Jamaica lesbians suffer from under-reported violence but whose fault is that ???

The representative agencies are culpable in this regard and here is why in my view:

This sudden new found concern for same gender loving women's advocacy was never there that much over the many years of the life of the representative organizations is suspect, not all of us can be fooled by supposed concerns. As a male I am becoming more and more fed up with the grandstanding and embellished representations of advocacy that are presented to the world.
Lesbophobia never really did create the excitement or accord the level of importance as repealing the buggery law and men who are victims of beatings and other serious happenings get from the male dominated agencies so they do not get the articles and media spotlight and subsequent on the ground attention required. We know that MSMs issues are far more pronounced locally but in as far as the responses to same gender loving women's issues they are woefully lacking even after a total of thirty plus years of combined advocacy over respective groups, individuals and organizations.

The article below appeared on an overseas website showing yet again that news about us has to be generated off shore maybe in a bid to impress folks that work is somehow being done locally and which plays into the criticism about certain voices and that persons play on the reputation that Jamaica has gained, and using it to their own ends to push themselves as superstar advocates while persons on the ground suffer literally and counting on the silence and gullibility of lgbt Jamaicans as well as the fears of straight people to help them. All elements of the elitist culture at work.

Even from the early days of GLABCOM, gay lesbian & bisexual community meetings although it was designed to be an interface between the community and certain AIDS organizations mostly MSM issues were covered so much so that at most meetings men who be in far greater attendance than women and both JFLAG and WFW (formerly lesbians in action renamed) representatives were absent for years until the project was closed down.

At the intervention level same gender loving women who have been raped for example may not necessarily want to sit in front of a male crisis intervention officer or even a counsellor for that matter to rehash or relive a horrific rape experience, the sensitivities must be observed when we are talking about rehabilitation or victim's support. A female counselor or officer would suit the job far better when the men who hold such position cannot empathise with a woman who has been raped, very few males can do so.

The article read:
By Branka Juran and Maria Caspani

LONDON (TrustLaw) - Lesbians in Jamaica face attacks such as gang rape due to rife homophobia in the country, but few of these abuses get reported, Jamaica’s leading gay activist said.

“In Jamaican culture women are generally expected to be quiet about harassment and abuse,” Maurice Tomlinson, Jamaica’s leading gay activist and HIV/AIDS campaigner, said in an interview with TrustLaw.

Women are not the only victims. Tomlinson said 70 percent of attacks reported to rights organisations between 2009 and 2011 concerned gay men.

Under Jamaican law it is legal to punish any act of physical intimacy between men with jail and the possibility of 10-years hard labour.

Tomlinson was in London this week to receive the inaugural David Kato award for gay human rights activism.

“When we find out about these cases (involving gay women), they are usually so horrible that they rise up to the level of having to be reported,” he said.

Tomlinson works as a legal advisor for rights group AIDS Free World, helping them forge a structured way to address homophobia in the country and documenting human rights abuses against LGBT people.

When he first started recording accounts of abuses, Tomlinson was appalled by the sheer brutality of some of these acts.

“There was one instance where a gang of four men raped a lesbian because they said she was ‘taking over all good looking women’, Tomlinson recalled.

“They cut her genitals, so she could ‘better take men’ because ‘that is why she was a lesbian’, they said.

With 82 percent of its citizens opposing homosexuality – according to the results of a recent survey – Jamaica is one of the most dangerous places in the world for gay people.

"The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays (J-FLAG) reported in June (2011) that 51 homophobic incidents had been registered in Jamaica between January and June 2011, representing a rise compared to the same period over 2010,” according to a report released in September 2011 by Amnesty International.

Endorsement of homophobic behaviour used to come straight from the country’s political establishment. Former PM Bruce Golding was openly homophobic and stated he would never appoint a gay person to cabinet.

Now, some – even if feeble – signals of change are starting to emerge.

In January, the newly elected Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller has made some promising statements regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT).

“I think she (Simpson-Miller) genuinely does not have a problem with LGBT people and does not pry to people’s bedrooms,” Tomlinson said.

Nonetheless, homophobia still permeates almost every aspect of the Caribbean island’s society.

People go to church where they listen to pastors preaching that homophobia causes diseases, then they turn on the radio and hear popular Jamaican musicians Buju Banton and Beenie Man using anti-gay lyrics.

Tomlinson himself has received numerous death threats.

After news of his marriage to a Canadian man sparked a row in Jamaica, it was deemed best for him not to return home. He is waiting on Jamaican authorities assure him it is going to be safe for him to travel back.

(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)

ENDS

And why can't JFLAG speak for themselves and why wasn't Women for Women (WFW) consulted on this issue? why doesn't JFLAG put out a press release (as it's good at that) to talk about same gender loving womens issues directly? it cannot!!! simply because the organizational behaviour which is male dominated has over these many years contributed to a culture of silence on same gender female issues as homophobia towards males take center stage and lesbian issues do not generate the sound bites or is a lightening rod for funding. 


Lesbians and bisexual women have been getting their share of drama for decades as many suffering in silence as they feel their pleas may fall on deaf ears but even with a stark increase in reports in 2007 onwards of corrective rape, arson, forced evictions and even displacement/homelessness, even with an arm of the J named WomenforWomen they are tied, resource starved and cannot stand up to the male dominated executive structure of JFLAG, parent organization Jamaica AIDS Support or the other associated groups, the men call the shots. Butch lesbians in particualr have been feeling the pinch but why should women report anything when they feel they are ignored by the groups? and now to use  their plight to sure up image is so unethical.

Also see: 

Women for Women still on the move. 

Being a woman & gay in Jamaica

and

A marriage and another activist seeks asylum

The culture of silence as well where interventions and activities that are to benefit the entire LGBTQIQ2S body politic are held close to the chest of some as if others are not deserving of the impact they ought to have on the movement hence not rolled out generally. Sadly this is our reality and all kinds of media manipulations and PR are used to quash crtiticims including labelling persons who point out the inadequacies as enemies of progress when very little progress in all these 37 plus years of the struggle in total have passed.

We need to put women's issues and I dare say homelessness on a equal footing to that of their male counterparts in the struggle in a transparent way and not try to sneak it in the backdoor as the rare let's give them some attention ploy. A loud cry here for proper and meaningful frontline interventions as it is not all about repealing buggery.

What is also coming to the fore is the belief that this is a smoke screen to divert persons from the questionable departure of the gentleman mentioned in the interview from Jamaica as some sections of the community have doubts as to the ethical basis on which he left and how the timing seemed well planned with what is suspected to be a leaked photo of a wedding to the press and a set up to get an award. We need to call it out when we see it, who waan vex a fi dem business dat. Not all of us can be fooled anymore.

more here via audio:

 Lesbian issues left out of the Jamaican advocacy thrust until now? 

Want more evidence of the gloss over of same gender loving issues for women then check this post on sister blog GLBTQJA done in December 2011 of the murder of two lesbians and the non response from the so called LGBT rights groups:

2 SGL Women lost, corrective rape & virtual silence from the male dominated advocacy structure

here is the corresponding audio for that post:

2 SGL Women lost, corrective rape and virtual silence from the male dominated advocacy structure 

also here is the audio from the original shocking news of Mr Tomlinson's departure:

   Ethical Professionlism & LGBT Advocates 01.02.12 by glbtqja4 

Peace and tolerance

H