Media's continued negative portrayal of gays and lesbians over time
11. The church's selective biblical literalism and manipulation of doctrine to stifle discussion on tolerance and freedoms
12. Poor representations and agitations by human rights advocacy groups on behalf of LGBTQI people
13. Missing support and representations from the social sciences communities and academia - psychologists, psychiatric community
14. Institutional homophobia from state healthcare facilities and even advocates themselves
15. Poor social and educational support for LGBTQI people in understanding their issues
16. Portrayal of homosexuality as a "foreign" lifestyle and not present in the African context
17. Poor examination of issues such as substitutional sex and situational homosexuality
18. Inadequate discourse and education on bisexuality and clandestine homosexuality in our culture
19. The belief in some quarters (notably church leaders) that gay men actively recruit young boys into homosexuality without any proper justification
20. Corrective Rape used a means to "straighten" lesbian women, for e.g popular poet Stacey Ann Chin who was sexually assaulted by several male students in 1996 on the University of The West Indies Campus
21. The LGBTQI poor resolve to speak out on issues openly outside of the advocates

Those are just a few I came up with just from observation this is with a view for all of us to continue the discourse on this and other related issues. Frankly I have been having second thoughts about the image portrayed about Jamaican as the gay murder state as many of the persons sadly who have been killed were known to their attackers. I am now thinking we need to refocus on clandestine homosexuality or down-low lifestyles, situational homosexuality (substitutional sex in jail-house or boys home homosexual activity), emergency homosexuality and bisexuality with the issues of secrecy and the nation's obsession of machismo, even more so with present public accusations of persons on tape in compromising positions and a supposed list of entertainers including homo hate spitting ones who are alleged to be covertly gay or bisexual.

Class of course is a primary factor as those public cases of "gay murders" have several common features present, the attackers were all from the lower socio economic parts of Jamaica or supposed thugs while those killed are usually rich powerful men. These same hyper masculine types who publicly "bun out battyman" yet will engage in sexual activity are no more shocking the nation when they hear about such cases as the down-low phenomenon is now well cemented in our culture I feel, that could explain the hunt that is now on to expose those who are alleged to be involved in same sex activities.

Thugs of course do not wish to be identified as gays as "gays" represents a man wanting to be a woman in bed (seeing gays are only looked at for how we have sex not as people) given our patriarchal society that's a big no no. In prisons for example it is well known in certain circles that same sex actions happen but usually non penetrative involving masturbation or oral sex as a form of release after all men have needs and putting alpha males together something's going to happen given time especially for those who are on very long sentences. There are also cases of commercial sex inside the confines of maximum security facilities but to avoid the possible uproar the authorities resist any references to such arguments. When the matter of condoms in prison was the hot topic at the time it caused much unease for the correctional hierarchy and the government as it was viewed as sanctioning homosexuality in lock-ups, remember these?

Riot alert - Prison unrest looms over condom dispute

Insult to manhood - Condoms in male prisons

Condoms in prison

Sexual activities in prison and the lack of availability of condoms to prisoners

No rights in 'Hell'- Memories of riots haunt former inmate

Evidence for Action (PDF) HIV Transmission

Here we see the clear conflicts between the issues of homosexuality vs substitutional sex, the belief to legitimatize anal sex vs preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in sections of the prison population. Let's face facts if we as LGBTQI people are going to begin to make in roads we have to demystify all the crossings of the issues that has had an adverse impact on our nation added to that are the stereotypes of the gay male lifestyle.

Meanwhile the twisting of adult male homosexuality vs paedophilia, teleiophiles (Teens who find mature persons attractive), hebephilia and ephebophilia continues here are some recent examples and more readings on the subject:

The paedophiles are here

More Analysis of Scandal (GLBTQ Wordpress)

Ephebophilia Paedophilia Homosexuality « GLBTQ Jamaica Blog Watch

Child Sex Abuse Rampant But Hidden (2006): - "Homosexual paedophilia is one of the ways in which young people enter into homosexuality if it is done by someone of the same gender," said psychiatrist Terrence Bernard Bernard. "Boys may be molested by men and girls may be molested by women. In other words, it becomes a form of initiation into homosexuality. The victims sometimes become sexual predators themselves."

