Easier access to public health care for HIV-infected gay men (Observer)

Ingrid Brown

HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSMs) now experience little or no barrier in accessing services at the island's public health facilities despite Jamaica's stringent buggery laws which criminalises the practice.

This has been made possible by the Ministry of Health which recently facilitated the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) training of some 60 health-care professionals, to sensitise them on dealing with this population.

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson told the Jamaica Observer that J-FLAG has undertaken the training of a number of health professionals across the island to sensitise them on the need to better treat with this vulnerable population.

Ferguson expressed delight that J-FLAG was able to satisfactorily complete the training programme with the health-care professionals.

"That will be very helpful, as a major concern for Jamaica is the MSMs which is now consistently showing a HIV prevalence rate of 32 per cent," Ferguson said, adding that he will be reinforcing this point when he speaks at the upcoming graduation exercise for those who benefited from the training.

Meanwhile, J-FLAG said Jamaica AIDS Support (JAS) has always operated a fully functional clinic to treat its clients, including MSMs, who shy away from the island's clinics and hospitals.

According to Brian Paul, sub-regional co-ordinator of the Caribbean Forum of the Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities (CariFLAGS) and advocate for J-FLAG over the last decade, agencies like JAS were empowered to do work with MSMs and transsexuals because the government's health system was not very embracing of diversity

given that there was a lot of hostility against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

"When you get to the gate security guards would turn you away and nurses and other administrative staff within the compound would have been hostile, and so a lot of LGBT people relied on NGOs like JAS to provide that clinical care," he told the Observer. "However, over the years with greater exposure and education, the health-care providers at all levels are now more knowledgeable on sexual diversity and because of that they are now more sensitive to the needs of the population, so we are seeing a lot

more LGBT people accessing health-care in the public sector," Paul said.

He noted that this has been the result of years of advocacy work.

"The national HIV programme has also done a lot to empower its staff and to train persons to be better equipped to deal with the population," he said.

He noted, however, that while the majority of health care providers at all levels are sensitive to the issues of diversity, there are some

who are still interacting with their own personal prejudices and stigma.

"So they may know very well that their jobs depend upon them being tolerant and embracing of diversity, but their own personal stigma and prejudices are still present. But with the advent of the HIV-redress system and with empowerment of NGOs, less and less are we hearing of reports of real discrimination," he said.

Paul said J-FLAG's recent training session with public health-care professionals included persons from deep rural Jamaica as well as the urban centres.

The training, he said, was necessary because some persons were still not sure how to deal with LGBT people.

"Those from the furthest rural parish said they had no idea about these issues and on the rare occasion if they had to deal with a gay or

lesbian client, they were figuring it out as they went along," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Ferguson told the Observer that he recently had a major consultation with Pan Caribbean Partners Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) as well as a Global Fund official and a number of other high-level stakeholders to address the issues faced by the MSM population.

"It was a two-day consultation on justice for all which is focusing on those most-at-risk such as MSMs and sex workers," he said.

Dr Ferguson said Jamaica was able to secure US$19 million from Global Fund for its HIV programme.

Jamaica was initially expecting to receive $5 million for the transitional period 2013-2015, but as the alternate member on the Global Fund Board for Latin America and the Caribbean, Fenton said he engaged the international community about the need for upper-middle income countries to continue to receive support.

"We cannot afford to lose the gain of the last decade with HIV and so we are now in a position where we will be getting US$19 million from The Global Fund which I believe coming from US$5 million is significant," he said.

Britain, Jamaica and gays ...... the UK murder asylum matter continued

A continuation from the previous post on a recent case in the UK of a Jamaican using or claiming homosexuality in order to remain in the UK:

 

Illegal Jamaican Immigrant on murder charge suddenly recalls his GAY to remain in the UK?

Diane Abbot wrote in today's Observer on the matter:

MAY… insisted on ordering the Jamaican’s deportation in 2009

JAMAICANS and immigration continue to be a subject of interest in the British press. The most recent story manages to combine Jamaica, immigration and homophobia.

Last week, a British court ruled that the authorities could not deport a Jamaican who stabbed a 15-year-old schoolboy to death less than a year after arriving in Britain. The court based its ruling on the fact that the young Jamaican was gay. Predictably, the court ruling has caused outrage here in Britain.

The background to the case is that the Jamaican arrived in the UK in December 2000 when he was 15 years old on a temporary visa to visit his mother. As is common, the application for a temporary visa was apparently only a device for him to get into the country and then stay here permanently.

The young Jamaican applied for permanent stay, did not get it, but stayed anyway. Sadly, the young Jamaican appeared to have got into drug-related activity quite soon after entering the country. And less than a year later, he and a 14-year-old stabbed a fellow schoolboy to 'save face' after he humiliated them by refusing to pay a £10 debt. He apparently owed them for cannabis.

In the weeks beforehand, the schoolboys had threatened to 'chop' or 'stab' the victim, and the young Jamaican sprayed him and a friend with CS gas. Finally, the young Jamaican and his accomplice knifed the 14-year-old to death in front of his horrified classmates outside their school. The victim died shortly afterwards in hospital.

The pair were jailed for life in September 2002. The court ruled that they should serve a minimum of eight years and two months and be deported at the end of the sentence. But this was reduced on appeal to six years and two months, with the deportation recommendation set aside.

However, the home secretary, Theresa May, insisted on ordering the Jamaican's deportation in 2009. So the Jamaican appealed. His first appeal failed. But undeterred, the Jamaican's lawyers submitted a second appeal against deportation in 2012. This time they brought up a brand new argument, that their client was in fact gay. And this time they won.

The home secretary made one last attempt to get the Jamaican deported, by taking the case to the Court of Appeal. And once again the Government lost. At the Court of Appeal the Government barrister had argued that the offender's 11th-hour assertion of homosexuality should have been rejected "on credibility grounds", as "he had made no mention of it" during a previous asylum application.

The barrister also argued that "the claim of homosexuality was contrived and brought as a last resort to avoid deportation". But the Court of Appeal accepted that the young Jamaican was gay. His mother had apparently given a very moving testimony to that effect at earlier stages of the legal process. So, because the British legal system seems to accept that sending a gay person back to Jamaica is tantamount to a death sentence, the deportation order was struck down.

The political reaction to the court ruling was swift and condemnatory. Douglas Carswell, Tory MP for Clacton, said: "Most people would think this is outrageous. It's a gross distortion of the concept of justice."

Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, said: "Whether or not this man is sent back should be entirely at the discretion of British courts. When it comes to murderers, courts should have the absolute right to sentence people for as long as they want, or to send them home immediately after."

Enfield North Conservative MP Nick de Bois said: "I have no doubt that the British public would back the home secretary on this one."

Even my Labour colleague Keith Vaz, chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, stressed the Government had a "problem" removing foreign national prisoners and called on the Home Office to urgently clarify what constitutes acceptable evidence in cases where sexuality is an issue.

This case forms part of the ongoing debate here in Britain about the need to deport foreign criminals. But Jamaicans also need to reflect if they really want the British legal system to take for granted that sending a gay or lesbian person back to Jamaica is tantamount to a death sentence. Maybe more could be done to improve Jamaica's reputation on these matters.

— Diane Abbott is the British Labour Party MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington

www.dianeabbott.org.uk

Hypocrisy from the pulpit on homeless MSM in Jamaica?

