Lesbians do not factor in HIV prevention that much, bisexuals still seen as only a ‘bridge’............

The more things change the more they stay the same and then expectations are out there to gain positive results when the nonsense continues as the farce thrives; in the face of new information, data driven work and so on, old entrenched thinking trumps (no pun intended) sensibility.

One would have thought with the expansion of the understandings of sexuality, the now more than ever urgent need to filter out subgroups alongside their sex seeking behaviours and psychologies associated with same we would have gotten passed this nonsense of omitting what some see as lower risk groups for HIV infections hence they need not be included. The lumping of transgender persons into MSM studies for example in times past seems not to be recognized as yet and accepted by the establishment as the 32% rate being bandied about from then is often referred to despite the error has been quietly seen. The figures are obviously flawed to begin with, one does not have to be a genius to see it; in the days when words such as “pre-operative” was not a dirty word in transgender realms and represented ‘transitioning’ suggestions were made to separate such persons out of the study as some trans did not pursue such but who identified as gay and found some comfort in the gay community

I find it most odd that it has to take a gay man like myself to be writing on this. It also stems from two greater conclusions I have drawn several years now, first being much more could have been achieved if not for forward thinking and action and secondly some of the very folks at the helms are the actual obstacle to said achievements to materialise. Frankly I am getting tired of the itty-bitty achievements it is time for monumental if not better positives and outcomes on a much larger scale after all these years, when the potential exists for forward movement.

As World AIDS Day came to a close and the cogs of HIV settled back to business as usual an old discussion came up via social media about risk for women on the strength of a post and article on transgender persons in Jamaica who were said to be HIV positive. In making the rounds on various platforms and literally examining the content over a host of presentations, a myriad of radio interviews, television appearances, hash-tagging and so on literally not a word came out on certain types lesbian sex as risky for HIV and or sexually transmitted diseases. A rather young bright young lady asked a potent question on Facebook as to why women seem missing or very low on the radar for prevention messaging saved and except for commercial sex workers and the emphasis that the rates had fallen in that category. The group she was in froze for a minute suggesting pause for thinking I assume and then the flood of answers/comments came mostly espousing words to the effect that she may be right in a sense. The omission if not invisibility of same gender loving women in HIV prevention especially in today’s world is telling yet again that the more things change the more they stay the same.

Trouble is the bureaucrats and board of governors of many of these HIV outfits are still mostly male or if women are there they are heterosexual and cannot speak to some issues directly from a space of real world experience along with an elitist chip on their shoulders (the males that is) despite some bragging that they have now employed more women in their midst but still have a gay male driven mindset by just mere observation in public policy/advocacy. They refuse to take ‘telling’ as country people would say from non elitists and experts while HIV infections dilly dally although it is known and accepted as a challenge in the gay community in terms of rates the lumping of transgender folks. The near total omission of bisexuals where they are only seen as a ‘bridge’ for infections and lesbians’ near total annihilation from the interventions altogether despite so called new women’s’ groups in operation still is too gay male and mainstreamed if not hetero-normatively focused. These new groups and advocacies if not added bureaucracies are more interested on the comfort of social media these days and really hardly do real work as one person puts it with ‘real people’ and issues, then it is no wonder the messages are flawed and overlook certain groups. Older outfits such as Womenforwomen, WFW seem all but dead publicly and offered not even a dribble in the department of HIV risk and women who have sex with women, hash-tagging and instagramming if you will are the latest crazes but while such platforms can work when you’re up against altered or bettered versions of individuals profiles including the very NGO republic hiding the actualities to give a near perfect of not falsified appearance then where it the truth to credibility to make the message more effective and lasting hence omission and oversight may be less.

an example of Tribadism

We now know of practices such as Tribadism probably the most risky of them all in sex between women and or the seeming increase in use of sex toys as evidenced by the very retailers within the same gender loving community who have said their sales have increased exponentially and their buyers are mostly women. The sex industry and or the human trafficking illegality that often forces women who are straight into lesbian sex by just mere observation has been clearly incorporating women on women action in bars, so called massage parlours that are really a front for ‘Madame’ services and so on, by virtue of those considerations alone it warrants more forward thinking on the part of the programs and new if not ‘outside the box’ thinking and not just typical responses. It’s all about the money for managers of these establishment and the old hetero-based restrictions are out the window as the rules of the game changes. A tip in the thousands of dollars for such entertainment is the norm today and not just the kissing touchy-feely eroticism but more raunchy presentations on stage to include Tribadism for example.