Beenie Man defends anti-gay lyrics by blaming Israel

Kingston Chronicle Comment on Alleged businessman sexual advances on a 12yo at a KFC bathroom in Mandeville Jamaica - "So to all those battyman support groups and their supporters. When beenie man and buju banton sing about battyman fi dead they are not only speaking of your lifestyle but sexual predators such as this one. So once again boom bye bye fi all battyman and child rapist"

I will continue in another post soon.

Peace and tolerance.

H

Cameroon & Iranian Gay asylum seekers win challenge in UK's Supreme court, implications for others

The historic ruling was handed down today as was watched by human rights groups, lgbt advocates, immigration and asylum proponents. There is almost a collective sigh of relief worldwide as the news became apparent.

The men had met a roadblock in their legal attempts in the Appeals court where the ruling that was handed down then suggested the men return to their respective homelands and become discreet in order to hide thier homosexuality.

They were told by the Home Office they could safely return home if they were "discreet" about their sexual orientation. The idea had been supported in principle by the previous UK government.

The Cameroonian man, HT, argued he was told he could be sent home despite being attacked after he was seen kissing his partner.

The Iranian man, HJ, was told by a tribunal that he must expect persecution for his homosexuality and could avoid it by being discreet.

The case was brought on behalf of the men by the London office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The men's lawyer, Iona Harding, of Baker & McKenzie, said: "This is an excellent result which will ensure that lesbian, gay and bisexual people receive the protection they are entitled to as refugees in the UK and are not expected to hide their identity in order to escape execution, long prison sentences or other forms of persecution."

Gay asylum campaigner Paul Canning told PinkNews.co.uk that the decision had "extremely broad implications" for gay asylum seekers in other countries due to the EU trying to bring standardise asylum policy.

He added: "This is a clear victory. It is one in the eye for the last government."

The court's judgment said that the term "concealment" was preferred to discretion, as this recognises that gay people in homophobic countries may need to be dishonest about their sexuality and that the average person would find it intolerable to have to conceal their sexuality for fear of persecution.

It added that UK authorities must consider whether asylum applicants have to conceal their sexuality at home for fear of persecution and if so, they should be given refugee status regardless of whether they can successfully keep their sexuality secret.

The new coalition government has said it will introduce new rules to prevent the deportation of any gay asylum seeker who faces "imprisonment, torture or execution" if sent home.

Lord Hope, who read out the judgment, said: "To compel a homosexual person to pretend that his sexuality does not exist or suppress the behaviour by which to manifest itself is to deny him the fundamental right to be who he is."

Home secretary Theresa May said: "I welcome the ruling of the Supreme Court, which vindicates the position of the coalition government.

"We have already promised to stop the removal of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution.

"I do not believe it is acceptable to send people home and expect them to hide their sexuality to avoid persecution."

"From today, asylum decisions will be considered under the new rules and the judgment gives an immediate legal basis for us to reframe our guidance for assessing claims based on sexuality, taking into account relevant country guidance and the merits of each individual case."

"We will, of course, take any decisions on a case-by-case basis looking at the situation in the country of origin and the merits of individual cases in line with our commitment."

With many LGBT Jamaicans still processing their cases in the United Kingdom this is welcomed news and by extension those from other countries where homophobia is expressed far more violently in torture, harsh laws (flogging in Iran) or death penalty under sharia law in some parts of the world.

Peace and tolerance

H

Professor weighs in on Observer's Gay on gay violence agitprop piece

Respected Professor of Philosophy, Ontario Research Chair in Bioethics and Joint Editor-in-Chief BIOETHICS & DEVELOPING WORLD BIOETHICS The Department of Philosophy
Queen's University Ontario Canada, Udo Schuklenk, PhD, has weighed in on the Jamaica Observer's piece as posted below titled: Gay man blames peers. I have deliberately stayed clear of this one to allow my readers to form your own opinions on that piece. Even after hosting letters supporting dialogue on homosexuality and thought provoking subjects regarding legal positions on buggery by a noted legal mind from western Jamaica the paper has slipped back into the old style with regards to this subject.

Mr. Schuklenk contributed:

"Having just redeemed themselves in the eyes of regular readers with pretty sharp reporting about the Dudus' affair, Jamaica's journalism is back to its usual quality-wise lows.

