Despite the troubling situation national LGBT group J-FLAG hosted their 3rd annual Larry Chang Symposium on May 17th. The year the event had the theme “The Jamaican LGBT Community, A Resilient People” and aimed to bring together LGBT and ally Jamaicans in order to raise awareness of the horrific effects that intolerance has had on much of the Jamaican LGBT community.

Additionally, they hosted a cultural soirée – PRISM – for the LGBT and ally community to showcase their talents. The event featured performances by the LGBT and ally community in music, dance and spoken word.

The event, as well as a time for somber reflection, was also intended to be a happy celebration of the resilience and progress made in the LGBT community and featured the presence of many of Jamaica’s leading civil and human rights activists.

JFLAG issued a series of videos, hyperlinked below, taken at the symposium, which provide an excellent insight into the realities and the activism of LGBT people on the island.  A must watch for all who want to understand the realities of Jamaica.

3rd Annual Larry Chang Human Rights Symposium (Recap) 

3rd Annual Larry Chang Human Rights Symposium Highlights 

I Stand in Defence of Your Dignity – Dr Michael Abrahams (Keynote Address) 

Break the Rules: Protest through Excellence – Jomain McKenzie 

Integrity as a Part of Resilience – Rochelle McFee

If Mi Neva Taak Mi Wudda Dumb – Jermaine Burton 

My Friend Bob – Krystal Tomlinson 

Two prominent gay U.S. officials traveled to Jamaica last week where they met with several LGBT rights advocates. Randy Berry, the special U.S. envoy to promote global LGBT rights, arrived on the Caribbean island on May 21. Todd Larson, senior LGBT coordinator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, traveled to Jamaica the day before. Berry and Larson on May 21 attended a reception at the home of U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica Luis Moreno in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, that commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. The men during their brief trip to Jamaica met with J-FLAG members and staff along with Jalna Broderick, co-founder of Quality of Citizenship Jamaica, and Yvonne McCalla Sobers of Dwayne’s House, which provides support to homeless LGBT Jamaicans. Larson told the Washington Blade on Thursday that he and Berry also met government officials, educators and business and religious leaders. – See more at: https://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/05/30/gay-u-s-officials-travel-to-jamaica/#sthash.mchUPN2d.dpuf

Despite laws criminalising same sex relationships, and a reputation for being one of the most inhospitable places for LGBTI people to live, a well-attended symposium took place to discuss and affirm LGBTI rights in Jamaica, around the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia 2014.

The group J-Flag of Jamaica organized a symposium, on the theme of Personality, Religion and Sexual Citizenship, in the week around May 17, 2014. The event, held in Kingston on Friday May 16, facilitated discussion on what citizenship means in Jamaica for LGBT people in Jamaica today, and on the way to a more inclusive Jamaica.

Events organised for IDAHOT 2014 in Jamaica.

The following themes were developed during the session:

• Man to Man Is So Unjust: Disclaiming Sexual Citizenship in Fundamentalist Jamaica – Prof. Carolyn Cooper, Senior Lecturer, Department of Literatures in English, UWI Mona
• Equal Rights and Justice for All: (Re)Imagining and (Re)Presenting Inclusiveness – Dr. Karen Carpenter, Clinical Sexologist/Psychologist, Caribbean Sexuality Research Institute
• Where Are You From?: Moving from Shame in Search of the Divine – Georgia Love, Training Coordinator, WMW Jamaica (formerly Women’s Media Watch)
• It’s Not About Them, It’s About Us: How Can the Church Turn the Tide in the Sexuality Debate – Rev. Margaret Fowler, Minister, Hope United Church

IDAHOT 2014 in Kingston, Jamaica.

To see the photo album of events this year, please click here.

The event will be held in Kingston on Friday, May 16th from 10:00 to 13:00. The symposium aims to facilitate discussion on the contexts of citizenship of Jamaica (sexual), the place of LGBT people in Jamaica today and the way to a more inclusive Jamaica.

Its objectives are:

1. To highlight the struggles and strides made by J-FLAG in making Jamaica the place of choice for LGBT persons to live, work, raise families, and do business.
2. To dispel misconceptions about the LGBT community with the support of research.
3. To explore the layers of homophobia experienced by LGBT people.
4. To provide national coverage of an evidence-based dialogue on sexual identity and gender expression.
5. To improve the public’s understanding of the unique challenges faced by LGBT Christians.

