NOT ON RADAR

LGBT rights activists not pushing for gay marriage

Gay marriage is not currently on the agenda of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activists in the Caribbean.

So says Kenita Placide, Executive Director of Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE). The St. Lucian born Placide, who was one of the panellists participating in a discussion yesterday morning at United Nations House on LGBT Rights in the Eastern Caribbean, maintained that they have not spoken about gay marriage, adamant that it is the last thing on their minds.

The panel discussion was part of an event at which the Human Rights Watch Report, “I Have to Leave to Be Me – Discriminatory Laws against LGBT People in the Eastern Caribbean” was launched.

Instead, she said, their goals have been to get people access and justice, and trying to ensure that “the same laws that they say exist for one set of people are actually practised and accessed for everybody, which include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons”.

Currently that is not the reality, and she lamented that is too often seen when LGBT persons are turned away from accessing health care services, or are not treated fairly when they go to make reports to the police, or are treated unfairly in respect of employment and shelter.

“These are the kinds of things that hit us hard and we continuously have to try to prove that they happened for people to even believe that these things happened in our small countries, and this is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said in reference to the report which gives the accounts of 41 members of the LGBT community within the seven surveyed countries.

Her comments came as she referred to buggery and similar laws still being on the law books of several Caribbean countries. She said while not enforced, the fact that they remain in place mean that they can be put into effect at anytime.

Her sentiments were shared by Human Rights Lawyer from Grenada, Richie Maitland, who is also Vice Chair of ECADE. He argued that these laws give countries carte blanche to be discriminators.

He made the point while contending that the Human Rights Watch report comes at a very opportune time, noting that over the last few years, persons have been agitating to bring litigation against such discriminations. He said persons have been seeking redress before national courts, the Caribbean Court of Justice and the International Human Rights Commission and he said the report can give the courts much more than anecdotal evidence. Maitland said he looks forward to seeing the report used in upcoming litigation.

Meanwhile, responding to the explanation given by regional governments that their countries have very strong religious beliefs, and that is why the laws have not been removed, he charged that the real problem is that they lack the political will to make the necessary changes to the legislation. While admitting that the countries are have strong religious communities, Maitland, referring to the decriminalisation of marijuana in Antigua, noted that there have been other laws which churches have opposed but which were still passed.

“Governments just have to be brave, and they do have a history of being brave. I think that response is just an easy way of ducking out of the real issue, which is that many times governments just don’t themselves have the political will. So it is very easy to hide behind ‘oh well our church, our society’, but the reality is they can make the changes,” he maintained. (JRT)

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