Two of Jamaica's papers, the Observer and the Gleaner have a long and distinguished history of anti-gay agitprop. The Gleaner frequently does it under the guise of pseudo-openness perpetuated by one of its columnists. He's a quite eloquent chap who likes to gives his musings an air of scientific soundness when really he picks and chooses biased academic content usually from low-ranking academic journals likely gleaned from the Family Research Council's (or some other Christian fundamentalist organisation like it) treasure chest of anti-gay 'research'. You know, the kind of research 'demonstrating' that gays are more likely to rape little kids, murder your grannie and have a hotline to the devil. A long running Jamaican agitprop feature on that front has been this: Antigay violence in Jamaica ain't the real problem (empirical research undertaken by international human rights organisations be damned) but violent gay men beating each other up are the real problem.

Here's an example taken from the Observer. In last Sunday's edition, under the byline of 'DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter', the campaign continues. Hussey-Whyte notes in her introductory line that 'Many may argue that the gay community is falsely accused of excessive violence against its own members, but the horrible wounds on Keron Brown's body tell a different story.” Her story is about a gay man who she reports has been abused pretty badly by his partner and that partner's mates. Assuming that the case is true – I have no way to verify it, but it's perfectly possible, of course, that a gay man was abused by his partner – nothing follows with regard to how the average gay person treats his or her partner(s).

No doubt Donna Hussey-Whyte doesn't know what inductive reasoning is, and even less why we know that such modes of analysis don't work as a scientific method. So, to her benefit: You can't really use anecdotal cases to make a general point. Say, assume I see someone jumping out of a 10th floor window and ending up on the ground floor without injury. I shouldn't make that the story line of an article suggesting that generally speaking it's sensible to assume that jumping out of 10th floor windows isn't a risky activity. I'm sure you get the drift. So, before Donna Hussey-Whyte's agitprop piece even goes into full swing, anyone who took Scientific Method 101 knows already that not only is her first sentence wrong, but more importantly, that anyone can know with certainty that her story can't prove her point about the gay community being pretty violent against its own members. It's not even clear what she means with gay community to be honest. Is her proposition that the average gay person is more likely, or a membership club called 'gay community' or is something else tickling her incisive reporting mind?

Even if there was a whole bunch of such cases, nothing would follow regarding the question of how the majority of gay people in Jamaica treat each other. Short of a representative survey, this bunch of cases would be just that, a bunch of anecdotes. The question is: Could such research even be undertaken in a society where gay people are hunted out of their houses, beaten up randomly in the streets, and where homosexual conduct and relationships are still illegal. The truth is, if we bothered investigating what amounts to an odd-indeed hypothesis to begin with, we would really have no means to undertake such a study in current-day Jamaica.

Anyhow, back to Donna Hussey-Whyte's agitprop piece: Just think of a counter example of similar disingenuity, think of the number of crimes committed by heterosexual people in Jamaica. Most of those crimes are committed against other heterosexual people. Would this tell us anything at all about a purported link between heterosexuality and violent behaviour? Not at all – that is unless you're Donna Hussey-Whyte. Oddly, she never filed this particular investigative report. Makes you wonder why...

Having said that, from societies more peaceful than the Jamaican we do know that gay people are – if anything – less prone to be violent than their straight counter parts. Is it possible that anti-gay violence and general societal homophobia cause possibly surplus violence among gay people that otherwise would not exist? This truly is an interesting question, if we accept the local media's as yet unsubstantiated premise that gay people in Jamaica are really more prone to abuse each other than they are in other countries. Do we know whether they are more prone to this sorts of behaviour than they are in other countries, or do we know whether they're more prone to violence than are heterosexual people in Jamaica? We know none of this, unless we believe that Donna's inductive 'reasoning' is a good substitute for actual evidence.

As ever, beware of Jamaica's newsmedia when it comes to the issue of homosexuality. Their reporting is by and large in the service of anti-gay prejudice. It's mostly propaganda, no more, no less."

To make comments on Udo's page directly go HERE

Reactions to JFLAG's call for The Buggery Law's Removal by CARICOM

The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-sexuals and Gays, JFLAG had a quiet demonstration on July 4 with a small contingent of those who could make it for 17 minutes at the opening day at the heads of government summit in Montego Bay, St. James. They called on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to repeal the respective buggery laws in the jurisdictions that still maintain the old acts on their books.