So it would seem on the face of it, this ugly business of MSM homelessness especially in the business district of New Kingston has been with us for so long yet not a peep came from the members of the privileged clergy in Jamaica including the homo-negative ones who claim to love the sinner but hate the sin in any meaningful way to help or offer shelter. On December 9th the Jamaica Observer carried a story of a pastor who claimed to be hitting out at "Injustices" to homeless MSM, where was he all this time until now with the repeated headlines the men in New Kingston have made? albeit for the wrong reasons. Kimmo Thomas reported: Pastor lashes out at 'injustices' faced by gays

Days later the same paper in the print edition only carried the cartoon as done by its resident cartoonist Clovis on December 11, 2013 parodying Tiana Miller transgender spokesperson for the JFLAG We Are Jamaicans Campaign and another member of the homeless MSM in New Kingston:

Here is the article:

Religious leaders have often come out against the lifestyle of homosexuals, also called gays, but one clergyman yesterday defended them, saying he was disappointed that more Christians were not speaking out against the injustices faced by the men, who are often scorned by the society.

"How many Christians have you heard calling out for any kind of help for those young men who have taken refuge in the gully," said Rev Sean Major Campbell, priest at Christ Church, Vineyard Town in St Andrew.

Rev Sean Major-Campbell (right) greets Counsellor of the South African High Commission to Jamaica, Peter Makwarela, after a religious service to mark International Human Rights Day and the life and work of Nelson Mandela yesterday at Christ Church, Vineyard Town, St Andrew. (PHOTO: JOSEPH WELLINGTON)

He was speaking about an incident last week in which eight men, who police said were members of the homosexual community, were arrested in connection with a series of robberies in and around the New Kingston area.

"We need to repent as a church as we have too often been agents of negative silence," said the Anglican priest.

The man of the cloth was speaking during Jamaicans for Justice's (JFJ) Church Service to commemorate International Human Rights Day and the life and work of Nelson Mandela.

Rev Campbell said that he was aware that some members of the group (homosexuals) may have turned to crime, but said that was an issue for the police to deal with.

"But do they have any humanity on which we share common ground?" the clergyman asked his congregation made up of regular worshippers, Jamaican human rights officials, and visitors from the South African High Commission.

"Who will be the John the Baptist of Jamaica, or will we leave it to civil society to usher in the kingdom of righteousness, peace and justice?" he asked.

The clergyman said that the issues with homosexuals were just part of larger problems that Christians needed to speak out against. He said that it was important for Jamaicans, the Church included, to recognise the human rights of all people, bar none.

"It is a shame that in a country like Jamaica we are more likely to hear the voice of civil society speaking out for human rights while the Church remains quiet until some issues such as horse racing or Lotto comes to the fore," he said.

Rev Campbell said that Christians would do well to hear the advice of Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, who said that the Christians should not be just pulling out people out of the river, but should be going upstream to find out who is pushing people in.

"Has it reached home to us that we are to be agents of justice - a major criterion for an experience of the Kingdom of God?" the pastor asked.

Dr Carolyn Gomes, outgoing JFJ executive director, said that she was encouraged by the call for the human rights of all to be acknowledged.

She was supported by Susan Goffe, chairperson of JFJ.

Goffe said that over time, in many different situations and circumstances, the church had been one of the foremost voices on behalf of the rights of the oppressed and those who are abused, but said that there were others who needed to come on board.

"I think that Father Sean's exaltation to the church to speak loudly and consistently on the issue of human rights is a very timely welcome call," said Goffe.

Church service - 4513

Rev Campbell (right) greets Counsellor of the South African High Commission to Jamaica, Peter Makwarela, after a religious service to mark International Human Rights Day and the life and work of Nelson Mandela yesterday at Christ Church, Vineyard Town, St Andrew.

ENDS

Why did he and others take this on before it became the hot tamale that everyone sees as a latch on to make themselves look good?

I don't normally side with the cartoonist Clovis but he presents a sensible point via the captioned request by the wig wearing character where when translated to English says: "Pastor we are tired of the Gully now can we seek refuge in your church?" at least Clovis is appealing to the conscience via the toon here and I won't fault him this time as he had done ridiculing the MSM community before. 

The million dollar question is will the question posed by responded to by the church overall who with the exemption of some denominations such as the Salvation Army perhaps ignore the homeless generally or only see them really at holiday times as now in Christmas.

here is my audio response on the recently announced Dwayne' House Shelter initiative:

Peace and tolerance

H

UPDATE December 28 2013Homeless MSM populations treated over the Christmas season 

Update 2014

So it would seem to be only PR to look good in the public eye yet no real outreach for the men as they still reside in the gully and no opening up of the very church but I should no be surprized that is how these "uptown" clergy operate and JFLAG's more elitist posture these days actually seem to encourage the divide and rule construct. 

also see:
Dwayne's House Shelter Update ..................

meeting with the Member of Parliament for the area where the homeless LGBT youth now "live," Julian Robinson, as well as some concerned clergy - Rev. Sean Major-Campbell(Christchurch Anglican), Rev Astor Carlyle (Webster’s Memorial United), and Rev Margaret Fowler (Hope United). The meeting was called to discuss shelter options for the youngsters

UPDATE May 2014 
a supposed turn around or grand public relations to look inclusive?

Margaritaville entertainment manager killed

Sad news as a senior member of the community was reported murdered, it is UNCLEAR at this time what has happened but see the story below as published in the Observer

MONTEGO BAY, St James — The St James police have listed a man known only as 'Mario' as a person of interest in the fatal stabbing of 41-year-old entertainment co-ordinator Dean Moriah, whose nude, bloodied body was discovered at his Montego Bay home early yesterday morning.

Moriah's Bogue Village house was also allegedly set ablaze by his killer who is believed to have fled the murder scene in his grey 2003 Toyota Camry motor car.

The police theorise that Moriah — who was the entertainment and promotions manager at the popular Margaritaville sports bar and grill on Montego Bay's Hip Strip — was killed in a fight, which stemmed from a domestic quarrel.

Reports are that about 4:30 am residents discovered Moriah's body a few metres from his house, parts of which were ablaze. The popular entertainment guru reportedly crawled from the torched building in search of assistance.

However, he only got assistance from firefighters from the Freeport fire station of the Jamaica Fire Brigade who responded to a call.

One member of the community was overheard saying that residents decided to wait on the arrival of a professional medical team before moving Moriah because of the severity of his wounds.

Moriah, meanwhile, has been described as an "awesome" individual by his employer.

"He was an exceptional human being. He was awesome and he will be greatly missed. He was a joy to work with. We looked forward to seeing him on a daily basis," said an emotional Elleanor Cole Reivers, general manager at Margaritaville.

Similar sentiments were shared by one of Moriah's female cousins, who was among several persons who turned up at the death scene.

"He is always involved in community affairs and he is always helpful, he would go all the way out to help people. He's loving, very, very loving. He wouldn't hurt an ant. And we are in shock because something like this has happened someone like this, in a community like this. We don't expect this in Jamaica. People don't take people life so," she reminisced.

"He was always getting jobs for people, always involved in schools, in sports. He was that kind of person who would reach out and help, she added.

Popular Jamaican songbird Karen Smith also expressed sadness over the killing, explaining that Moriah was her boss at one point.

"I came here to see for myself what happened today, because Dean Moriah is a... I am still saying is a friend of mine, a really close friend of mine, and he was my boss. I worked with him at various hotels. He was such a wonderful talent and so caring," said Smith, who visited Moriah's torched home yesterday.

