CISOCA Head says Carnal Abuse, Rape, Buggery and same sex paedophilia on the rise

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Ealan Powell (left), addresses journalists at a press briefing, held today (May 19), at the office of the Commissioner of Police, Old Hope Road, in Kingston. Looking on is Deputy Superintendent of Police in charge of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), Gloria Davis Simpson.

In a presentation today May 19th Deputy Superintendent of Police in charge of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), Gloria Davis Simpson said that “These young children are targeted sometimes by family members, boys 17 years old and fathers. This is becoming a worrying sign for us as we have seen an increase where the cases of incest have been reported,” the Deputy Superintendent said. While not using the term same sex paedophilia she describe the atrocities as buggery which maybe true to an extent but we must be careful that we do not re-inforce the nationwide belief that homosexual males are all predatory and going after young boys which is far from the truth.

She further informed that men in the 30 to 40 age group are now targeting the 13 to 15 age group girls, while men 60 years and up are targeting the 11-13 year-old girls. In terms of carnal abuse, teenage boys are targeting girls 10 years and younger.

“It is important that we pay particular attention to the age group which we find to be the most vulnerable and since the beginning of 2011 we would have observed that the age group 11-15 years have been the main victims in most of these sexual offences,” she added.

The areas with the highest number of sexual offences in the Kingston and St. Andrew Region include: Harbour View, Bull Bay, Elletson Road, Denham Town, Hope Road, Stony Hill, Hunts Bay, Duhaney Park and Lawrence Tavern.

CISOCA is a branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and its objectives are: to create an atmosphere which will encourage victims to report incidents of sexual offences and child abuse; to ensure efficient and effective investigation into allegations of abuse; to enhance the rehabilitation of victims through counselling and therapy; and to conduct public education programmes on sexual offences and child abuse.

Areas named as popular spots for carnal abuse include Half Way Tree, Mannings Hill Road area and other main thoroughfare where teens and adults meet. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Ealan Powell said that given the sensitive nature of the cases and the fact that identification parades are necessary in most of the cases, the police are unable to issue photographs of the offenders.

“It is something we would like to do, but we have to exercise caution in order not to jeopardise the cases we have against these offenders,” ACP Powell said.

He explained that it is important to list the sexual offenders, as while there have been marginal declines in sexual offences since the start of the year, “we don’t want offenders, especially repeat offenders, to be on our streets."

The Assistant Commissioner Ealan Powell who was also present said that in most of the cases, the police do not have a photograph of the sexual offenders, and that photographs will be available if the perpetrator is a repeat offender as he listed the names of the wanted persons.

They are:
20-year-old Anthony Hephard, otherwise called ‘Papa’; 17-year-old Everton McDonald; 20-year-old Anthony Kelly; 35-year-old taxi operator, Marvin Hawthorne; 23-year-old Dimitri Hyatt; 27-year-old Dwayne Francis; 18-year-old Michael McKenzie; 17-year-old Junior Daley; 24-year-old Phillip Parkinson; Remoll Wright; Junior Phipps; and Kimarley Kelleyman.

Of course intertwined in all of this are our same gender loving sisters who are the victims of corrective rape under the banner of gang rape as well where women are lured to meet fictitious persons from online social network sites like Facebook only to suffer at the hands of the perpetrators. CISOCA however is aware of the corrective type rapes in certain parishes on the strength of cases they were involved in. In a previous entry on this blog I covered extensively thanks to the persons involved corporation in shedding some light on this awful scourge on our same gender loving sisters

See: Serial rapist gets 29 years in rape ring, Look out my sisters

The issue also of privacy on the social networking sites and vigilance in who one engages on them was also looked at in that piece linked above, Please be careful friends.

Peace and tolerance

H

British diplomat admits UK’s historical responsibility for anti-gay laws

British High Commissioner Simon Bond speaks at an event yesterday to mark International Day Against Homophobia, with an image of Dr Robert Carr in the background. Carr, who died last week, is recognized for his fight to end discrimination against minority groups.

The British High Commissioner, Simon Bond, yesterday encouraged the government to make good on its commitment to hold consultations on the decriminalisation of sex between males, and other laws which discriminate against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people.

Bond’s call came with an acknowledgement that the British government bears historic responsibility for such legislation which has spawned discrimination against LGBT people.