Tribadism is one of the most risky of all, a point I have been driving at for some years now in previous posts, effectively it is sex between two women where the clitoris and indeed the vaginal openings are made to come together to create friction in a kind of X pattern formed by the participants. The act can be very intense for the parties and led to multiple orgasms often with no barriers such as a dam, cut opened condom or so on. The theory that hairs if not shaven can act as an intervening item to create openings on the skin or the labia minora. We know that cuts and exposure to blood of an infected person can facilitate passing of the infection and given the literal receptiveness of a vagina by virtue of its shape this is grounds for reference at least or stronger advocacy at best.

The practice in particular is now more evident at strip clubs than ever before with often dancers/strippers/performers who may not even be lesbians but the job may require some lesbian sex as management may demand same to make a profit as more male patrons and indeed other lesbians such as butch identified women like this kind of thing and tip heavily, the possibility however slight or low is still a risk no matter what, risk is risk. The typical message for women has to be amended even in the commercial sex work category in the face of a reduction in the prevalence rates. It is well accepted that high knowledge of condom use is out there but conversion to action is another matter but as to the specifics for other groups that is woefully lacking so the messages flies over those groups heads as it feels as if it is not for them to follow as they may not see themselves as at any risk at all. When are the programs people going to include in the narrative wider messages to boldly and specifically (if not in raw language) mention plasticizing bisexuals you too are to consider safer sex options and not just rely on the hetero-normative mainstreamed sanitized near nonsense anymore.

Lesbians and bisexuals aside specifically there are also other nuances often overlooked as the response also miss even sub group practices under the MSM umbrella. Cruisers alone is where I’ll zoom in as cruisers as it were not only include gay or bisexual men but also other men who either experiment, are exposed to gay sex of some sort by way of prison (substitutional sex/situational homosexuality), jail houses or correctional facilities but who when released back into general society over time may pursue sexual experiences via this route as it tends to attract more masculine types who avoid any hint of effeminacy and self identification as ‘gay’ a term seen in their eyes as a man wanting to become a woman and is too loaded psychologically for those men. These are often men who have ‘baby-mothers’, girlfriends and so on and in a type of behavioural bisexuality pattern. Condoms if there is any anal penetration to be had (as mostly oral and hand action are the preferred practices) are not an option as it can be seen as the one suggesting condom use may be HIV positive and or the engaging party is also positive which can lead to serious violent reactions in a blame game. Most men who I have interacted with in this arena simply avoid any mention of condoms just in case as the reaction from the other party is unpredictable. The more raunchy the sex the better it is for some men to include bare-backing, cream-pie action and so on; HIV prevention seems to totally overlook these psychologies when contemplating tailoring the response.

Omissions, oversights cannot continue as the norm not in this day and age alongside hetero-normative sanitized narratives must fast become a thing of the past (a call made some 8 years ago), if it is some expect to bring down infection rates. Risk is risk however small and despite the groups involved. Everywhere else is somehow able to address their prevalence rates save and except for some sub-groups yet here we are wasting time.

Peace & tolerance

H

also see:

Tribadism & Safe Sex 2009

17 year old freed of buggery charge ....

This story goes to remind us all that the buggery law is not only applicable to gay and bisexual or men who practice substitutional sex in prisons via anal penetration.

Also no mention of a firm doctors' report as the complainant apparently waited too long for an intimate sample to be taken so that certain determinants can confirm that the act was actually committed; such as spermatozoa cells, spermicide residue or a loose spinchter muscle or torn tissues to prove same.

A 17-year-old youth who was charged with buggery when he was 13 has been freed of the charge.

A schoolgirl, who was also 13 at the time of the alleged offence, was the complainant. She testified that the accused committed the act in a classroom, while they were at school. She reported the incident to her mother a day later. The matter was reported to the police and the boy was arrested and charged.

The accused from the outset had admitted to the police that he had sexual intercourse with the girl in the classroom. He said she was telling lies that he buggered her.

When the case came for trial this week in the Home Circuit Court, the accused denied the allegation. In his defence, he told the jury that he only had sexual intercourse with the girl and it was with her consent.