"As a matter of fact, years ago he won the award for the 'Most Outstanding Manager' in the tourism industry. I am going to miss him because he was always so lively and caring," she added.

UPDATE September23.09.13: So Dean Moriah's murder was NOT a homophobic killing ....... ethical issues in advocacy arise yet again

Father of gay son to religious groups: Focus on the real problem guys

In a letter to the Observer a self identified father of a non typical gay man penned the following letter, what caught my attention was the reference to one of the ridiculous causations of male homosexuality that is still used today by religious academics, anti gay groups, Christians Psychologists and theologians that an absentee father makes a boy want to be gay as he seeks to compensate for the loss through sex with men in some misplaced emotional lack.

The letter writer said:

Focus on the real problem 'guys'

Dear Editor,

I am father to a gay son. As an adult preparing to have children, I always dreaded the possibility that a child of mine might grow up to be gay. In my mind at the time, gay was the antithesis of "man", and I took solace in the belief that there was no way I could raise a sissy.

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, many anti-gay crusaders claim that absentee fathers and overbearing mothers contribute to gender dysphoria in children and could make them weak to homosexual temptations. You can imagine my dismay then when I realised that my last born, the second male child in the family, had an affinity for toys and activities that are stereotypically feminine.

I felt inadequate as a father, because I believed my parenting style was harming his psychological and sexual development. My son loved to read and he eventually became a teacher of literature and philosophy at a college in the United States where he now lives. He is no longer an embarrassment to me because he is the most talented, caring and responsible person I know. My son is an ambitious Jamaican, a gifted teacher and the most trustworthy friend to those who know him. There is nothing anti-man about him. I like to think our society would be better off and our homes would be more empowering spaces with men and fathers with his attributes.

Instead of condemning homosexuals who are growing tired of life in the shadows, let us focus our attention on the men who have actually destroyed our society: The "bad man dem" who count babies with "gyal ina bungle" as trophies, despite being unemployed; the "tugz dem" who rape our women and girls; the "shotta dem" who steal and murder "fi eat a food"; and the "don dem" who use violence to inspire obedience in inner-city residents and offer handouts from money got through extortion and narcotics trafficking to demand loyalty.

Many gay people have distinguished themselves in every field, because many of them understand they must work twice as hard as their heterosexual colleagues to avoid harassment and decrease their vulnerability to violence. Their sexuality is considered a handicap, so they compensate for it with excellence. Many have left our shores to contribute to the development of already affluent societies. Others remain in Jamaica donating their talents to a society that refuses to recognise their humanity.

Sherman Wallacesherman.p.wallace@gmail.com

ENDS

This same causation line was used at a recent anti gay seminar as hosted by Reverend Clinton Chisholm and guest Psychologist Dr Joan Pickney held in April of this year as they drew on old and rejected data from the US based anti gay group 

NARTH - National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality even in the face of damning criticisms and legal action taken by some of their own research fellows who claim their work was misused by the agency to promote their anti gay and dangerous reparative solutions in their eyes. In that lecture they attributed lesbianism's causation as a missing father in the home making the individual wanting to act the role of a man and persons sat in the audience absorbing this self righteous crap.

We have seen the apparent closure and apology from its leader just days ago from the EX-Gay Ministries formerly known as Exodus as well in the United States where it has been seen anecdotally and otherwise that reparative therapy does not work in a supposed bid to repair or change homosexual orientation and even some leaders themselves have been found in compromising positions with other secretively while publicly promoting change is possible in homosexuals. The APA issued a position statement on the issue in 2000: GO HERE while many US states have now raised to the level of state law proscriptions to ban such practices, New Jersey being the latest in the line doing so just days ago. All this happening while our church groups and some psychosocial professionals go in the opposite directions playing on the ignorance of a glib following.

There are some attempts to continue aspects of the defunct Exodus Ministries as we see despite the APA's statement and the obvious failing of this practice of RT: 

Five Outcomes of the Exodus Ex-Gay Reboot

Here is a clip from the documentary for the Bible Tells Me So where a leading Psychologist warns of the dangers of reparative therapy:

Good that this father is enlightened to some extent, I too always had a father and mother present physically and emotionally for the most part and that never stopped my natural feelings I had, I was not groomed into becoming gay or any older man fondling my parts and playing unto my curiosity or ignorance as is postured by anti gay religious and homophobic figures who like to claim so protection of the vulnerable imperative. Paedophilia and homosexuality are NOT one in the same and in fact the sexual orientation of a paedophile is immaterial as any adult that is sexual attracted to a child has a diagnosable disorder that can be addressed over time by psychological and pharmacological responses from the relevant experts the same cannot be said for homosexuality. We are born this way. It is not only LGBT body politic itself that has to come out on this but also allies and family members as well who have to speak in show of genuine support so as to make real tolerance evident.

Another such strong set of rebukes have been coming towards the anti gay religious establishment since their recent public agitation: (photo from June 23 march in Kingston's Heroes Circle)

Church's Priority Misplaced (Gleaner Letter)

Shame On Church - Clergyman Charges Christians to focus on real issues instead

and my posts: The False Dichotomy of the religious right .................. and Scenes from anti gay Lovemarch at Heroes Circle

Peace and tolerance

H

Shame On Church - Clergyman Charges Christians To Focus On Serious Crimes, Not Anti-Gay Protest

All I can say is HERE HERE!

Nedburn Thaffe, Gleaner Writer

On a day when segments of the local church community led protests against gay-rights activists seeking to challenge Jamaica's buggery law in the courts, one clergyman urged the Church to address its failure to make serious headway in fighting crime.

"The more churches we get is the more heinous the crimes that our people are committing. Somehow, there is a disconnect. The Church is not making any serious inroads into the nation," declared the Reverend Father Franklyn Jackson.

"There is a serious crisis in the Christian community because, up to 15 years ago, there were 366 different Christian denominations in Jamaica, and since then, I know of four more that have come," he said.

Jackson, during his sermon at St Luke's Church in Kingston yesterday, pointed to the stabbing death of a 13-year-old girl at the Anchovy High School in Montego Bay, St James, last week as testament that the country was in crisis and that the Church had lost its footing.

"From whence have we come to this place as a nation where our children turn on each other and start slaying one another? When we start slaying the mother of the nation, what are we saying about the future of Jamaica?"

He said: "Our land is under scourge, and it's not just economic plight. We would want to think it is economic plight, but if we bought all the gold and brought it to Jamaica, we'll have problems, because the white-collar person will find ways of embezzling the funds from the national purse."

Jackson pointed out that it was time the Church got rid of "our tribal Jesus, because our nation is in trouble and we need to witness to the power and the presence of Jesus in our lives".

Local gay lobbyists have long argued that the Church has been guilty of nitpicking in denouncing homosexuality. On several occasions, activists called on local clergymen to end the campaign against homosexuality and focus on issues such as crime and corruption.

Asked yesterday whether he supported the mass protests put on in Kingston and Montego Bay by the church group Prayer 2000, Jackson said: "I don't want to comment on that. [But] there is no sin that the Church needs to come out and campaign against.

"Sins that are committed, the Church should make a pastoral response. I would not support any demonstration against [any sin]; what I would ask the Church is to see people in communities that have problems of whatever kind and be there to minister to them and show them the way of God."

He used the occasion to call for the governor general to "lead the way and call us to prayer and let us ask God to lead us out of what we have fallen into".