He pointed to the British government’s efforts to end discrimination against the LGBT community, but said Britain, like almost every other country, used to have discriminatory legislation and practices against LGBT people until relatively recently.

“And those laws and attitudes, of course, were reflected in the way Britain administered its former colonies.
“So we clearly have some historical responsibility for the legislation that countries like Guyana inherited at independence,” Bond said.
He was speaking at an event held by the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), which has been leading calls for LGBT law reform.
Bond said it was shocking that 43 Commonwealth countries still criminalise homosexual behaviour.

The Government of Guyana committed at the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in Geneva in May last year to “hold consultations on this issue over the next two years.”
“We encourage progress on that and an open and constructive debate,” Bond stated.

SASOD yesterday joined 50 countries around the world to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), marking the anniversary of one of the most powerful steps in advancing human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people globally – the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness by the World Health Organization 21 years ago.
SASOD used the occasion to launch a documentary titled “My Wardrobe, My Right” which explores issues related to the criminalisation of cross-dressing in Guyana.

It captures the stories of two of the cross-dressers who were victims of Police crackdowns in February 2009, and also features views of SASOD and an attorney representing litigants who have filed a constitutional challenge against the country’s law which prohibit cross-dressing.
The goal of the documentary project, SASOD stated, is to create a more supportive socio-cultural environment for sexual and gender minorities through public education efforts which aim to mitigate stigma faced by these marginalised groups.
“It aims to create a supportive infrastructure by building a more enabling socio-cultural environment which encourages ordinary people to embrace these groups who are stigmatised because of sexual taboos and gender non-conformity,” SASOD declared.

Guyana’s laws criminalise cross-dressing. Section 153 (1) (xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act Chapter 8:02 makes an offence of ”being a man, in any public way or public place, for any improper purpose, appears in female attire, or being a woman, in any public way or public place, for any improper purpose, appears in male attire… ”
“This antiquated piece of legislation dates back to the 19th century colonial period, but is still being selectively enforced today – in the 21st century,” SASOD stated.
In 2006, Ronell Trotman, better known as ‘Pertonella,’ a cross-dressing sex worker, was fined for vagrancy and wearing female attire; $5000 for each offence.

And then between February 6 and 10, 2009, police detained at least eight people, some of them twice, charging seven of them under section 153 (1) (xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act Chapter 8:02.
On February 19, 2010, four cross-dressers and SASOD filed a notice of motion before the Supreme Court of Judicature for redress claiming, among other relief, to have section 153(1)(xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:02, invalidated as irrational, discriminatory, undemocratic, contrary to the rule of law and unconstitutional.
The matter is before the High Court.

SASOD yesterday also launched the inaugural issue of its quarterly newsletter, “Spectrum Vibes,” which is dedicated to the life and work of the late Dr. Robert Carr, who passed away last week.
Dr. Carr was the director of advocacy and policy of the International Council of AIDS Service Organisations (ICASO), co-chair of the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF), founder, co-chair and first executive director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC), former executive director of Jamaica AIDS Support and former coordinator of the Graduate Studies Unit at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, among many other affiliations.

Charter Breaches Human Rights says former Bar Ass. head

THE EDITOR, Sir:

ONE DAY after the world observed International Day Against Homophobia, Jamaica has found itself with a supposedly 'improved' Constitution that preserves discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The recently passed Charter of Rights does an extremely illiberal thing: it ensures that there can be no constitutional interpretation that challenges gay male laws which criminalise male homosexual sex. The charter preserves all that existed before.

We find ourselves at this place through the action of both major political parties. Popular resentment towards gays and lesbians means that politicians felt the need to pander to homophobia, said to exist among the majority of us, to win or maintain votes. Moral courage and objective leadership on this issue have been absent from within our Parliament.

We are now left with the consequences of this institutionalised discrimination. Our refusal to address homophobia will continue to make us a target for international criticism. Laws criminalising homosexual sex fly in the face ofour international human-rights obligations.

Our motto, 'Out of Many, One People', embraces all. This means that the Constitution ought to protect diversity and plurality. The fact that Parliament has voted to keep a legal regime in place, to keep gay people as second-class citizens, means we are content to have an unequal and unjust society.

I am, etc.,

ARLENE HARRISON HENRY

Attorney-at-law

Sexual & Gender Identity Disorders | APA’s proposed changes for DSM 5

A few notes before the quoted text.