See more here: Jamaican gay group calls on Caricom to end anti-buggery laws and also the full statement on GLBTQJA's wordpress edition.

The responses are already pouring in on various social networks especially facebook on a particular Jamaican News page named On the Ground News. The activity there has been tense but the Go Jamaica edition of the story does not show comments openly, I guess they are cognisant of the firestorm a story like this always invites. The usual colourful expletives and calling for deaths to gays was present mixed with biblical literalism and quotes sometimes all in one sentence.
Frankly this action by the J seems a knee jerk reaction to many things including cynicism from sections of the gay community towards their own slow work over the long years, to simply get up now to demand for CARICOM to repeal the buggery laws is not a smart move in my view but who am I to say as folks like me don't know anything in the opinion of some.

With Prime Minister Bruce Golding taking over leadership of CARICOM during the proceedings and his very public positions on homosexuality was it a good move now J? Let us also not forget the invented gay marriage discussion which he used along with the Lawyer's Christian Fellowship to crush the draft clauses of sexual orientation discrimination which were removed from the Charter of Rights Bill during it's long journey to passage. I am concerned that with the present move towards imposing a morality agenda we need to be careful we don't see any retaliatory moves to further crush the gay rights movement by suddenly updating these old buggery laws as is happening with other various pieces of less older legislation in the name of fixing Jamaica such as the Bail Act in the recently passed controversial crime bills.

The PM had also mentioned that laws needed to be amended to reflect the new times during the crime bills debate, interestingly it's the same reasoning the gay rights movement has used over the life of the struggle to ask for the repealing the buggery laws yet it was ignored. The Jamaica Labour Party, JLP presently is in a political pickle following the most recent set of events and they may just use this gay rights issue again to their advantage as they know very well the parliamentary opposition enjoys a high lgbt support even though they do not support gay rights openly either, a convenient political gift that can be drawn on anytime given the public sentiments. Mr. Golding has proven he is a politically shrewd and cunning animal contrary to popular perceptions of his clumsiness he is very much adepth at using strategies to his advantage.

Here some of the comments (names removed) from On The Ground News from facebook, it's an open page so you will see it. WARNING !!!! - STRONG LANGUAGE. A few of the more tersely worded ones were flagged by some members so those have been removed.


"Straight up, Jamaica getting too Americanized. Homosexuality was always considered in my teachings as against the book of life" No Man or Woman can change this noble teachings or take it away from me. I grow my kids on these same teachings that were carried down through ancestry. I know also that it existed in everyone life teachings also. I ... personally wish not death on anyone but will not welcome any of these individuals in my immediate surroundings. I was taught that was a sin and curse. I find it very humorous that when someone researches and quotes the Bible to show that this types of diseases are not to be allowed and are against laws that existed in biblical times How could you ever think about contradicting the book of God"


"Nothing to get Jamaicans excited like homosexuality..."


"yuh need fi guh bathe!!1 evrytime a battyman related news post come out yuh quick fi respond!!! a wah suh??!! yuh waan look like yuh nuh inna dem thing deh wen yuh probly a hide and a dweet!!!
As fi di rest a unnu weh nuh knw weh unnu family or man/woman a duh wen dem nuh round unnu shut d raas up!!! nuff a unnu av this preconceived notion dat gays act a feminine but i'll av unnu knw seh alot of these all macho men dat a batty a dem callin but dem jus affi use woman as sham!!!"


"well they exist freely, but we will not be legalising gay marriage anytime soon. Marriage must be between a man and a woman. Bruce, this is the only thing i agree with u on."


"Funny how everyone is passionately against crime and murders in this country and yet the overwhelming sentiment coming from the comments on this article is that "battyman fi dead".




"Jamaica will never get any better until we recognize the value of ALL human life. Including the lives of those you may not necessarily like.
Respect life. One love."


"Only in mobay dem can bright enough fi try that"


"These comments are shocking, considering you are talking about a basic human rights issue."

"somebody cah line dem up an shoot dem one by one..hisst....they are nothing but a big disgrace to mankind...."