ENDS

also from the Observer

Stop bullying non-believers

Dear Editor,

Given our obsession with policing the bodies of homosexuals, we are again debating how to regard and treat gay Jamaicans. Recently, one Christian leader proclaimed that he is willing to die for his conviction that gay Jamaicans do not deserve all the protections guaranteed by our constitution. That was when I decided that secular Christians need to speak up and be counted. It pains my heart that anti-gay Christian leaders speak as representatives of God, not because there aren't many Christians who share their limited view, but because the media insists on selling their opinion as the Christian perspective.

This offends me because my faith in God has never been predicated on my willingness to condemn other human beings as sinful, degenerate, disease vectors. Let's be clear, there is no one Christian perspective on homosexuality. Our views are as diverse and conflicting as our interpretations of the Bible.

This offends me because my faith in God has never been predicated on my willingness to condemn other human beings as sinful, degenerate, disease vectors. Let's be clear, there is no one Christian perspective on homosexuality. Our views are as diverse and conflicting as our interpretations of the Bible.

Many Jamaicans seem to have forgotten that Christianity was built on conquest and exploitation. The revered thinker Desmond Tutu once said: "When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."

We must come to terms with this reprehensible history and stop bullying non-believers to conform to outdated and demonstrably problematic ideologies. The slippery slope, apocalyptic arguments against homosexuality — a phenomenon with us since time immemorial — have got old. Furthermore, our shameless attempts to validate our righteousness at the expense of others is absolutely unethical. 

Thankfully, more of us today believe in the notion of inherent dignity and recognise the need to protect the humanity of social groups long thought to be inherently inferior. We recognise that the citizenship of homosexuals will not hasten the second coming of Christ any more than liberating slaves accelerated his return. In our increasingly globalised world, our interactions should be guided by an abiding faith in the need for understanding, tolerance and inclusivity. Instead of promoting discrimination and strife, I believe the creator of the universe would much rather we encourage universal values of love, compassion, and charity. Jamaica's constitution places an obligation on the Government to recognise and promote the rights of every citizen, including the gay ones. Instead of honouring the theocratic ambitions of some Christians, it is time our social policies and criminal laws reflect the democratic ideals outlined in the Charter of Rights.

Benjamin Fletcher

benjie.fletcher@gmail.com

Mark Wignall on Buggery law review promise was a political sham

The Jamaica Observer's Mark Wignall formerly a staunch anti gay opponent has come out swinging in his piece done recently in the paper. As I have hinted on Gay Jamaica Watch and elsewhere I never viewed the suggestion by Mrs Simpson Miller for the Buggery Review as a promise and the hints given by first time member of parliament Damion Crawford in an interview on CVM TV in February 2012.

Mr Wignall wrote:

Very few of us know the main reason which drove then Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller to declare in her pre-election debate in 2011 that if her party was elected, a review of the buggery law would be introduced before Parliament for discussion and vote.

Everyone knew of the JLP's position, best expressed by former Prime Minister Bruce Golding in a BBC TV Hard Talk interview that he would not countenance any gays in his Cabinet. As for the PNP, the 2011 Simpson Miller declaration came as a shocker and could have been as a result of discussions/agreements our foreign affairs ministry had with its counterparts in the EU capitals and the US.

The possibility also exists that the powerful gay lobby at home, and especially those abroad holding our local entertainers' fingers to the fire, had used its natural leverage to extract that concession from the PNP.

Whatever the motivating factor, over a year has passed, and if the gay community thought that such clout could move ahead of the realities of our culture and politics and its desired change could happen in a year, it will have a long time and a safe distance from which it can watch the inaction.

One senses that concerns over the failure to ink a new IMF deal have sucked the energy out of the Government when in the first place, this Administration in its first year has never shown any real propensity for sprinting.

The Jamaican dollar is moving at a clip towards being worth one US cent. Business confidence, also caught up in jitters over the IMF, is low, and the poor exist only on the wishes and hopes generated by the roll of numbers four times per day. Who knows, maybe Supreme Ventures is providing the poor with what the Government cannot -- hope, packaged with possibilities four times per day.

Minister Paulwell has scored well with the telecoms industry, but with too many stops and starts in the energy ministry, any desires the Administration had that a lowering of the electricity rate due to fuel and power generation innovation would assist its push to attracting new investments in years two and three must now be put on hold.

Violent criminality is driving fear into our people and about half of our bright youngsters who are seeking loans to attend university may have to put their educational aspirations on hold too.

With so much on its plate and acting the confused bearer of the mandate, the PNP really has no time to introduce another uncooked item to the table. And who knows, maybe the promise was simply designed to meet the objectives of the December elections and not a day further.

Sometime ago, Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green confirmed what a lot of us had already known. The vast majority of crime against the gay community was perpetrated by people of that same sexual persuasion. I make this point because the local gay lobby, in association with its counterparts abroad, has always used as a convenient whipping boy its claim of Jamaica being an extremely homophobic nation.

There is a significant amount of distaste for the lifestyle in Jamaica, and too many people I speak to tell me that gays must die. There is, however, some distance between suggesting a state of death for gays and actually going out on a death hunt for them. Nevertheless, the gay lobby continues to spread the falsehood that gay-on-gay crime in Jamaica is mainly about crime against gays.

While Jamaica is a violent country and a part of this is etched into our dancehall music, especially against gays, some concessions have been made by a few local acts who know that live tours abroad make up the vast bulk of their income. But even with that, the very active gay lobby will want to extract 100 per cent of what Portia Simpson Miller promised in 2011.

A Foolish Buggery law

If two adults of whatever mix of sexes wish to revert to the privacy of an enclosed space and indulge their sexual fantasies, it ought to be none of my business.

When I am with my special lady, the last thing I crave is intrusion or the peeping eye of the State, which is essentially what the buggery law is.

But here is where it gets complicated. The law is really about anal sex. If a normal couple -- a man and a woman -- are in a room having sex and the door should be pushed in by the police, what would the police say? 'Hold it, No one move! Let me see where everything is!'

It is utterly ridiculous. If the man is indulging in anal sex (ugh!) with the woman, he can be arrested. If two men are found nude in a room and they are in an embrace, which does not include anal penetration, it is my understanding that they can still be arrested under one of the indecency statutes.

As far as I am concerned, if two men are homosexual and they want to be with each other, nothing will stop them, just the same way a man will seek out his female lover. So why does the State require this right to peep inside people's bedrooms when people are simply doing what comes naturally to them?

That aside, if the law comes up for review and parliament votes in favour of change, it will be felt in a loss at the polls. The politicians know that the church lobby will rise up and many citizens will label an Administration which brings it on as 'b... man party.'

Simpson Miller knows this, and so do her members of parliament. If in 2011 she was moved simply by her conscience, she is not saying. I choose not to believe that, especially when I view the confluence of the activities of the gay lobby versus our deejays, numerous letters to the media from gay activists, and pressure from pro-gay foreign diplomats with close ties to the PNP.

Whatever moved her then will move her no further on the matter. In simple language, it's dead.

Buggery section of article ends

Meanwhile a United Nations representative locally gave some support to the review promise or suggestion as you see it fit to call it

The United Nations is encouraging the Jamaican government to decriminalise the buggery law.