• The big changes from the last revision (not from the last DSM) are that

1. they’ve dropped ‘gender incongruence’ and gone with ‘gender dysphoria’

2. they have added a ‘B’ criteria of distress and

3. they have added a ‘post-transition’ specifier.

• Version 5 of the book is due out May 2013
• the current commenting period will end on June 15, 2011.
• This is the APA DSM 5 (American Psychiatric Association) site. The APA “writes” the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)
• It’s important because this will be one of the key tools for how mental health professions view and define gender issues for the coming decade.
• 
  

The following is quoted from the APA site:

_________________________________________________________

Updated May 4, 2011

Gender Dysphoria (in Adolescents or Adults)**

A. A marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, of at least 6 months duration, as manifested by 2^* or more of the following indicators: 

1. a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or, in young adolescents, the anticipated secondary sex characteristics) 

2. a strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one’s experienced/expressed gender (or, in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics) 

3. a strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender

4. a strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

5. a strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

6. a strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

B. The condition is associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, or with a significantly increased risk of suffering, such as distress or disability**

Subtypes

With a disorder of sex development [14]

Without a disorder of sex development

Specifier**

Post-transition, i.e., the individual has transitioned to full-time living in the desired gender (with or without legalization of gender change) and has undergone (or is undergoing) at least one cross-sex medical procedure or treatment regimen, namely, regular cross-sex hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery confirming the desired gender (e.g., penectomy, vaginoplasty in a natal male, mastectomy, phalloplasty in a natal female).

Note: Three changes have been made since the initial website launch in February 2010: the name of the diagnosis, the addition of the B criterion, and the addition of a specifier.

Definitions and criterion under A remain unchanged.

St Vincent resists removing death penalty, buggery laws

Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves, said there was no public or legislative appetite to revise any of the laws that prohibit incest, prostitution, buggery and other sex acts. (UN Photo)

GENEVA, Switzerland, Monday May 16, 2011 – The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has given St Vincent and the Grenadines kudos for its progress in the fields of human rights and national development, but has made recommendations for other improvements, some of which the multi-island state has resisted.

The country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves, said in a statement yesterday that of 92 recommendations which the UNHRC made for national action and consideration, 17 which dealt mainly with the death penalty and laws relating to buggery were not accepted by the Government.

He said he’d told the Council that St. Vincent and the Grenadines could immediately accept 49 other recommendations, many of which were already being implemented by the government, while the other 26 recommendations would require further study by the government and wider consultation with the public before a response could be given.
This followed a Universal Periodic Review process which St. Vincent and the Grenadines participated in last week.

In a rigorous two-hour question-and-answer session between Ambassador Gonsalves and the members of the UNHRC, 33 countries asked questions and made recommendations.
Responding to questions on the death penalty, Ambassador Gonsalves explained that recent judicial decisions made it extremely difficult for executions to take place in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where the death penalty has not been applied in over 15 years. He later asserted out that a majority of the world’s peoples still live in countries that impose capital punishment.

A number of countries also called on the country to repeal all laws that criminalise sexual activities between consenting adults. However, Ambassador Gonsalves said there was no public or legislative appetite to revise any of the laws that prohibit incest, prostitution, buggery and other sex acts that could involve consenting adults.
Meantime, he said that St. Vincent and the Grenadines was widely praised for its progress in education, housing, health and development by members of the Council, many of whom urged the government to continue its good work in the interest of Vincentians.
Countries also asked the government to strengthen its protections of the disabled, juveniles, and victims of domestic violence.

The Universal Periodic Review provides an opportunity for all countries to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to overcome challenges to the enjoyment of human rights.
The countries are evaluated based on a National Report provided by their government, as well as information from the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, human rights treaty bodies, and Non-Governmental Organisations.


Read more: http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/425724.html#ixzz1MchRwYT9

Could HPV cause the death of oral pleasure

The ALL WOMAN section of the Observer presented this - NEWS of the link between oral sex and oral cancer isn't sitting well with persons who engage in the act — including teens and Christians who have believed for years that they could keep their virtue and remain pure, even while letting off steam by going down.
It was United States President Bill Clinton who verbalised what many people in many countries took as fact, when he failed, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal of the late 1990s, to categorise oral sex as real sex. He did finally, after much prodding, admit to sexual relations with Lewinsky, a White House intern, but before that, had tried to make a distinction between the oral sex he'd received and "real sex".