"Battyman fi get eliminate!"


"why don't they Kill Jason Mcfarlene?"


"imagine, yesterday was gay pride parade here in Toronto and if that wasn't enough, now this?! This werl is getting battyer and batty-er everyday"


"dem pussyclaat battybwoy an lesbians deh need fi stay in dem rass closet wid dem nastiness an stop further tarnish the image of JA, and the entertainers need to stop make mention of them in their songs bcuz it just mek dem feel big. "PUSSY FI LIFE" MI LOVE MI WOMAN DEM"


"Please read unno Bible God says clearly in His word that if a man lay with man as he would a woman he is an abomination and he should die!!!!! So when we sey BULLET a sumtin whey written in God word backside God himself sey so!!!!! Please God mek man fi woman and woman fi man!! Stop chat foolishness a ppl ears bout Christ like God sey stone dem and... dem family to death!!!
What black ppl fail to ova stand is that a lot of our pratices are biblical principles from the old testament days! And please dont tell me that was the old testament because the New Testament is the Old testament revealed. In Roamns 1 verse 27-32 it clearly sates that if we condone these nasty acts even if we dont do it God will hold us accoutable and we will get same punishment like the one who practise these acts!!! So nuh bodda come talk when unno clearly not reading unno Bible!!! Batty bwoy n lesbian fi get FIRE N BRIMESTONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BIBLE SEY DAT GO TEK IT UP WID JESUS!!! Kiss mi teeth fi unno big head bud"



"the wages of sin is still DEATH!!! Not Life!!!! Romans 1 verse 20-32. Jamaica is a christain country and even though we are disobedient like everybody else certain sin should not be named among us as a ppl plus even gone so far fi reach parliament!!! We taking up the American mentality freedom of everything not so in God world He still run things and if He said NO is NO!!!!! Batty mek fi shit come out of fi clean yu out it's not and Entrance ppl it's and Exit door!!!!"


"Why was the anti-buggery Act relevant 30/40years ago and not today.Did some bright new light shine recently.Is it that we are smarter than our fore-parents?
Anyway the Act has attached to it bestiality ,so if a man choose to promote homosexuality then he must be equally vocal about promoting bestiality or else shut up!!!!!!!!!!"


"again my youth or girl nasty is nasty, right is right and wrong is wrong!! The thought alone is disgusting so please dont come tell me to relax...if you have child go mek a man push him big wood inna yu youth ass then talk or mek yu daughter come tell yu sey love woman...nasty.
yu too relax dats y yu love the idea so....again like we say in Kingston n mi don Buju sey BATTY BOY FI DEAD!!! All day everyday."


"When was wrong in Roman and Greek times is still wrong now...."


"And this way of thinking of homosexuality has been drilled in our culture donkey yrs now a no jus wah day! A lot of Jamaicans have picked up the mentality of other countries, b/c nuff Jamaicans like to be led and follow fashin. BUT not cause it wrong mean wi fi put a noose rounf dem neck, we are not God... Life and death is in the tongue, if u speak of it, u are capable of committing the act! Let's educate ourselves man, Support OPEN ARMS FOR JAMAICA'S FUTURE..oonuh ask mi how! Find someting useful fi do!"


"...politicians, unnu fav. artiste, skool boyz, doctor, lawyer, thief gunman. all them ppl yah can be battyman(well most of them r). NOT to mention the dancer dem weh fi continue to look fly dem make dem batty spacings loose suh if most a iunnu knw d thingz dem unnu wld a shut up!!! bczu unnu probly av family weh a dat but love them up still but a chat...bout kill other ppl!!!!!
Ppl need to knw hw to leave ppl bizniz alone and mind their own!!! some a unnu bizniz if it fi come out wouldda worst than unnu being homosexual!!!!
If unnu dont like homosexuals stop paying dem mind bcuz a dat them want unnu fi duh!!!! give dem unnu attention!!!"


"I wouldnt want anybody who condones homosexuality on any level praying for me. First of all who are you praying to? Who is your God and what is his/her name? I am JESUS only.
Pray for yourself that your eyes may be opened to see and receive the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ not this new age wash down gospel that is being preached today!!!! Old time Christain thing wrong is wrong...."