Dr. Arun Kashyap, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) in Jamaica, says this should be done as it is in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Kashyap, speaking at a RJR Group news forum on Friday, said the UN was elated with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's statement in the debates leading up to the 2011 general election.
"We were very proud to hear when at that time the candidate and now Prime Minister very proudly said that she would have homosexuals in her cabinet …at this time if you talk to business leaders there is that acceptance but that doesn't mean that the whole country has accepted that. So rather than rushing through the process, I will always say how do you create the right opportunities and time to do it."

The UN representative said the organisation can assist the government in moving in that direction.
"We can start through advocacy, we can certainly start through building capacity, we can start by bringing in the best legal practices, ultimately its up to the Government , how they will handle it. In an ideal world, the earlier it happens the better it is but it also takes some time" he said.

Kashyap does not believe however that Jamaica's stance on homosexuality and buggery, will hinder the country receiving money from the Global Fund towards the country's fight against HIV/AIDS. There has been concern, that the country could face a reduction in funding for the fight against HIV/AIDS, due to laws banning buggery.

also hear my comments on the recent annoucement by the cabinet to delay the buggery review as suggested by the PM:

Labourer suffer near two years in prison on false accusation of buggery

DNA shows boy was molested by a family member

BY PAUL HENRY Co-ordinator — Crime/Court Desk henryp@jamaicaobserver.com

HE tried to control his shaking leg as he sat taking slow, easy breaths. But try as he might, Christopher Murray was a bundle of nerves.

The 8 x 12-foot office in which he was seated looked as sterile as a clinic — a filing cabinet against bare, cream-coloured walls; two computers; and a 2012 calendar. A thin glass wall attached to a wooden counter separated him from the two warders manning the Appeal and Bail Unit of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility.

It is July 30 and he is in his second year of a seven-year sentence for buggery and indecent assault that was imposed in October 2010. He had filed an appeal that was heard a few days before and was anxiously awaiting the ruling. His attorney, Gladstone Wilson, had vowed to fight the case. He strongly believed that Murray, a family man and a Christian, who had no previous brush with the law, had been framed and failed by the justice system. Murray, too, had told him to fight the conviction “even if it took a hundred years”.

Just a few minutes earlier, Murray said he had got in from classes on the premises and was heading to his cell for final lockdown when a voice crackled over the public address system, summoning him to the appeal and bail offices. His lanky, six-foot frame froze for a moment as inmates hustled about him, heading to their respective cells. He set his books down when a warder appeared. “Christopher Murray,” he said, “they need you at the office”.

Inside the room, Murray said he sat with the anxiety of a schoolboy summoned to the principal’s office for punishment. “You know why we called you here, Mr Murray?” one of the warders said, speaking through the opening of the glass wall.

“I have an idea,” he responded. “It’s about my appeal?”

“Yes,” the warder said.

Murray said his mind raced. What if his appeal had been turned down? He faced the possibility of five more years in prison for a crime he insisted he never committed. Five more years away from his two young children. Five more years of a segregated existence on Special Block, which houses homosexuals and convicted child molesters. Five more years of living with the fear of being attacked by inmates who believe that men like him should not continue to breathe the same air they do.

The 34-year-old, who was born into a life of poverty in Westmoreland, seemed destined to a life of hardship and misfortune. Murray admitted that he dropped out of Godfrey Stewart High School in the early 1990s, after just two years. At another institution, he dropped out after only a year. Unskilled and uneducated, he held a string of menial jobs, including gardening.

His highest-paying job, he said, was a $40,000-per-month gig as a security guard, which he lost in 2007. This was a big blow for Murray, whose son was born that same year and he already had a daughter who was three years old.

He told the Jamaica Observer that his children’s mother, who was no longer with him, frequently threatened to take him to court for child support, but he would charm her sufficiently until he had money for the kids, which wasn’t frequently.

As the summer of 2007 wound down, Murray said he found employment as a labourer at the Salvation Army church along Great George Street in his hometown of Savanna-la-Mar. However, he would come to regret the day he set foot there.

That Monday morning, in August, Murray said he got up before the sun lit the morning sky. He was intent on walking the town of Savanna-la-Mar to find work. He dressed and left his one-room dwelling without breakfast, as, he said, there was no food in the house. He soon came upon the church, which was being renovated, and was hired by the captain (or pastor) as a labourer at $1,400 per day.

The work to be done was extensive, which meant a steady income for some time to come. Murray said he was at the site from Sunday to Sunday.

The new year saw him attending the church frequently. He felt a sense of belonging, he said, and decided that this was where he should be. Over time, Murray said he was made a soldier at the church, joined the choir and became close with the captain’s wife, their eight-year-old son — a talented dramatist who never forgot his lines — and their young daughter.

Murray soon started doing yard work at the family’s home. At the same time, he was making strides in his faith, and in 2009 the captain started taking him into the mission field. But that same year, a strain was placed on the relationship, Murray said, as the captain suspected he was involved in a break-in at the church and confronted him about it. Murray said he denied any involvement.

By June of that year, a new roof and new doors and windows were installed on the church. Murray told the Sunday Observer that on the afternoon of June 5, he was at the front of the church painting when the captain pulled out of the churchyard in his van, stopped at the gate and called him.

“Come with me in the van,” Murray recalled the captain, a native of Africa, saying to him in a stern tone.

Murray said he could tell that something was amiss. He set down his brush and walked over to the van. Murray related the conversation between them.

“Chris,” the captain said, “where were you?”

“What?” Murray said.

“Chris, I can’t believe what you have done.”

“What?” Murray asked, confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We have to go to the station,” the captain said. “My son just told me that you molested him.”

“Mi nuh know what you talking about,” Murray responded.

“Come and let’s find out,” the captain said. Murray said he opened the minivan door, got in and the captain set off for the close-by Savanna-la-Mar Police Station. Murray said that during the drive, the captain levelled more accusations at him, saying that he betrayed his trust and that of his family.

Murray, however, said he denied the accusations, and told the captain: “Let’s go clear up this whole issue.”

At the station’s sex crime unit, the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, the captain made a complaint to a Detective Constable Debbie Mitchell. Murray said he again denied the allegations. Mitchell, he said, sent for the boy, who told her that Murray had molested him.

Murray said that as tears rolled down his cheeks he asked the boy “Why are you lying?”

He said the detective constable told him that he was being held on suspicion of buggery. He sat, numb and speechless, feeling as if he was outside his body observing what was happening to him.

He said he agreed to a swab of his penis and mouth and for blood to be taken from him at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital. Samples were also taken from the boy. The complainant was also examined for signs of abuse.

Murray was arrested and charged the following day with three counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery.

Word of the charges against Murray started spreading at the Savanna-la-Mar police lock-up and inmates, he said, shouted expletive-laced death threats at him. He cried bitterly, he said, but a policeman told him not to worry because he would be kept in seclusion. After three days, he was transferred to the nearby Whithorn Police Station.

For most of his seven months at Whithorn — where he earned the moniker Preacher for his daily devotions, prayer life, and for exhorting inmates to give their lives to God — Murray managed a peaceful existence by lying to fellow inmates about the real reason for his arrest. Still, he remained jittery.

One day, during his sixth month in custody, Murray was resting on his bunk when a menacing cellmate said an inmate from the Savanna-la- Mar Police Station told him at court that he was gay. Fear gripped Murray, but he tried to remain calm. “Boy, mi nuh know nothing ’bout that,” he recounted that he told the inmate with an uneasy laugh.

A few days later another cellmate — a man who was on a charge of murder — approached him holding a push broom. “Me go court today enuh, and the man dem tell me say a you. Mi a go kill you enuh b...y boy,” he recalled the inmate saying.