Similarly, many men who cheat use the line, insisting that cheating begins with penetration.

Thirty-seven-year-old Wayne W, who has been married for nine years, said he has never cheated on his wife. However, there are times when he is so stressed that he will visit his girlfriend, who is also married, and they will have guilt free oral sex.
"Oral sex only relieves pent-up tensions but that's not cheating," he reasoned. "If I kiss a woman I don't consider it cheating and oral sex is like kissing to me."
Similarly, Ann-Marie H recalled years ago as a teen when she would indulge in oral sex but held onto her virginity. She said while she felt some amount of guilt afterwards, she was also satisfied that she never had intercourse until years later when she got married.

But, according to new research, not only is oral sex responsible for one of the fastest spreading cancers around, but the incidences of oral sex related Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) cases are on the increase.
And for many persons, including those who have felt they were not ready for full-on sexual intercourse, and who have used it to relieve sexual tension, it's a problem that's spiralling out of control.
So bad is the problem, that more and more doctors are reporting seeing cases of women, hymens still intact, suffering from oral cancer and HPV, a virus known to cause cervical cancer. There are over 120 different types of HPV viruses with an approximate 40 types associated with infections/malignancies of the mouth and the genital tract -- including cervical diseases and oral cancer, anorectal cancer and penile cancer.
Gynaecologist at the Ripon Surgi-Centre Dr Charles Rockhead said that while persons are of the view that oral sex is not as risky as actual penetration sex, diseases can be spread. He explained that HPV can be transferred from the mouth to the genital tract in either the male or female by this method.

A study presented during an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in February suggested that HPV is being spread rapidly through oral sex and has outranked tobacco use and heavy drinking as the leading cause of 64 per cent of oral cancers among young American men.
Risk increased with the number of partners on which someone had performed oral sex.
"The study has shown that when a person, male or female has more than six partners with whom they have oral sex, there is a nine times increased risk of developing oral cancer," Dr Rockhead explained. "This is startling when compared to the risk associated with cigarette smoking which has a 2.5 to 3.0 times risk of oral cancer, and alcohol ingestion which is a 2.0 times risk."
He said if the practice of oral sex continues as it is now, there will be an epidemic of oral cancer.

"This is something that needs extensive public education about sexual practices so that we can have a change in how individuals -- young people and older people -- adapt themselves to prevent these things from happening," he said.
But with Jamaicans having finally embraced oral sex, it may be an uphill battle.
Dr Sidney McGill said as a practising sex therapist for over 20 years, he has seen increasing freedom in Jamaicans talking about sex, and an increase in the practice of fellatio and cunnilingus among persons who have secondary and post-secondary school training.
"The practice of choosing oral over penetrative sex is a practice carried out especially by the young who feel they are not ready for intercourse," he said.
He said young, unmarried Christians and persons who have extramarital affairs will have oral sex but not intercourse.

"Many secondary school students do not see oral sex as sexual intercourse and more readily engage in the practice since they believe that sexual intercourse involves vaginal penetration," McGill said. "The schools have been teaching a lot about safe sex, and so you find that children are aware of sex and sexual practices and they will say, 'if we can just do it in the schoolyard, after school, in an old building'... and to them that is safe sex or no sex at all.
"There are also the Christians, especially Christian young people who know that they are not supposed to have sex until they are married, and so they do have these sexual tensions and they get into relationships and the tensions get very high and they think they have to find some way of draining that tension off. And so oral sex comes in pretty handy there."
The solution? Dr McGill said the alternative to oral sex for Christians is to develop friendships and social liasions where there is no temptation.

For persons who do not have Christian restrictions, they should stick to one partner.
Because, as Dr Rockhead said, even a condom or dental dam does not necessarily prevent the transfer of the virus from one person to another, as even the rubbing of pubic hair to pubic hair can transfer it.
And the HPV vaccine only covers four or five of the sub types of the virus, and has only been tested for use against cervical cancer. Also, Dr Rockhead said, HPV is not widely tested for in Jamaica as it is done through the local DNA testing laboratory, and it is expensive.
"It is so expensive you can't test everybody and if you test and find you have it, what are you doing to do? So it is best to educate the population. Education is cheap," he said.