Attorney-at-law Jacqueline Asher, in addressing the jury, asked them to find the accused not guilty. She asked the jury to find that her client spoke the truth as to what took place in the classroom. The seven-member jury retired and returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.

hear an older podcast I had attempted some years ago on the issue of buggery and who can be charged:

additional older podcast on the suggested conscience vote and related matters

also see:

LGBT Community Eyes More Than Conscience Vote (Gleaner)

Is ‘The Most Homophobic Place on Earth’ Turning Around?

Hardened Positions by Religious Fanatics & Their LGBT Detractors Will Only Leave More Blood on the Floor

Bad timing for St Catherine buggery case of mentally ill man from Star News
Buggery the only thing that makes church butts sore?

The line in the sand for the PNP part 10 : Buggery referendum & more CCJ

Ex-Cop Jailed for Buggery in a St Catherine Court

Finally: flashback to dancehall DJ Zebra's case

Dancehall DJ Zebra

In November 2010 the well publicized case was reported on in the Star News:

After completing a sentence for rape in 2008, deejay Zebra was again locked away for 30 years' hard labour for another sex-related crime. The deejay, whose real name is Garfield Vassell, was sentenced by Justice Evan Brown in the St Catherine Circuit Court.

Justice Brown outlined that for buggery, Vassell should serve 10 years and 20 years for carnal abuse.
The entertainer, who was represented by attorney-at-law Everton Dewar, was found guilty on Tuesday by a jury which retired for less than an hour. He was found guilty of carnal abuse and buggery.

The Crown led evidence that the entertainer sexually assaulted the teenage daughter of his girlfriend.
It is said that the child had to run away from home and related her ordeal to a senior relative who reported the matter to the police.

The deejay, who is known for songs such as Redder Than Red and Rupert, was held in June of last year after eluding the police for four months. He had been released in 2008 on rape charges, after serving six years behind bars.
Peace & tolerance

H

Report examines homosexuality as part of African life

Scientific evidence shows that human sexual behaviour is naturally varied, and should not form a basis for discrimination, says a highly anticipated report from the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf).

also see: 

ASSAF REPORT ASSESSES CRIMINALISATION OF SEXUAL DIVERSITY

The report, launched at the Seventh South African AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa on 10 June, examined scientific evidence on sexual practices.

Diversity in Human Sexuality: Implications for Policy in Africa was commissioned by ASSAf partly in response to a growing number of laws outlawing homosexuality on the continent, including in Burundi, Cameroon, Nigeria and Uganda. ASSAf initiated the study together with research institutes from Africa and abroad, including the Uganda National Academy of Sciences.

“There was concern in the scientific community about a rising trend in Africa against gay people,” says Glenda Gray, co-chair of the study and president of the South African Medical Research Council. “As medical professionals, we believed Africa needed a consensus study from a panel of experts in Africa who could present the most up-to-date data and recommend future areas of research.”

The report found no scientific evidence supporting views that there homosexuality is in any way  ‘abnormal’ sexual behaviour.

“There is now a wide global consensus among scientists that homosexuality is a normal and natural variation of human sexuality without any inherently detrimental health consequences,” it says. “In this context governments have a duty to consider scientific perspectives and draw on the most current scientific knowledge when creating policy and enacting laws.”

It also did not find any evidence that sexual orientation could be altered through therapy, that parents can raise children to be gay, nor that same-sex orientations are contagious.

from the document itself:
"Socio-behavioural research demonstrates unequivocally that both heterosexual and homosexual men feel that they have/had no choice in terms of their sexual attraction. The majority of women who experience same-sex attraction also express a lack of a sense of choice in their sexual orientation, although there is evidence for much greater fluidity in sexual orientation among women of all sexual orientations. 

The study explores – and finds lacking – evidence to support the contention that the way parents bring up their children, or the relationships formed between children and parents, impact on sexual orientation. While family environment may shape other elements of sexuality and the way sexuality is expressed, and while construction of gender and sexual identities have strong social and cultural components, there is little evidence that orientation is directly correlated to family upbringing."

“Broadly speaking, there is a strong bias against LGBTI people in Africa, though it is difficult to draw a line between the mood of people in the country and those driving the legislation.”

Matthew Clayton, Triangle Project 

Instead, the report presents substantial evidence that sexual diversity has always been a normal part of human society. In fact, it concludes that tolerance of same-sex orientation benefits communities and positively affects public health, civil society and long-term economic growth.