“Mi no know weh you a talk ’bout,” Murray said, and added an expletive.

“A who you a talk to?” the inmate demanded.

Murray said that before he could respond, he felt a sharp blow. Blood ran down his face and into his eyes and his mouth. For a brief moment he felt dazed. His antagonist was about to strike again when Murray knocked him back with a few fists. The other inmates were now spectators in Murray’s battle for survival, a fight, he said, that was as eerily silent as a 1920s motion picture.

The men were now wrestling. Murray had lost the upper hand, his strength fading fast from loss of blood. He felt himself drifting out of consciousness and thought that he would die. But the other four inmates jumped in and broke up the fight. “A idiot thing you a gwaan wid, man,” Murray recalled one inmate scolding the attacker. “If you even hear anything ’bout the man, you no have no proof.”

Murray was offered bail, but it was revoked in 2010 when his case was transferred to the Home Circuit Court in Kingston for trial. He was housed at the Half-Way Tree Police Station lock-up, where he was advised by the cop who processed him to keep the allegations to himself. “You have to give them a story and make sure you stick with it,” Murray said the policeman told him.

Murray responded, “I know. I know how people react to that kind of accusation.”

As per jailhouse ritual, the inmates wanted to know what the new man was in for, and they drew close to him like campers gathered around a fire at night to trade tales. He told them that he had bought a car that happened to be stolen from its previous owner. One after the other, the men related their story.

He and the men grew close, he said, and he held daily devotions and reasoned with them about God. A week after his arrival, a man accused of sexually assaulting a boy was brought in. The allegations had spread throughout the cell and the men were threatening to tear him apart.

“Hey raper bwoy...,” an inmate said using expletives, “a kill we a go kill you.” The inmates, Murray said, closed in and were about to attack the cowering man when he (Murray) stepped in. “Listen me, people can be accused. You not sure if dem do anything,” Murray said he told them.

But the men were not swayed. It didn’t help either that the man came out tearfully confessing his deed. Murray said he continued his plea: “Just easy, man. A man can mek mistake. Him might do something, but him admit say him wrong. Just give him a chance.”

The men, he said, finally backed down.

Murray went on trial for two days, starting on October 27, with Wilson as his attorney. First to take the stand was the complainant, now 11 years old. He testified during the incamera proceedings that Murray indecently assaulted him between February 2008 and April 2009 and that he buggered him in an unfinished bathroom on the church premises on June 5, 2009.

Asked under cross-examination by Wilson if he was protecting anyone, the boy said ‘yes’. Part of the defence was that Murray was being framed and that it was the father who suggested to the boy on June 5 that Murray was his molester.

The boy’s mother told jurors that her suspicion was aroused after noticing how dishevelled her son appeared when he came running into the office after she called him. The boy’s father testified that he saw Murray at the unfinished bathroom his son was running from. But he said, under cross-examination, that he did not tell that to the police.

Dr Giri Seshaheeri, who examined both Murray and the complainant at the hospital on June 5, testified that the boy’s anus was dilated. He saw signs of mild bruising and opined that there was a high possibility of sexual abuse.

Analyst Sheron Brydson, who heads the DNA Unit of the Government Forensic Lab, was called by the defence. She testified that the swab of Murray’s penis did not show a mixing of his DNA profile with that of the boy’s. On the other hand, she said that the concentration of semen found inside the complainant was too low to generate a DNA profile. She said under cross-examination that without the profile she could neither include nor exclude Murray as the boy’s molester.

Murray gave an unsworn statement from the prisoners’ dock in which he denied the allegations.

The seven jurors retired at 12:20 on October 28. Murray said he made a silent prayer, asking God for his freedom. The jurors returned at 3 o’clock with the verdict: not guilty on two counts of indecent assault, but guilty on the third count and the buggery charge.

Murray recalled shivering like a bare-chested man in sub-zero temperatures. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. He said he determined then that the captain and his family would pay with their lives. Sentencing came shortly after, but Murray said he didn’t hear what was said. He was blanked out. He didn’t hear the plea in mitigation on his behalf. He didn’t hear the sentence nor did he hear the reprimand from Justice Ingrid Mangatal for “destroying” the complainant. Mangatal also ordered psychiatric treatment to help him overcome “this kind of problem”.

He was handcuffed and led away to the holding area where Wilson came to see him and explained the sentence and said he would be appealing the verdict.

At the Tower Street Adult Correctional Facility, Murray was placed in a cell with three others on Special Block and over time learnt that the rules of survival were summed up in one word: segregation. In the tuck shop, there are two lines; one for regular inmates and one for inmates from ‘Special’. There is also segregation during worship, as inmates from Special Block are not allowed to sit in the front pew at the chapel. He also found that regulars are tended to first at the doctor.

Murray said he was troubled by this system, but came to appreciate its necessity. He had not been in any altercation with regular inmates but he had frequent fights, some bloody, with his cellmates for stealing or damaging his belonging.

By this time, his daughter, now nine years old, and son, three, were querying his whereabouts, he said, adding that he too, had longed to see and speak with them. So one day, after about three months of incarceration, he placed a call to their mother from a cellular phone, which is illegal to possess in prison.

“Daddy, where are you?” he said his daughter asked.

“Daddy is somewhere working,” Murray replied.

“Daddy, when am I going to see you?”

He felt the tears coming on.

“I don’t know when I’m going to see you, baby.” A lump formed in his throat.

“All right,” the girl said.

“Daddy, I love you and hope to see you soon.”

Murray hung up, erupting into tears and had to be consoled by his cellmates.

He seldom spoke with them after that, he told the Sunday Observer, electing instead to send messages through their mother, as subsequent conversations ended with him in tears. It troubled him, too, having to lie to the children.

Meanwhile, Wilson had filed the appeal against Murray’s conviction and sentence and asked the court to hear fresh evidence in the matter. The new evidence was a report by Professor Wayne McLaughlin, the director of Caribbean Genetics and head of the Department of Basic Medical Science at the University of the West Indies, who had in 2011 conducted a Y-STR test of the samples taken from Murray and the complainant in 2009.

The test was done to determine whether traces of Murray’s Y-chromosome would be found on the anal swab taken from the complainant. This test is significantly more sensitive than the analysis conducted for the trial. The hearing in the Court of Appeal was subsequently held on July 23, 2012.

According to Murray, the thought of revenge upon the captain and his family had consumed his every waking moment, but with time and counselling he realised that it was useless harbouring such bitterness. The rekindling of his faith, he said, was also instrumental in his decision to forgive.

Now, two years after being convicted, Murray sat in the appeal and bail offices hoping that his nightmare would be over. But, he thought, even if he were freed, there would always be this stain on his reputation.

The warder picked up Murray’s gaze and held it.

“What were you wishing would happen?” Murray said the warder asked.

“My freedom,” Murray said, “and that I would go home”.

“Well,” the warder said, “that’s exactly what’s going to happen. The Court of Appeal just granted your leave for appeal and you are going home”.

His eyes, he said, welled up. He couldn’t wait to leave. He left the office thinking, ‘Free at last; after all this time’.

Downstairs, he saw Wilson, who had come to relay the court’s decision. “You got the news already?” the attorney asked.

“Yes, sir,” Murray gushed. He took his last walk back to Special Block and readied himself to leave. Through tears he delivered the news to his cellmates. They told him to make a better life for himself. He never had much to pack, just a suit of clothes that he stuffed in a plastic bag.

