Fanciful notion on our record about gays
Dear Editor,
At the Universal Periodic Review of Jamaica’s human rights situation held before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on November 9, 2010, the head of the Jamaican delegation, State Minister Senator Marlene Malahoo-Forte, misinformed the world community about Jamaica’s human rights record with regard to gays.
One of her more glaring inaccuracies was that Jamaica has a documented policy to protect women, girls and homosexuals. No such policy exists. Her statement that “Jamaica does not condone discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation” was startling in light of our prime minister’s public statement to the BBC that no gays will form part of his Cabinet.
She also said that in Jamaica “there is no legal discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation”. This belies section 79 of the Offences Against the Person Act which discriminates against gays by criminalising any form of intimacy between two men, whether done in private or public.
As a lawyer, a former member of the DPP’s office and Resident Magistrate, she must surely know about this infamous section. She also denied the existence of “credible” evidence of continued human rights abuses against gays. Yet when JFLAG requested a meeting with the prime minister to discuss these abuses they were denied. From the senator’s presentation it would appear that effeminate gay Jamaican men can now walk openly downtown Kingston without fear of attack! Truly a fanciful notion. No wonder 11 countries were unimpressed with her presentation and called on Jamaica to end its homophobic laws and policies.
Maurice Tomlinson
Montego Bay, St James
maurice_tomlinson@yahoo.com