“We found that sexual diversity is normal,” says Gray. “And if you decrease discrimination, you improve access to healthcare and management of illnesses such as HIV, and you could minimise health-related economic impacts.”

Acceptance of diverse sexual practices can also improve the mental health of people with different sexual preferences and prevent divisions within families, she says.

page 17 of the study

Homosexuality is still illegal in thirty-eight countries in Africa, according to Amnesty International.

“Broadly speaking, there is a strong bias against LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex] people in Africa, though it is difficult to draw a line between the mood of people in the country and those driving the legislation,” says Matthew Clayton, research, advocacy and policy coordinator at Triangle Project, a Cape Town-based organisation supporting the LGBTI community.

The inconsistent enforcement of anti-homosexual laws creates legal and social instability for those communities, he says.

“There is also the pervasive and untrue idea that homosexuality is ‘un-African’, and an import of the West,” he says. The report, however, flags up that there is historic evidence of homosexuality in Africa from pre-colonial times.

Clayton says the report could encourage policy makers, faith leaders and communities to learn about LGBTI people that live in their countries and “rebuff notions that can be damaging” to tolerance.

Gray shares the hope that the report may be a first step towards change.

“These are respected scientists, and by presenting their findings, their voices are hopefully heard as accurate and trustworthy and add to the mainstreaming of gender and sexual diversity,” she says.

This article was originally published on SciDev.Net. Read the original article.

ENDS

The publication also said:

"This report assesses the current global understanding of the key scientific issues involved. The panel considered the following questions: 

1. What is the evidence that biological factors contribute to sexual and gender diversity? To what degree is the wide diversity of human sexualities explained by biological factors? 

2. Do environmental factors such as upbringing and socialisation explain the diversity of human sexuality?

3. Is there any evidence for same-sex orientation being ‘acquired’ through contact with others, i.e. through ‘social contagion’? 

4. What evidence is there that any form of therapy or ‘treatment’ can change sexual orientation? 

5. What evidence is there that same-sex orientations pose a threat of harm to individuals, communities, or vulnerable populations such as children? 

6. What are the public health consequences of criminalising same-sex sexual orientations and attempting to regulate the behaviour/relationships related to some sexualities? 

7. What are the most critical unanswered scientific research questions regarding the diversity of human sexualities and sexual orientations in Africa?"

Having scanned in a first read I was expecting more cultural factors though such as innate homosexuality and same gender sex versus cultural substitutional sex or situational homosexuality between non romantic inclined same gender men per say such as in periods of hunting in packs or in pairs away from the village(s) from extended periods of time and where non penetrative play (possible partnered masturbation) is used as release during absence away from their women or wives.

I guess one thing at a time.

Peace & tolerance

H

Archbishop of Kingston Denies Claims That Clergy Members Abusing Alpha Boys

So it seems this issue has no end any time soon as more voices throw their hats in the ring over the Alpha Boys fiasco as I call it since the youth Minister's faux pas on babbling her mouth on a most sensitive issue that ought to have been handled more delicately than allowed over the past few weeks, 

I was not aware that it was the clergy that was accused of sexually abusing the boys but the boys on each other as so crassly put by the Minister Lisa Hanna in driving home her point in trying to make herself look productive when it is her ministry that ought to have picked up on this eons ago.

see: SITUATIONAL HOMOSEXUALITY AND OR “PREDATORY BEHAVIOUR” REASONS FOR THE CLOSURE OF ALPHA BOYS’ HOME RESIDENTIAL PROGRAMS?

today the Gleaner carried this piece adding to the furore:

Jermaine Francis, Staff Reporter: 

Reece Denies Claims That Clergy Members Abusing Alpha Boys

Archbishop Emeritus of Kingston Donald Reece has flatly denied allegations that senior members of the Catholic Church have been preying on the wards of the Alpha Boys Home.

Reece told The Gleaner yesterday that these allegations could not be true, as senior members of the clergy were never working at the home.

"There is no high person in the Church at Alpha. It's lay people who are working with the boys. There are no high-church person there! So I think somebody is way off base here," Reece stated.

He said the claims of abuse were simply playing into a sort of anti-Catholic hysteria.

"There is a certain anti-Catholic sentiment in our society and, therefore, they jump into that and probably project from that what has been published in papers abroad regarding paedophilia and apply (it) to Alpha," Reece said, adamantly reiterating that there are no priests at Alpha.