Wilson waited in his motor vehicle outside for Murray. After a while, he emerged from the prison, plastic bag in hand, and slipped into the passenger seat. During the journey from the downtown Kingston facility to Half-Way Tree, the men spoke about many things, including Murray’s future plans. He was still processing everything.

“You see what dem do to me, Mr Wilson?” Murray said at one point. He was experiencing a whirlwind of emotions. His mood swung from that of elation and relief, to anger. He felt victimised and was of the view that the State should be made to pay for his suffering.

Murray did not return home to Westmoreland, but stayed with his brother in Portmore, St Catherine where he learnt that his father had passed away due to illhealth.

I visited him at his brother’s small, rented room in August last year. Even though he missed his children, and they have asked him to visit them, he was reluctant to go because he feared what the reception might be. He wanted to be someplace where no one knew about his past.

“Mi life mash up,” he told the Sunday Observer in a dejected tone. He was trying to get a job, but nothing had materialised.

In January this year he called. He sounded upbeat as he told this reporter that he still hadn’t landed a job but had started his own business selling cooked food. He said he had visited his children twice, and was happy he did.

During the hearing in the appellate court, Professor McLaughlin testified that his analysis concluded that the DNA found on the anal swab wasn’t that of Murray’s.

Court records show this exchange between Wilson and the professor:

Wilson: “You told us earlier that the male chromosome passes through the lineage from father to son and from grandfather and it does not change.”

McLaughlin: “Yes.”

Wilson: “Would it be scientifically correct to conclude that the results you found in the anal swab are consistent with a family connection?”

McLaughlin: “As I mentioned earlier it’s a lineage, so definitely for me here.”

The captain and his family moved back to their home country following Murray’s conviction.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/A-wicked-act#ixzz2K3pyc5z8

LGBTQ's Crisis communication takes another hit from the reiligious right

So the Love March people are at it again this time challenging the veracity of the gay lobby's stance on homophobic violence in Jamaica but using overseas cases to back their argument showing how out of touch they are with the issues attendant to the struggle over the years. JFLAG also is to be blamed for a faulty crisis communication strategy over the years as well as the cases have not been properly presented to the public in a timely and open fashion.

I am in no way suggesting that the lobby group be online the bearer of bad news but persons need to see the real outcomes for some LGBTians as proof of the claims of abuse and deaths and that strategy must also include gay on gay crimes to show that issues also occur within the community and the internalized homophobia that is affected by the homophobia and homonegativity in the mainstream as well.

What other ways are there to convince a cynical and hardlined homophobic public but to put the truth in their faces.

Here is the letter from the Jamaica Observer:

Lies and deception fuel the homosexual lobby

Dear Editor,

When members of the gay lobby accuse the church of being morally bankrupt because of a stance for sexual purity, we know that the proverbial moral compass doesn't work in every man's hand.
But it is quite logical that if we behave as if there is no God, and man is the captain of his self, living by his own rules, making them up as he goes along, we end up with everything but reality.


One must be very intelligent to be sane and at the same time insinuate that God is flawed, and that your little group of ants knows better. Let's try some simple math here, and be honest. What percentage of information that exists now in the world do you know? Add that to the percentage of history you know, plus what percentage of the future you know. If you hit one per cent you are brilliant; but still pitifully ignorant compared to God. (If you went over one per cent you are fooling yourself, but you would still be pitiful and ignorant compared to God... just saying).

The mantra of the Love March Movement, an organisation dedicated to sexual purity for Jamaica, is a scripture that sheds light on a very important question. Can anyone be ex-gay? 1st Corinthians 6:9, 11 is true and shows the power the infallible (God) has.

Don't be fooled, it says, the sexually immoral, male prostitutes, homosexuals....will inherit the kingdom of God. "And that is what some of you were", but Jesus made you clean and paid the price for your sin. So ants, under the influence of the 'Prince of Ants', say that homosexuality is part of who they are, irremovable and permanent. God says it is sin, the person is redeemable and homosexuality is a choice.

This is another classic episode of ants vs God; Who is more intelligent again? (Recall calculation above). The Word of God does say that man is born in sin and shaped in iniquity. From this view we understand that sin does affect us from birth, and the 'Prince and Afflictor of Ants', whose ultimate plan is destruction, capitalises on this rule, predisposing us to varying destructive habits. The Word, whether one believes it or not, rules the world. And it always makes sense, unlike claims to being born homosexual with the forever-evasive genetic evidence.

It is important also that one does not perpetuate lies, a man is not homosexual when he has feelings or thoughts about another man, any more than a murderer is a person who thinks of killing someone. One can control his thoughts, and actions, especially if he submits to God.

We all have shortcomings, but Jesus bore our pain that we would be free from the reign of sin. Hopefully this is an unconscious ploy to convince everyone who has had a thought about someone of the same sex, that they are gay. This is not so!

Truth reigns and we can't listen too much to factophobic personnel.

What is true is this; we are at a crossroads in our nation. Poison that shaved overpowered nations and brought them into darkness are fixed on this nation. The LGBTTTIMZ (what does the A in JFLAG mean?) lobby is putting pressure on us to repeal our buggery law. This law stands in the way of the complete resocialisation of our society. If it is touched, we lose it, if we lose it, vaginal and anal penetration will be equated.

This, of course, seems like a non-issue, but the implications are paramount. If male to male anal penetration is considered normal behaviour, then it must be taught in schools. Jamaicans in Canada are having serious issues, because the schools are teaching homosexuality as normal behaviour to their children and when they ask if the children can be removed from the classes, the parents are told they cannot!

This, of course, seems like a non-issue, but the implications are paramount. If male to male anal penetration is considered normal behaviour, then it must be taught in schools. Jamaicans in Canada are having serious issues, because the schools are teaching homosexuality as normal behaviour to their children and when they ask if the children can be removed from the classes, the parents are told they cannot!

The education system is further impacted where teachers who disagree with teaching this material are in danger of losing their jobs! (eg, in California). The destruction of the society continues, there is loss of freedom of speech. If that sort of anal behaviour is normal, then marriage must be allowed as well, between men!

There is loss of freedom of religion. In England last week, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Lillian Ladele, a marital officer, had no right to refuse to marry a gay couple. She even offered to work on a different shift, so that someone else would be able to accommodate them. She was fired for acting on her beliefs!

Where is our highest court? It is in England!! If our law is repealed and a case goes to the Privy Council, do we know on which side the decision will stand?

But this country will not turn out like those. We will protect our civil rights and liberties. The rights of many will not be lost for the pleasure of a few. We are not just standing for sexual purity because God says so, we are standing for sexual purity because it makes sense! There is clear evidence that what the LGBTTTIMZ lobby wants is not equality, it is dominance!

France, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, America, Australia, all these powerhouses have been lured in by this victim, pity me, so-called "equality rights" campaign. I can hear the soft music now, and all they have got is the bowing of every aspect of their society to the aggressive, all-consuming, deception-brewing, totalitarian, ants-know-better-than-God campaign.

We should not allow homosexuality to be ingrained into the fabric of our culture and society. We must protect our families, we must protect our children, or at least protect mine. I have not even got into the medical reasons for keeping the buggery law. But I will. I welcome all fact-loving, well-thinking Jamaicans to stand with me.

We are Jamaicans, we stand for sexual purity and the family.

