“No to Homo Agenda”: How evangelicals spread anti-gay hate to Jamaica

[theHandpuppet]

Salon
Thursday, Jul 10, 2014
“No to Homo Agenda”: How evangelicals spread anti-gay hate to Jamaica
From funds to personnel, here's how U.S. churches are directly inciting virulent homophobia on the island

Homophobia is notoriously prevalent in Jamaica, with 82 percent of Jamaicans seeing male homosexuality as “morally wrong” according to a 2011 survey by the University of the West Indies in Kingston. The issue of LGBT rights and the buggery laws in particular (which criminalize same-sex intimacy) rose to prominence in 2011, when Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller mentioned in her election campaign that she favored reviewing the laws for possible decriminalization. Later, the issue was highlighted by several high profile bias crimes, including the stabbings of a gay man in Montego Bay and a gender non-conforming 17-year-old in St James, both in 2013. A lawsuit seeking to evict homeless LGBT youth forced to live in a public sewer in New Kingston also garnered international attention. Other public figures in Jamaica, including former Prime Minister PJ Patterson, recently voiced support for LGBT rights, and a joint committee of parliament is set to review the Sexual Offences Act soon.

Last Sunday, 25,000 Jamaicans gathered in the capital to protest the repeal of the buggery laws. The protest was organized by CAUSE (Churches Action Uniting Society for Emancipation) in response to what they see as the advance of “the homo agenda.”

To understand the politics of the protests and the prospects for LGBT rights in Jamaica, Salon spoke with human rights advocate Maurice Tomlinson, who has litigated extensively to overturn the Jamaican buggery laws and other anti-LGBT statutes in the Caribbean. Tomlinson has worked with Aids-Free Jamaica on issues related to HIV in marginalized communities and recently started a new organization, LGBTI Aware Caribbean, to conduct sensitivity trainings with service workers in the region. Broadly acknowledged as one of the foremost human rights advocates in the world today, Tomlinson was awarded the David Kato Vision and Voice Award in 2012 (named after the late Ugandan LGBT rights activist). Following is a transcript of our conversation, edited for clarity and brevity...

MORE at http://www.salon.com/2014/07/10/no_to_homo_agenda_how_evangelicals_spread_anti_gay_hate_to_jamaica/

[theHandpuppet]

1. Related article. One Hate: Jamaica’s new tourism slogan?

http://www.eturbonews.com/47819/one-hate-jamaica-s-new-tourism-slogan
One Hate: Jamaica’s new tourism slogan?
Jamaica Tourism: Visit the most homophobic island in the Caribbean
By Nelson Alcantara, eTN editor-in-chief
Jul 10, 2014

Tires, shoes and stones were some of the things that were being thrown to a helpless gay being beaten to a pulp in a street in Jamaica. This was the scene in one of the posts on my Facebook feed yesterday morning. Shocked of what I saw, I decided to write an article about it.

Jamaica is the most homophobic travel and tourism island destination in the Caribbean, with harsh anti-gay laws, even though there's a large local gay population. This is according to "tips for Gay and Lesbian Travelers" by Frommers.

The US Today once published:"Gay tourists in Jamaica should expect hostility from locals. Jamaica harbors strong anti-gay sentiment; sex between men is illegal, violence against gays is a theme of Jamaican pop music and police and government officials have condoned and even participated in the harassment of homosexuals."

If the video had a message to convey it was this: One Hate, which may as well be the new tourism slogan for Jamaica Tourism as the famous Caribbean destination seems to be racking up points for anti-gay incidences of late....

MORE at http://www.eturbonews.com/47819/one-hate-jamaica-s-new-tourism-slogan