FULSOME INVESTIGATION

Reece was speaking in relation to recent letters to the editor that demand a fulsome investigation into allegations of rampant sexual abuse being carried out at Alpha, both by caregivers and some wards.

In a letter titled 'Don't Cover Up Alpha Sex Horrors' published last Friday, noted attorney-at-law, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, said she was aware of a case in which "former residents of Alpha, now grown men, will speak privately of employees (including persons holding high positions in the Church) who would ritualistically enter the dorm in the nights and select the boy(s) of their choice who would be forced into inappropriate relationships".

Samuels-Brown said the situation may be more pervasive than Youth Minister Lisa Hanna has intimated to the public.

Shirley Richards, former president of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, said based on the minister's revelations and Samuels-Brown's letter, a probe should be launched into the happenings at the place of safety.

Reece said while he agreed a probe should be launched, care must be taken to not make this investigation "flamboyant", and efforts should be taken to ensure that the welfare of the children is at the forefront.

He added that Alpha should not be singled out for any such probe, as abuse may also be taking place in other children's homes.

jermaine.francis@gleanerjm.com

ENDS

In case you missed any discourse on the issue here are twp recordings of the matter from Nationwide radio Jamaica:

Nationwide @ 5 Youth Minister responds to Alpha Press release 16.04.14

Nationwide Cover Story Alpha Boys residency closure 08.04.14 

also see:

Youth Minister Lisa Hanna's conflation of same gender sex & abuse responded to part 2

Alpha Boys' Nuns say Youth Minister homosexual abuse/grooming comments hurting their image/

No Reported cases of Paedophilia say local Catholic Diocese Representative Reece from a 2010 interview 

Youth Minister Lisa Hanna's conflation of same gender sex & abuse responded to (Yvonne McCallah Sobers responds to a recent announcement that homeless LGBT youth may get help)

I am sure this is not the end of this by a long shot

Peace and tolerance

H

Homosexuality in Africa - (Part 1)

Homosexuality in Africa - (Part 1) 

The common belief among Africans is that homosexuality is primarily a story of seduction by Europeans and/or Americans, in which the Africans acquiesced out of fear or from a desire for money. . . But we know that this is a lie, and this is an attempt to shed some light on our true history, that which our colonial masters had ensured was kept hidden from us. In the black/white relationships that did develop into homosexual unions, the white partner appears to have been the aggressor. No doubt the abuse of African people by European/American people has included sexual abuse. What is untrue, the lie, is that such abuse was the origin of African homosexuality.

There are two false assumptions in anthropology. The first false assumption is that savage or primitive people know nothing about homosexuality; the second false assumption is that Africans were savage or primitive. Where there was clear and indisputable evidence of African homosexuality, anthropologists had to invent excuses in order to save these false assumptions, and that is what they did.

The first excuse was that Africans learned homosexuality from the Arabs. Then the excuse was that Africans learned homosexuality by hustling Europeans. Anthropologists said homosexuality was only a corruption practiced by the overly rich chiefs. Then they said that poor people practiced homosexuality because the overly rich chiefs had monopolised all of the women in harems. They said it was only youthful high spirits: the African was not really homosexual; he was just real drunk last night. Every excuse you are likely to hear from a deep closet case was used by Euro-American academics in the attempt to explain away the facts. The facts were: homosexuality was found in almost every major African ethnic group that we know of, through all of the history we know of. Few of the societies of Africa could be called savage or primitive, but all over the world, those people who might fairly be called savage or primitive are perfectly familiar with homosexuality. Homosexuality is not the white man's way. It is the way of gay people of all colours and nations, of all places and times.

African Homosexuality

One common mistake made, is that of confusing the popularity of homosexual activity with what gay people are doing and how they are treated. In Azandeland, in modern day northern Congo and the Central African Republic, most men, or at least very many men, had homosexual affairs. However, most men were still expected to marry women, father children, and so forth. The Azande knew very well that some men preferred to have sex with other men. Although every man was expected to marry a women, Azande customs provided a man with an excuse to have sex with another man whenever he wanted, throughout life. Marriage between warriors and recruits was only a part of the Azande accommodation to male homosexuality. The Azande were not a liberal people. They were the rare example of a society that punished female homosexuality while imposing no penalty on males. Because it was thought fatal to any man who witnessed it, female homosexuality could, in theory, entail the death penalty. But in fact female homosexuality was common and the public knew about it. In an Azande folktale two women conspire to fool a husband in order to get together. The most common sexual activity between men was intercourse between the thighs. This sort of adaptation is common in cultures where homosexual affairs become fashionable among non-gay men. We do not know what the gay, or preferentially homosexual Azande did. We only know the Azande knew there were such men.

