And MSM continue to be ready material for data collection ..... what about the interventions for the recurring issues for decades?

And here we have more material to prove to us that all we are as MSM especially those on the lower end of the social totem pole are nothing ore than targets to be met and materials for the subject of studies and reports yet no serious meaningful interventions from these very same groups and experts to solve very old problems with new participants and victims.

I am getting really fed up with the misuse of persons as if they are not humans or just inanimate objects to be used and their plight overly highlighted by those who are their betters yet the betters with access and agency just sit and use us, setting up bureaucratic systems aided and abetted by other experts with nice reports but in the final analysis the issue remain the same or get worse while the numbers so affected increase. Everybody comes as a facilitator for the discourse and do not want to get their hands dirty, hands off that set of MSM it's too sticky for the privileged to handle. 

As I commented on Facebook:

"professional hypocrisy again! ...........nobody wants to get their hands dirty with MSM especially the displaced, they all come as "facilitators to discourse" under the guise of gay rights yet the men's welfare issues left unattended, who are you fooling? while they have to battle it out there while u are comfortable.

Bogo yaga battyman dem nah touch (Lower class gays they are not touching) yet year after year reports come with the same set of problems (just with new victims) yet no serious real meaningful interventions to follow, MSM therefore are only materials for the subject of study, report preparation and HIV testing to make up numbers one can safely conclude, targets to be met anyone?"

Here is the Gleaner report on the publication but frankly you realise my frustration with the decades of face-carding while lives fall through the cracks under the watchful eyes of experts who tell the world they are representing vulnerable groups.

Petre Williams-Raynor, Contributing Editor

THE VOICES of 32 men who have sex with other men - one of them a boy of only 15 - have been added to the debate over gay rights in Jamaica, courtesy of a recent publication from Panos Caribbean.

The publication, 'Speaking Out: Voices of Jamaican MSM', was released on Monday at the official launch ceremony, held at The Pegasus hotel, New Kingston.

"My families lick out against me. [They] say that's the wrong way and the wrong road I am trying to go. But my own mother is talking about she hates me, she don't like me because I'm trying to be a batty guy. My only sister cursed me and say she no want me 'round her," were the anguished words from the 15-year-old boy, identified only as Jona, in the publication.

"Sometimes I feel like committing suicide. I knock my head till I feel like killing myself. I do have one or two friends that help me with my struggles, but the worst, hurtful part of it [is] my own mother that give me life, licking [hitting] out against me," he added.

Jona's comments are indicative of only one of the challenges affecting Jamaican men, young and old, who have sex with men - family rejection.

issues facing group

Other issues that have emerged from the oral testimonies as affecting this group of males are stigma and discrimination, violence, homelessness, HIV and other health challenges as well as education and law-enforcement considerations.

"This has been an initiative long in the making. Panos started working on these testimonies in 2011 under the guidance of former Executive Director Jan Voordouw and [project coordinator] Jean Claude Louis," said Panos Caribbean's country coordinator for Haiti and Jamaica, Indi Mclymont Lafayette, on Monday.

"At the time, Panos thought that this was a key issue that needed to be discussed and that would fit into our goals of helping to air the voices of persons who are marginalised."

Started in 1986, Panos works to promote sustainable development in the wider Caribbean region through building the capacity of various sectors of society to effectively communicate the issues affecting them.

oral testimonies

The 92-page book of oral testimonies - collected by other gays trained in the methodology for data collection - was made possible through project funding from the United States Agency for International Development and with the input of World Learning, whose mission is to empower people and strengthen institutions through education, exchange and development programmes.

"Panos believes in using communications as a tool for development and, based on our research, we think this is an issue that, with informed dialogue, can go a long way in helping Jamaica address issues of stigma, discrimination and intolerance," Mclymont Lafayette said, further explaining Panos' own role as facilitator of the discourse on the issues affecting MSM.

"It is our hope that we can communicate on an issue that many see as challenging in a spirit of respect, and listening because it is from listening that you learn. We know that in any conversation, there will be divergent views, but for Panos, it is critical that space is created for those views to have a voice," she added.

In the coming months, the oral testimonies are to be widely circulated among policymakers, the media and other stakeholders to see how best the challenges can be tackled.

pwr.gleaner@gmail.com