From Newsday

‘Homophobia, biphobia, transphobia affect us all’

IT has been 28 years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder.

In 2004, the International Day against Homophobia was first observed. That morphed into the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). The day, according to www.apa.org, “has become a global occasion to educate about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and to advocate for sensible public policies regarding LGBT people.”

In TT, the Alliance for Justice and Diversity, a coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community groups, has organised a day of events. The day is being observed today.

The member groups include CAISO Sex & Gender Justice, Friends For Life, I Am One, the Silver Lining Foundation, T&T Transgender Coalition, Womantra, and the Women’s Caucus of T&T.

The day’s events begin with a Pride flag-raising at the British High Commission, St Clair, between 8.30-9 am, then shift to Nelson Mandela Park, St Clair, for a picnic from 3-6 pm, and a solidarity rally featuring song and poetry then takes place at Studio Rumours Lounge, Woodbrook, from 8-10.30 pm.

For Angelique V Nixon, board member of CAISO and project lead researcher of a Sexual Culture of Justice – an activity-based human-rights project focused on gender-based violence, LGBTI rights and protection – the day’s events are a continuation of part of the wider work being done within and by the community.

She explained, “The Alliance for Justice and Diversity represents seven LGBT organisations in TT, and each of us focus on different things and one of the major projects we have been working on for the past year and continues for the next two years is the sexual culture of justice, which is about transforming sexual and cultural norms…working to protect and expand our rights and protection for LGBTQI persons living in TT.”

Days such as IDAHOT, she added, “provides an opportunity to recognise how discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are continuing to impact the community in significant ways.”

Since the Jason Jones vs State ruling, Nixon said the community has seen increased violence and moral panic. Last month’s High Court ruling in the case by Justice Devindra Rampersad found Sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act – which criminalised consensual homosexual acts – unconstitutional.

“That has raised a lot of moral panic and increased violence in many ways. So that is one of the issues we need to address…in particular, some of the evangelical churches have raised a lot of fear and panic around what may happen as a result of this court case,” she said.

Currently, the alliance’s goal is to educate the public and media about what the court ruling means. It is also seeking to let the public and media know that “the work continues, as the court ruling can take years and the Government has said they are not changing anything right now. So our job is to ensure LGBT people in communities feel as safe as possible and that we are also educating the public and media.”

Days such as IDAHOT offer the alliance and its represented organisations the opportunity to continue their work and awareness around these issues.

There has been an increase in the number of incidents and cases of discrimination against members of the LGBTQI
community since the ruling, she said. The alliance is collecting reports of discrimination and violence. The LGBTQI community has since faced housing discrimination, with people being kicked out of their homes (by landlords, parents and guardians), and reported cases of people being discriminated against at their workplace and/or being fired.

People, she added, have also been harassed while using public transportation or in the streets. Nixon said there have been at least 15 different reports which the alliance is “working through to get them collated, obviously protecting people’s identities.”

It intends to report these to the human rights desk at the Attorney General’s office as well as at the Equal Opportunity Commission “even though they are not able to do anything about it, because sexual orientation is not included as a protected class. But we are still going to report those cases and do it monthly or bi-monthly as is needed.”

Nixon wants the public to know: “Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia affect all of us. It does not only affect LGBT persons. When we discriminate against others, it is harmful to all of us and many people.

“The more acceptance and the more tolerance we create as a society will only enhance our ability to live and love freely. It is not taking rights away from anybody else.”

Kennedy Everett Maraj, chief administrative officer of the Silver Lining Foundation (a guardian body for the prevention of bullying, suicide and discrimination primarily geared towards LGBTQI youths) said the events around IDAHOT “provide a safe space for citizens to share their personal struggles and experiences with discrimination because of their gender identity and sexual orientation.” It also sensitises the public on “the ways we are guilty of reinforcing and perpetuating negative stereotypes and myths and misconceptions about homosexuality that adversely affect LGBTQIA citizens.”

Maraj said a lack of understanding and compassion from society continued to be a major problem.

The work being done by the alliance and its supporting groups, Maraj said, helps to “dispel the prevailing prejudices and stereotypes which homophobia is built on, so that greater awareness and sensitisation of the actual issues affected by LGBTQI citizens are given the importance they deserve in order to find sustainable solutions.”