In societies where homosexuality becomes popular across the board, it is usual to find that older men choose unmarried young men and that the older men assume the role of top in these relationships. So it is perhaps instructive to look at two groups in Africa that went counter to that tendency. A good example of an African people with a tradition of male homosexuality between lovers of the same age was the Nyakyusa who lived north of Lake Malawi (aka Lake Nyasa). However important the family was in Africa, you cannot form strong states and vast empires such as Africa had, on the basis of family alone. Intermarriage helps some. But to build a strong state you must have forces that run across family lines, that hold the various families together, and that keep feuds and rivalries from tearing society apart. Various African societies have used various institutions to paste society together. There might be secret societies, like fraternities and sororities, especially in West Africa. There might be trade organisations or craft guilds. There may be dance associations or religious institutions. Very commonly, people are organised in age groups. The Nyakyusa of what is now southwestern Tanzania and northern Zambia carried organisation by age group to the extreme. They organised their villages by age group. One of the first things young Nyakyusa boys did, to show they were becoming responsible, was to herd cattle. Generally a boy and his best friend would herd their families' cattle together. Pasturing the cattle gave the boys plenty of time to play around. And, of course, what they did was to have sex. They danced together, engaged in mutual masturbation, anal sex, and intercourse between the thighs.

Oral sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, was not very popular in traditional African societies. Most of them thought it was very bad. Oral sex or rape were considered serious crimes which might entail a cattle fine. All of the other things the boys did might get them a tongue lashing or a minor whipping if they were caught by the adults. But everyone knew what was going on and no serious attempt was made to stop the boys. At a fairly young age Nyakyusa boys had to move out of their fathers' homes. At first they were likely to sleep with other boys in abandoned huts or other bachelors' quarters in their fathers' villages. Boys slept together, and naturally had sex with each other at night. So long as force was not used, no crime was reckoned to have occurred when the boys had sex. For the boys, homosexuality was considered a perfectly normal, if not completely desirable, sexual outlet that required no explanation, supernatural or otherwise.

Eventually boys of the same age, perhaps from several parent villages, got together and began to form a village of their own. At first this was a boys' village. The girls remained in the parent villages until the boys reached a marriageable age. In a sense, Nyakyusa villages have a life cycle from boyhood through manhood to old age. A village is child to some other villages, parent to some villages, and brother to yet others.

Now, what do I mean by boys? In Africa you are a child until you become a boy. You remain a boy until you of an age to have a house, a female wife, and children of your own. Nyakyusa began having homosexual relations at 10 to 14 years of age. They seldom married before they were 25. So for ten to fifteen years of the most sexually active part of life, Nyakyusa men practiced homosexuality. Once they got married to women, and virtually all of them did, Nyakyusa men were supposed to stop having homosexual relations. Nonetheless, a few cases of relations between men and boys came to light. This was punishable by a cattle fine. It is said, however, that the men were not afraid of the fine, but of the shame of being caught in activity associated with witchcraft. In any event, Nyakyusa men did not believe it sacrificed their masculinity to perform anal sex in either position. They did not believe they were castrated in the middle of their burning skulls just because they had sex with their friends. Certainly the Nyakyusa public thought it peculiar if a man with a wife at home preferred to have sex with a man or boy, but that only raised questions of witchcraft, not questions of manhood.

Should prisoners have conjugal visits?

Continuing a conversation I was in on Facebook with persons about a Star News story a couple days ago I am still on the fence with this issue on one hand it would be ideal for the sake of lessening the rage in our culture of violence but given a recent story that female warders are also allegedly granting sexual favours to selected members of the male prison populations albeit conjugal visits are not only for sexual contact but also enhancing family life and personal contact.




Chad Bryan, STAR Writer penned this story below given the recent controversy with a man who reported got a woman pregnant while allegedly in custody but it has turned out that the time that the supposed intimate contacts were to have occurred he was not incarcerated.