"Putting aside the biblical aspects for a moment, buggery is against the law, and if caught, your ass should be punished (literally). Now I don't believe anyone should assault you because you're a homosexual, however, given the homophobic climate of JA, don't expect ppl to be quiet about it if you make yourself known to be gay. Don't expect ppl to ... be cool calm and collected when you protest on a public street. You're putting yourself in danger...pure and simple. Furthermore, this thing about if it don't affect or hurt anyone go ahead is bullcrap. Homosexuality is wrong on all fronts, don't business which part it legal now. People need to talk strongly bout it like how dem talk strong bout police killing and dem tings dere. Wrong is wrong, don't matter if we used to it or not."


"Why does everyone choose to be religious when the topic of homosexuality rises?? Hmmm?? Sounds awefully convenient."


"You can protest against gay marriage as marriage is already defined, so that is quite ok... but OMG, you guys are hypocrites, begging and crying about crime rates but yet, wanting to kill gay people... my heart aches for you all...prayer and fasting fi unu"
ENDS

So it looks like we have gone back some years now with the hornets nest stirred again, a suggestion for the J is to also engage the public in sustained discussion and information on tolerance and lifestyle issues with specific emphasis on the categories of homophobia and why such incidents occur but then again if they can't engage the entire gay community properly how are they going to effectively deal with the homophobes and christian right?
Anyway onward march, let's see where this goes.

Peace and tolerance

H

Sunday Observer: Gay man blames peers

— Says many gay murders are committed by homosexuals

BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE
Sunday Observer: hussyd@jamaicaobserver.com

Many may argue that the gay community is falsely accused of excessive violence against its own members, but the horrible wounds on Keron Brown's body tell a different story.
Keron Brown has been crippled as a result of an alleged attack by his lover and his lovers friends recently.

Brown, a homosexual, who has been the object of three brutal attacks, told the Sunday Observer that those who deny that violence is strong in the gay community are nothing more than hypocrites.

"Many of the murders that are committed against gay persons are by their peers. And anybody who wishes to deny this is a hypocrite! I am in it, so I know," said Brown.

As the person playing the female role in his relationships, Brown has on three occasions come close to the point of death after threatening to walk out.

"They (partners) would rather see you dead than let someone else have you," he said. "Gay persons are obsessed, they don't love," he added.

"One of the problem is that they can't trust. I think gay people are very possessive. They are up with themselves and they have no control. I had a partner for five years, but there was this level of mistrust," Brown explained. "I felt my partner wasn't a faithful person. It hurt if you are always there for someone and they are not there for you."

In May 2007, Brown said he had an argument with his lover in which he told him he would be leaving the union. This caused great bitterness, and while he cannot prove it, he felt it was this lover who instigated the slicing of his stomach by 'straight' men.

In January 2008, he was again attacked and doused with acid by this same jealous lover, with whom he had reunited. His face, back and arms are scarred.

"I wanted him out of my life," Brown said. "He was disrespectful. I was told by some spiritual people that I was under his spell and I believed it. He fled with his lover and a large sum of my money. He left for one year and four months and then he came back. I guess the money ran out and he wanted more."

In October last year, Brown once again found himself at the bitter end of the stick with another lover with whom he had been involved for five years. He was attacked by this partner and four of his friends and pushed two stories down from a three-storey apartment building. He suffered severe spinal injuries and doctors have diagnosed that he might never walk again.

In fact, Brown, 25, is now confined to a wheelchair and his face disfigured by the acid. A sharp contrast to that time four years ago when he strolled into the offices of the Observer, his handsome features and extraordinarily cute face drawing the attention of many females.

But despite these permanent scars and injuries, Brown, whose introduction to the gay lifestyle happened when he was eight years old, remains pleasant and hopeful.

"Six months ago I would have been bitter," he said, adding that he even contemplated hiring hit men to avenge him. "But I am aging and I am spiritual so I am no longer bitter. I have forgiven them (the attackers). I have no reason to take action. I believe the good Lord is about to do something."

"We have to remember this is a homophobic and a Christian society. And so we can't flaunt certain things."

He said changing his lifestyle is not as easy as many would want to believe and likened it to a stronghold, one from which it is hard to break away.