He added that the court ruling “ultimately legitimises the LGBTQIA community as law-abiding citizens of this nation, which should then act as a guarantor for our human rights that successive governments have so far cowered away from.”

More importantly for him, the ruling has “ignited a spark from LGBTQI citizens to demand their human rights in a more vocal, pronounced and visible manner.”

Being LGBTQIA, he added, was not a sickness or disease, or phase or choice.

“People are born gay, despite what others try to tell you.

The country needed to address its homophobia, he said, “whether it is based on simple prejudices or actual hate, and start treating all people as human beings, affording them the same love, respect and protection we all desire.”

…British High Commission celebrates International Day against Homophobia

British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago Tim Stew, assists in the hoisting of the Rainbow Flag at his Port of Spain office on Wednesday.

The British High Commission in collaboration with the Silver Lining Foundation hosted an event at Jackson Square, St Clair on May 13 in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

The event was to promote love, respect, acceptance and tolerance in commemoration of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), which was celebrated on Wednesday (May 17).

Tim Stew, British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago said, “As we observe IDAHOBIT let us remember the importance of emphasising love, tolerance and unity in our daily lives.”

Members of the LGBT community form a heart as an expression of love and unity during an event in Port of Spain to commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), which was celebrated on Wednesday (May 17).

Stew also participated in the hoisting of the Rainbow Flag, a symbol of LGBT pride, which was flown at the High Commission on Wednesday.

 

 

 

The organisations Friends for Life, CAISO and CariFLAGS joined forces this year to organise events around May 17 in downtown Port of Spain and Belmont, Trinidad & Tobago.

The events went on for two days and consisted of:

Friday May 16, 1:30pm: Friends for Life held a demonstration at the Port of Spain International Finance Centre, the home of the national Parliament at the start of its sitting.

Saturday May 17, 9am: CAISO, Friends for Life and CariFLAGS at their joint office in Belmont, launched a Trinidad & Tobago case advocacy program to bring justice and healing to LGBTI persons who have suffered violations of their basic rights; and hosted a briefing on the first sexual orientation-related Caribbean case just accepted by the Caribbean Court of Justice — a treaty challenge to the immigration law of Trinidad & Tobago.

Local activists explained:

The law makes homosexuals, those who live off their earnings, and those reasonably suspected of coming or attempting to bring others into the country for homosexual purposes prohibited immigrants; and it provides for the deportation of persons who practise, assist in the practice, or share in the avails of ‘homosexualism’.

The casework program is staffed by a social worker and a lawyer and will lead to a new effort at strategic use of courts and tribunals by LGBTI groups in Trinidad & Tobago and the Caribbean, with the development of a clearing house for SOGI-related strategic litigation in the region.

UK, German and other embassies formally salute the Day in T&T

On May 16, for a 24 hour period, the Union Jack (flag of the UK) was lowered, and the rainbow flag raised in its place at the British High Commission in Trinidad and Tobago.

Also present were representatives from the German Embassy, Canadian High Commission, and Spanish, Dutch, US embassies and other colleagues from the European Union. Non-governmental organisations present were the Silver Lining Foundation and, I Am One group.

Media coverage (select):

• Trinidad and Tobago Newsday: piece on foreign embassy actions in T&T, ‘Diplomats, NGOs raise gay rights awareness‘
• Journalist Janine Mendes-Franco, based in Trinidad & Tobago, also wrote a supportive piece regarding IDAHOT 2014, focused on ‘Being Gay in the Caribbean‘.

The events will go on for two days and consist of:

Friday May 16, 1:30pm: Friends for Life holds a demonstration at the Port of Spain International Finance Centre, the home of the national Parliament at the start of its sitting.

Saturday May 17, 9am: CAISO, Friends for Life and CariFLAGS at their joint office in Belmont, launch a Trinidad & Tobago case advocacy program to bring justice and healing to LGBTI persons who have suffered violations; and host a briefing on the first sexual orientation-related Caribbean case just accepted by the Caribbean Court of Justice — a treaty challenge to the immigration law of Trinidad & Tobago. The law makes homosexuals, those who live off their earnings, and those reasonably suspected of coming or attempting to bring others into the country for homosexual purposes prohibited immigrants; and it provides for the deportation of persons who practise, assist in the practice, or share in the avails of homosexualism. The casework program is staffed by a social worker and a lawyer and will lead to a new effort at strategic use of courts and tribunals by LGBTI groups in Trinidad & Tobago and the Caribbean, with the development of a clearinghouse for SOGI-related strategic litigation in the region.