Prisoners should be allowed to have conjugal visits or, by extension, have sex with their spouse, noted attorney Dr Paul Ashley believes.

It is a view shared by head of the Department of Correctional Services Lieutenant Colonel Sean Prendergast.

Ashley posited that there is a well-known fact that homosexual men in some penal institutions are separated from heterosexual males.

"Implicit in this is that sex takes place among homosexuals in prison. My view, therefore, is that there should be conjugal visits with specific guidelines," he said. "One is presumed to be innocent not celibate, and if you are clothed in the presumption that you are innocent awaiting trial, why should you be denied sex since you are innocent until proven guilty?"

Ashley also added, "enforced celibacy is not a part of one's punishment. Even if it was, what are you then saying to homosexuals in prison who are given condoms?"

Prendergast explained that, as it stands, a conjugal visit for the purpose of sex is not allowed, but he would welcome the idea.

"Currently, the policy is that it is not allowed. My personal view is that I would like to see the day that it can be allowed. I would use it as a tool of control just like family visit. If we allowed conjugal visit, we would have well-behaving inmates. At current, the department does not have the facilities for that," he said.

Corporate Area pastors Reverend Peter Garth and Bishop Rowan Edwards dismissed the idea of allowing prisoners the right to sex while incarcerated.

"I am not certain that that should happen. It is a part of the punishment and, as such, should not happen," Garth said.

Echoing Garth's sentiments, Edwards said, "no, totally wrong. If they have violated the law, that's a part of their freedom they have given up. I'm not in agreement with that."

However, Pastor Carla Dunbar advanced another opinion.

"I would not have a problem with it, because of the reality in our society. That can be used to influence behaviour. If they are going to be there for a long period of time, that can be allowed once per month," she said.

ENDS

however the homosexual contact or behavioural bisexuality in prisons is of concern and the present ban on condoms listed as contraband thought they do find their way in via various means and men have been found to be HIV positive after entering the prison system which begs the question what is really going on behind closed bars in this case?

For the sake of bisexuals I would imagine sexual contact with the opposite sex may help relieve sexual tension (my unqualified opinion) but as for same sex urges maybe the system if ever getting to forward thinking consenting adults could be allowed time together with condoms supplied but the correctional services may never let this happen and we would never hear the end of it.

In an older post from sister blog Gay Jamaica Watch on Male Rape I hinted to the then correctional figureheads and their unease with the suggestion of male rape in prison. There was a story in 2011 also that spoke to molestation in a bathroom of a male prisoner by other prisoners, see HERE there was a short documentary on the issue of male rape as well but the issue has since died down somewhat.

In 1997, Lieutenant Colonel John Prescod(left in photo), then Commissioner of Corrections, suggested that condoms be distributed in the prisons as a means of stopping the spread of HIV. The suggestion sparked a riot that claimed the lives of 16 prisoners, some of whom were accused of being homosexuals and as it turns out many who died weren't actually gay but prior rivalry and a golden opportunity for a disturbance led the way to the attacks. The National AIDS Committee had recommended again in 2000 to the then Peoples National Party administration launch Mandatory medical examinations for all inmates, segregation of HIV positive inmates, legal conjugal visits, a health education programme for the prison, and permission for terminally ill patients to be allowed to die at home, were also among the recommendations made to the Government which were ignored.

Dr. Raymoth Notice (right in photo above) medical expert then in the penal system had said at the time, "...We recognize that the incidence of HIV is increasing in the general population and not only that, studies have shown that the incidence of AIDS in prison is six to 10 times greater in prisons than in the general population," also he continued "the level of homophobia and ignorance as well as the lack of resources have hampered the education process a whole lot. Before we even get to the condom issue it is important first and foremost to educate the population about AIDS. But everyone has been too afraid to do anything since the riots. There is no analysis being done, no reliable data, inmates are leaving with the disease and taking it back to their communities."

Lambert Brown, the UAWU's the then first vice-president, had said that although he was still opposed to condom distribution in prisons, he had nothing against the other recommendations made.

"The fight against AIDS is not based solely on condom distribution," Mr. Brown said. "Those who are promoting condoms in prison are using the back door to promote homosexuality which is illegal." here suggesting fear.

see the 1996 documentary here:

The prison wife phenomenon, multiple partner and the religious issues are looked at in the clip.

Peace and tolerance

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