"Gay lifestyle is a stronghold," he said. "And when you have a stronghold, you are going to need a lot to transform you."

Brown said he was blind-folded and raped by a 15-year-old boy, while at a boys' home.

"I grew up in a boys' home setting. I did not know my father, and my mother abandoned me at a market when I was seven," he explained, adding that he had no ill feelings towards his mother.

"She left me at a pastry shop in Mandeville and just walked away," Brown told the Sunday Observer. "She was charged with child abandonment and I was sent to St John's Bosco Boys home in Manchester.

He spoke of the physical abuse at a number of these institutions — he passed through 10 of them — by persons whose responsibility it was to taking care of them. It was so bad, he said, that he ended up running away from a number of them. He mentioned incidents in which he was punched in the nose, beaten with hose and electric wire and at one time, was dragged along a corridor by a superintendent of one home.

The well-spoken Brown who attended schools in Kingston and Manchester, said that at one point while in primary school, he was not only physically abused by a major in charge, but prevented from attending school.

At the age of 17, he left Manchester for Kingston and soon after his arrival, he developed a love affair with aanother man.

Brown confesses to never having been with a woman, though his childhood dream was to have a wife and children.

"I used to associate with a lot of closet type people," Brown said. "But I soon got into a more violent type gay community."

But life hasn't been all bad for Brown. He met a partner who lived overseas and who ensured that he furthered his education, established two businesses and had enough money to see his way through. As a result of that relationaship, Brown said he has travelled to over 20 different countries on vacation.

"I look at a lot of gay people who died as a result and I just have to thank God that I am still alive," he said.

Net fishing, profiling, abuses & unjustified detentions by cops under state of emergency

Despite the assurances from the Prime Minister, Hon Bruce "Not in My Cabinet" Golding and the Police commissioner that persons will be allowed to move freely allbeit the extended state of emergency to July 22nd or thereabout and incorporating St. Catherine in the areas covered, reports of abuses and unjustified detentions of persons in particular LGBT individuals are on the rise. The nation is almost split 50/50 on this issue of maintaining a state of emergency mostly on political lines. The security forces' activities were supposedly designed to penetrate specific crime ridden areas nationally in due time but obviously as we have seen constant reports of abuses are coming from everywhere generally speaking even in so called upscale neighbourhoods where one of the three incidents I will highlight for this post occurred. There are others that I am not able to verify just now.
Several persons meanwhile have literally become couch potatoes staying indoors after arriving from work or play so as to avoid any eventuality of going on the road at night hours in particular in fear of a random search by police and soldiers with extenuating factors and many event planners gay and mainstream have been postponing, cancelling or moving their events to popular rural spots so as to continue business but Kingston patrons still second guess before venturing out.

So pronounced are some of the abuses that persons privacy have been violated with one case of the cops apologising to the individual who was so aggrieved when they invaded his home after jumping a wall with guns pointed at him by his laundry area.

It is clear that the security forces are not sure as to where to find illegal activities or where to start their investigations so batching all together and hoping to find something illegal is the practice aka net fishing and with the new powers given to the them they are clearly abusing it, human rights groups and legal minds say the security forces do not need such additional powers as it is, as they already have enormous powers of arrest, search and cordon under regular circumstances. The six crime bills were passed by the way with very little song and dance from the parliamentary oppostion as most of them were absent from the house on the day in question, so much for representation of people's rights.

Event 1: Early June around 8:30pm, lesbians and sibling harassed by cops
A group of three lesbian friends accompanied by a cousin of one of the ladies were returning from a supermarket in uptown Kingston when they were stopped by a police/soldier team who had mounted a traffic stop to apparently search motor vehicles. The girls stopped in accordance to the signal of the officers and were asked to exit the car, so they did, however one of the officers who apparently saw one of the women who was described as butch by the women in speaking to me was harassed by him both verbally at first then he attempted to ruff her up after she refused to entertain his actions and shouts. He proceeded to call her the ugly names we know in the book dotted with expletives. This particular officer was not wearing his numbered vest as he ought to have been, he was dressed in the typical blue denim and boots with his gun. The other ladies appealed for calm while the frightened young cousin sat in the vehicle watching this go down. After several exchanges and some clever display by the ladies of some knowledge of their rights the girls were eventually allowed to proceed. While the butch sister was calm it was clear to me the two other ladies were still shaken by this incident as they related it in person to me almost three weeks after the fact. The ladies also described that nearly every other vehicle on that stretch of road was stopped by the cops as the line of parked cars waiting to be attended to or searched was long. It was clear that other persons were also having difficulty with how the security team was handling their situations. They drove home as quickly as they could from the scene and have been very selective about the times of day they venture out now.