Daniel Thomas
Love March Movement

ENDS

The Love March Movement are connected to the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, The Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society  JCHS and other right winged religious groups who supposedly are opposed to homosexual rights in Jamaica, interestingly Dr Wayne West who is one of the founders of the JCHS has a proclivity for posts on his blog on fisting, felching and fishing practices that are done by mostly European sub groups in their msm communities. Not even local gay groups promote such activities yet an anti gay group chooses to use those practices to smear us supposedly for its shock value to his readers. Intellectual dishonesty or a fetish being masked via anti gay sentiments?

Peace and tolerance

H

Gay Canadian pastors optimistic Ja will repeal buggery law while local JCHS group says no way

VANCOUVER, Canada — Tim Stephenson is a former Canadian government minister, a current city councillor of Vancouver, and an ordained pastor, while Reverend Gary Paterson holds one of the highest positions in the United Church of Canada as its elected leader/moderator.

But the extensive political and religious accomplishments of both men are not what these two Canadians are most known for. In Stephenson's case, it is the title of being the first openly gay man to be ordained a church minister in Canada, while for Paterson, it is the historic election of a gay man as moderator within this once ultra-conservative denomination.

The two, who have been legally married for the greater part of the 33 years and have lived together as partners, sat down at City Hall earlier last week to have a frank discussion with a Jamaica delegation of journalists and policymakers here in Vancouver participating in a knowledge exchange sesson organised by Panos Caribbean in partnership with Simon Fraser University and the Vancouver Initiative.

"We sometimes define ourselves as church and state sleeping together," Stephenson quipped as he began the conversation.

He added further, "it took me 12 years to get ordained as a minister as the church wrestled with the issue".

Both men have been previously married to women, with Paterson fathering three daughters from his union.

As a member of Canada's New Democratic Party, Stephenson said he was elected as the first openly gay member of the legislature, then deputy speaker of the House, and subsequently cabinet minister, before his party lost power after a five-year stint in office.Following this defeat, Stephenson said he returned to the church congregation to serve as minister before heading back to politics, this time to run for City Councillor 11 years ago. He has been re-elected four times, and was also appointed the Canadian representative to China.

Paterson had been ordained as the lead minister in the church before he disclosed his status as a gay man.

"The church struggled with me and Tim as ministers, although I was ordained when I was a married man," he said.

Explaining the journey, Paterson said the United Church started to do educational work around homosexuality as far back as the 1980s, staging various workshops to help people get comfortable with the issue.

"In 1984, we produced the first report that there should be no contradiction between being Christian and gay," he said, adding that there was extensive consultation done across Canada.Out of this it was recommended that gay men and lesbians be allowed full membership in the church. Not everybody took the news with an open heart and mind, as about 10 per cent left the church. However, Paterson said, for the most part, the other 90 per cent were comfortable with the decision. Currently, 20 per cent of the church's members are gay.

In the discussions that followed, Paterson said the evangelical church accused them of not being Christians, while the Catholics avoided the issue altogether.

Now, he says a large number of the church's membership consists of "refugees" from evangelical churches; persons he said have been "damaged" by their old church's beliefs.

"A lot of gay persons went to church because there is a belief that if you pray to Jesus you won't be gay, but psychological studies prove there is just cessation of sex," he said.

As such, Paterson said a part of his ministry is to reach out to people who have been badly damaged by the Christian church.

Turning to the biblical stance on homosexuality, Paterson said Jesus Christ never had anything to say about homosexuality, but had a lot to say about divorce and yet the church has been able to find ways to get around the dissolution of marriage.

"In fact, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of the people's inhospitality, and not because of the act of homosexuality," he opined.

Questioned as to whether there is some truth to the statement that the gay community is becoming the most powerful and influential group on the planet Paterson dismissed the notion.

"That statement is ridiculous and comes from fear... sometimes gay people have influence and sometimes they don't," he said.

As a lawmaker, Stephenson was instrumental in allowing gay Canadian men to adopt children and to change the definition of the word 'spouse'.In fact, Paterson believes children raised by gay couples are stronger and more resilient, as they learn how to deal with differences and how to cope with bullying at school.
Paterson, who said he discovered his love for men from age 13, said he initially told his wife he was bisexual, but she was willing to give the relationship a chance.

"We had seven years of marriage, and when it ended we made a decision to share the parenting of the girls and not live more than 10 blocks away from each other," he said.

Stephenson, who left his five-year marriage without fathering any children, said he quickly fit into the parenting role.The men said they usually travel around the world on vacation as a couple and are looking forward to visiting Jamaica, although they have heard the stories that "it is a difficult place for gay people".
They however expressed optimism that the Jamaican buggery laws will eventually be repealed.

"I think Jamaica will change its laws and things will get different," Paterson said.

The couple say they have been invited to the United Church in Bermuda and are looking forward to sharing there.

Read more HERE

Meanwhile Dr. Wayne West of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, JCHS who happen to also be planning an event on Human Rights Day December 10 speaking on the backdrop of the Russian resolution on family life back in October of this year he said " .... No I'm not persuaded for that at all because I am confident that unlike countries like maybe the United States & England who operate apparently on slogans than facts than in Jamaica persons in the media will bring the philosophical considerations to the Jamaican people .......... once the Jamaican people understand that once you start a line of policy making that makes the assumption there is no purpose in the universe that anything can be anything ....." he gave the impression that all kinds of bizarre things may become normative. Then came the HIV is a gay disease trope once again where he said "We know among men who have sex with men they make certain choices and definitions of sex which result in serious diseases in this group, when that consideration is brought to the Jamaican policy makers I am confident that those things will not become law in Jamaica." he continued "I don't expect any such changes in the law."

He continued in referring to the "no design" philosophy driving the push for rights and twisting the traditional views of the family hence the Home and Family Life curriculum's push for supposed an anything goes mantra and that such philosophies are being pushed by the elite classes especially those in the humanities at universities here. "What we are having being imposed on us is what Aristotle said should not be a basis for law, desire simply desire is not a basis for law." he continued he went on also about the world view that now obtains and that all things are relative. He said there is a denial of purpose and an elevation of desire to the detriment of the good of the society. The coalition also had placed a full paged ad in the GLEANER newspaper on Friday last a most expensive venture if one cares to check but I do not see them looking at the poor amongst us nor the children who gays are supposedly preying on, conditioning as it regularly termed since the HFLE fiasco or influencing, so much for a healthy society indeed when the obvious matters are of no direct concern to them yet privacy must be invaded to push an anti gay agenda. What hypocrisy, what about the homeless and children in adult lockups, the rapes and so on how comes this coalition is so silent in those departments? 

I would imagine that a real healthy society would have inclusiveness as its mantra despite sexual orientation and deal with those who are the least amongst us.

My other main concern is the repeated uninformed comments from foreigners who clearly do not understand the local parameters with our struggle. Jamaica is NOT Canada and our political representatives are not at the point yet for a mature, non-emotional and balanced debate towards a solution in this matter of the buggery law seeing that securing political expediency is of far greater import coupled with some powerful out of touch advocates who seem to care about their personal achievements at the expense of a gullible community more so than the growth of the collective.

Recent pronouncements by the Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson point to a public health reason that of high rates of HIV infections in the MSM group (despite the last study results not out as yet) as a plausible one for the repeal or decriminalization of buggery. While the government through its information Minister made it clear that is on the back burner for now.

see:

HIV/AIDS Deaths Dip ..but ......................

and a podcast on the government's delay on the suggested buggery review

Peace and tolerance

H