For more details on the event please visit the following link. The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals holds the vision to advance, in a spirit of unity, love, dignity and respect, towards Jamaica, and the world free from prejudice, injustice, discrimination and oppression. For more information visit their website, follow them on Twitter or visit their Facebook

Amnesty International Special Focus to LGBTI Rights in Jamaica

Together with the Jamaican LGBTI organisation J-FLAG, Amnesty International published a joint press release to mark the Day.

Jamaica was one of three countries selected by Amnesty International for a special focus on the International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia 2013 (the others were Ukraine and South Africa). Amnesty created a special action page affirming that “In Jamaica, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people face harassment, threats, attacks and other human rights abuses because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.” They also launched a country-specific twitter campaign.

Larry Chang Human Rights Symposium: Homelessness and Forced Migration of LGBT Jamaicans

Jamaica AIDS Support and LGBTI organisation, J-FLAG, hosted a discussion in Kingston on the issue of migration and homelessness among the gay community. As a local blog piece explained before the event ‘forced out of their homes, living on the street, harassed, abused, assaulted, despised, often in fear of their lives. The local media have made much drama out of the situation; and always the fact of their homelessness and subsequent (often defensive) “bad behavior” is linked to their being homosexual or transgendered. If you are in Kingston, do try to join us for this discussion; we should also be streaming it live and I will share that link when I have it on Twitter (@petchary).’

Controversy erupted during and after the event, however, as it became clear that the organisers had opted not to invite any homeless people to the event. J-Flag released a press release defending the decision shortly afterwards. Pictures from the event, as well as comments and podcasts published in relation to it, can be found at http://glbtqja.blogspot.com.br/2013/05/jflag-excludes-homeless-msm-from-idaho.html

Quality of Citizenship Jamaica Statement

In a special statement for May 17, the group highlighted the deficit between official government positions outlining state opposition to violence against LGBT people, and a reality in which ‘there is no equality for LGBT people’.

The authors ended by underscoring that, ‘Today, International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, Quality of Citizenship Jamaica stands in solidarity with the world to oppose the intolerance, discrimination, hate, and abuse that is meted out to the LGBT people of the world. We call on the Jamaican Government to honour its international commitments, to affirm the status of equal citizenship for all Jamaicans, to ensure the same quality of citizenship for all Jamaicans.’

Blog Posts and Videos

Several posts outlining the importance of May 17, and denouncing hatred against LGBTI people in Jamaica were uploaded at an IDAHOT blog at the Amply Your Voice blog.

One contributor mixed together a collection of homophobic cartoons, set to a homophobic Reggae track, especially for the Day entitled, ‘Gay situation in Jamaica as the Nations Newspaper sees it!’, which you can see here

In Jamaican society, not only are same sex relationships criminalised, the notion of extending rights to LGBT communities is often framed as part of a repressive, even authoritarian ‘gay agenda’, which threatens to restrict freedom of expression.

Such attitudes were recently exemplified by the homophobic ad campaign, launched by the Jamaica Coalition of Healthy Society on May 17, to mark this year’s International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia. Aside from suggesting that Jamaican society is being ‘gagged’ by the alleged advance of LGBT rights, the ad campaign – aired on national television – distorts findings published in The Lancet, to indicate that homosexuals ’cause’ HIV/AIDS.

Yet two high profile cases, seeking to defend and advance LGBT rights, have been forwarded to the Jamaican Supreme Court. Both are attempting to use the country’s 2011 Constitutional Amendment, The Charter of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to press forward basic rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jamaicans.

Maurice Tomlinson v TVJ, CVM and PBCJ

The first case, Maurice Tomlinson v TVJ, CVM and PBCJ was brought by Jamaican activist Tomlinson, against three television stations which refused to air a paid-for television advertisement promoting tolerance for LGBT people. In the case heard May 27-31, Tomlinson’s defence argued that the ad was ‘restrained’ and could only have been censored by a ‘very intolerant’ person. As such the decisions not to air the ad limited the claimant’s rights as guaranteed in the Charter, which could not be ‘justifiably denied’ in a democratic society.

See The Video in Dispute: “Love & Respect”

The forum sought to highlight the urgent need to address issue of bullying in schools. It was supported by the British High Commission. Among the presentations made were those by representatives from UNICEF and UNSECO.