Event 2: June 30, around 2:00pm, Man harassed from public transportation
A man making his way from Kingston to St. Catherine (the other parish that is under the state of emergency) who was on a bus was ruffed up and abused after another security stop was set up on the road in the vicinity of entering the town to which he was going. All the men on board the bus were searched as is typical and severely questioned with some of them being draped and abused if they didn't seem to be complying. This particular instant the man in question was searched and it was surmised that due to his soft spokeness he was gay. When he was asked where he was from he responded Kingston, the rude officers proceeded to say he was out of his jurisdiction and why was he in St. Catherine. They continued to harass him by which time he managed to make a call to me directly nervously asking what he should do. I told him to try to record or remember as best he could the officer's numbers who were engaged in the abuse. I gave him JFLAG's number as well by which time he called after we spoke. The cops asked him who he was calling he told them directly. The offending officer in an attempt to clearly stigmatise and embarrass the man tried to "loud up" his identity. He was however reprimanded by another fellow officer and reminded he could lose his job if he messed with gays. The other officer reportedly said "man yuh know a who him call? yuh nuh ramp wid dem deh people deh" The offending officer relunctantly walked away. (obviously JFLAG's name still has some resonance in averting police abuses) The man was however taken in remand non the less as the other officer explained it was standard procedure. The remanded man managed to recall his registration number. It was after that the police station's Superintendent had spoken to someone else that he was released. A clearly nervous Sup made sure that when the man was leaving the station he asked if he was ok and if he was harmed, clearly he wanted to secure himself I figure.

Event 3: Early June, Man harassed, insulted in upscale neighbourhood, then detained
Another young man who resides alone in an upscale neighbourhood was harassed after several cops and soldiers with guns drawn came allegedly in search of the whereabouts of Christopher "Dudus" Coke they illegally jumped a fence adjoining the home, the frightened young man who was on the outside doing his laundry counted just about 15 police and soldiers in the yard and when he was escorted out to the police jeep to be taken away for questioning he saw another three army truck loads of soldiers and police as well. The intimidatory ordeal lasted for half an hour or so after the initial entry on to the property as the gate that was electronically operated was closed at the time.
While on the property they demanded he show them his living area and they questioned everything from his ownership of furniture to his holding of several visas and possession of a motor vehicle at his seemingly young age while going through his belongings. It was not until they came across his fashion design sketches that they relented somewhat and said they needed to take him in for questioning this despite his protests as he was not the individual they really wanted. They in fact wanted the owner of the house who when he arrived at the station learnt was already detained as well. The cops seized the young man's vehicle and several documents from the home and repeatedly questioned his sexuality all the way to the station after seeing non suggestive photos in the privacy of his bedroom of himself and male friends. All of this invasion of private property took place without a search warrant as under the state of emergency searches apparently can be conducted without such. His phone was not returned although they did apologise to the young man upon his departure from the station on the day after when he returned to collect his items.

Police state or what?
So we are clearly tittering on a police state here under the present state of emergency and subsequent draconian crime bills which supposed to be temporary according to the government.
Elements within the security forces however see things differently as other unconfirmed cases suggest the kinds of responses used such as "police can do anything now so shut up" as was told to a group of men who were on their way to a party recently.

Given all the strides made however small they may be and specifically with police and lgbt relations we are right back where we were just some years ago of repeated reports of police abuse, harassment and profiling of persons just by their demeanor or aesthetics.
Alarmed? yes I am, Are you?
Judging also from the ever disturbing reports from the Tivoli incursion and the deaths associated with it, the slow pace of justice in as far as the mass post mortems and subsequent errors, the slow pace of the mini inquiries with the exclusion of the press from them, who are we as a marginalised group to get justice then?
Some things to think about.

Please decide what you need to do before hitting the street and look out for others.

Peace and tolerance.

H