The study also found that LGBT issues are not as dangerous as national politicians may imagine. It was funded by the British High Commission and conducted by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Research Services Inc (CADRES), of attitudes toward homosexuals in T&T. The results were announced at a press conference at the All Saints Anglican Church, Port-of-Spain, by CADRES director Peter Wickham.

As one local activist summarised to the IDAHO Committee: “Instead of celebrating the Caribbean’s homophobia on IDAHO, in Trinidad & Tobago we marked the occasion by inviting labour, religious and rights leaders and the media to take note of the significance of new research that shows low levels of homophobia, and called for politicians to catch up. All three daily newspapers covered it today, and the most watched TV evening news broadcast made it their lead story.”

You can see CCN TV6 coverage here:

Guardian Media Ltd also gave positive coverage to the study’s findings. As did Trinidad Express Newspapers, and Trinidad & Tobago’s Newsday.

A Discussion Panel on Survey Findings Also Marked the Day:

WHAT: Pollster, expert panel discuss new Trinidad & Tobago survey data on public attitudes to homosexuality, to mark International Day Against Homophobia

WHEN: Thursday May 16, 2013 • 12:45 pm to 2:00 pm

WHERE: All Saints Anglican Church Parish Hall, corner Marli & Woodford Streets, Newtown

WHO: Peter Wickham: principal, CADRES, leading regional political and social research organisation, with extensive Caribbean-wide experience

Colin Robinson: executive director, CAISO, lead Trinidad &Tobago NGO engaged in nationbuilding advocacy for sexual citizenship and gender justice; secretary, CariFLAGS, regional LGBT advocacy network headquartered in T&T

Pandita Indrani Rampersad: Trinidad & Tobago’s first woman priest; founding president, Hindu Women’s Organization

Nikki Johnson: education & research officer, Oilfield Workers Trade Union

Lynette Seebaran-Suite: attorney at law; chair, ASPIRE, advocacy NGO for sexual & reproductive health & rights, including gender-based violence

Josh Drayton: lecturer on political science, University of the West Indies-St. Augustine

Moderator – Cedriann Martin: journalist; communications officer, UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team

WHY: Commonwealth Caribbean states trail the entire hemisphere in recognition of the rights and dignity of LGBT citizens. Caribbean politicians often cite the “lack of a political mandate” or blame public attitudes for their failure to fulfil their duty to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens. In Trinidad & Tobago, there is no political leadership for respect for the equality and dignity of these minorities, and increasingly open advocacy by Roman Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders to deny persons equality and human rights based on their sexual orientation or gender.

A professional survey by one of the region’s most respected research organisations shows that almost twice as many Trinbagonians are tolerant or accepting of homosexuals as could be described as “homophobic”. The survey demonstrates clearly that Trinbagonians disapprove of violence against minorities and discrimination in all its manifestations, and largely consider discrimination against homosexuals to be “wrong”. Notwithstanding the largely positive stance, it is also clear that fundamental misunderstandings exist among Trinbagonians regarding several basic facts about homosexuality, which may impact negatively on attitudes.

The survey also demonstrates that Trinbagonians would support changes in the legislative framework that relates to homosexuality if they were convinced the laws contribute to spread of HIV or impact negatively on the physical or psychological well-being of young people or adults. There is no evidence from the survey of a significant potential political cost at the national level in terms of party support if there were a change in laws.

Trinidad & Tobago commemorates the May 17 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia for the third year in 2013, marking the date of the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness by the World Health Organization 23 years ago. IDAHO-T is now marked around the globe by the United Nations, national and local governments, NGOs and the media, through political declarations and educational, advocacy and alliance-building activities. It is a global collaboration to take local action to engage with the violence, stigma, unequal treatment and criminalization that rob LGBT people of life, safety, human dignity and opportunity, and which harms national productivity and heterosexual boys in particular in the Caribbean. This year’s celebration draws attention to innovative activities in Nairobi, Bangkok, Botswana, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, The Hague, Egypt, Georgia, Turkey and Beijing. Elsewhere in the Caribbean, where it is being marked for the eighth year, interventions will happen in Cuba, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.