J-FLAG Disappointed With PM's Unfulfilled Promise, Though She Remains Best Hope

also check out: Promised Conscience Vote on Buggery in Jamaica was a fluke, Sexual Offences Bill to be updated 2014

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Even as gays frown on Prime Minister Portia Simspon Miller's dawdling in the fulfilment of her promise to review the buggery law, they remain convinced that Jamaica's first female head is still their best hope of legislating the much-needed change for the lesbian, gays, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

It has been two years since Simpson Miller, then the opposition leader, commanded riveting attention from members of the LGBT community, when she boldly promised that she would facilitate a conscience vote in Parliament on the controversial issue. Simpson Miller's response in the 2011 leadership debate appeared to be one up on the then prime minister, Andrew Holness.

But today, the issue remains one of several election promises made on the night of the verbal clash with Holness that is yet to be fulfilled.

Dane Lewis, the executive director of the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), acknowledged that the question posed to both leaders had placed Holness at a distinct disadvantage.

"It couldn't have been said by anyone else other than a woman at that time, so she was the best person," he told a Gleaner Editors' Forum yesterday.

Added Lewis: "She (Simpson Miller) is still the best person to lead on it, but it's just unfortunate that she hasn't made any more pronouncements until she is pressed by the media fraternity on the issue."

GLEEFUL

Lewis asserted that in 2011, gays were gleeful, not just because Simpson Miller promised a review of the buggery law, but also because of a promise that she wouldn't bar anyone from her Cabinet on the grounds of sexual orientation.

"If I had felt sufficiently comfortable where I was at the time, I would have jumped and screamed," declared Lewis.

The question on sexual tolerance, asked in the lead-up to the December 2011 general election, was sparked by the controversial "not in my Cabinet" statement of former Prime Minister Bruce Golding in 2008.

A clearly irritated Golding was, on May 20, 2008, responding to a persistent line of questioning from BBC's 'Hardtalk' host Stephen Sackur, with respect to the prospects of homosexuals playing a role within the executive arm that he once led.

But 35 months and numerous parliamentary sittings later, Simpson Miller's promised conscience vote remains an elusive dream to the gay community.

This has not gone down well with Lewis, who said Simpson Miller still has a chance of redeeming herself.

"Now, in 2013, the clock is ticking on what's next … . We keep getting this goalpost that is moving," the he said. "The latest we heard is that it's going to be in 2014, so we anxiously await."

also see:PNP’s Bobby Pickersgill differs on Conscience Vote route to decide on Buggery Law

MoBay Church Fraternity Says No To Buggery Review

PNP's Damion Crawford says it's highly unlikely buggery review will happen ........ it's not important now

PNP's Damion Crawford on Homosexuality's legality ...............

CVM TV @ Sunrise on the Buggery review & JFLAG's 100 days hope for meeting with PM

PNP Wins ................Hope for LGBT People ???

No to buggery! - Young candidates oppose relaxing laws, but want more education on subject (including PNP members)

Opposition sides with Govt on No to same sex marriage (when the PNP was in opposition)

Mark Wignall on Buggery law review promise was a political sham

AJ Nicholson now the foreign affairs Minister was strongly opposed to homosexuality and the removal of the buggery law as captioned in the cartoon and the PNP also was clear on their opposition to gay marriage although no one asked for said rights. See also: In the closet we must stay it seems ........ 

Gleaner cartoonist Lasmay weighed in as well with this clip:

Homeless MSM in New Kingston arrested in raid for stolen goods

THIS POST IS SUBJECT TO UPDATES

Here we are again this old familiar place as the homeless MSM in New Kingston makes news again for all the wrong reasons as they continue to be left out in the cold by uncaring agencies and those who choose tokenism over serious interventions to help the men recover to some semblance of regularity in their lives. A day after Homeless Awareness Month come to think of it and now this.

We also see some deceptive crisis reporting by some in advocacy on this as it was shown as a breaking news item some time ago yet it turned out to be a lie.

Some of the men had to be jerked awake by the police team. (PHOTOS: JOSEPH WELLINGTON , the bit about describing the men as gay by the media is small crumbs compared to the egregious hypocrisy we see before us.

The Observer reported:

THE men, exhausted from partying all night, lay on makeshift beds in the gully that cuts beneath Trafalgar Road in New Kingston — dead to the police officers around them.

Commanding officer Christopher Murdoch lowered a ladder in the gully and led three of his men in. The stench overpowering.

A high-heeled boot lay at the edge of the gully, inches from a make-up kit and a piece of silver costume jewellery.

Inside the gully, curtains served as a temporary wall on one side. As eyes adjusted to the dark, men clad in women's clothing, blonde wigs, eyelids heavy with false lashes, acrylic fingernails and 'bleached' faces could be seen sprawled, fast asleep.

Murdoch shouted instructions for the men to get up, but they didn't budge and had to be jerked awake.

At the end of the one-hour operation, which started at midday, eight homosexuals believed to be involved in a series of robberies in the New Kingston area were taken into custody and transported to the Half-Way-Tree Police Station.

A number of stolen items were recovered, the police said in a release hours after the raid.

Additionally, the release listed five homosexual men — who the police said frequent New Kingston — as persons of interest in a number of robberies.

The men are known only by the aliases: 'Marlene Malaboo-Forte', 'Michelle', 'Pebbles', 'Goodas', and 'Bat Man'.

The operation was conducted by a police team from the New Kingston Police Post, the St Andrew Central Division, and Delta Special Operations on Antigua and Trafalgar roads — across from the NCB Atrium — and culminated on Dumfries and Ruthven roads.

The raids were met with howls of approval from passing motorists and pedestrians, who said that the men had been a nuisance and should have been long been removed.

"Dem rob people like wow out here a night time," said one onlooker, obviously annoyed.

As the police took the men out of the gully, which runs along Trafalgar Road, a man came asking the police if his brother was among the lot of gay men. He was not.

Another man, who said he was a teacher, queried whether one of his former students was among the alleged offenders.

"I hope you are not in there!" shouted the man, as he called out the boy's name.

"He's a former student who left high school with subjects and come get involved in this," the man explained.

Commandant Murdoch, in turn, asked whether the student was present.

The student, too, was not there.

The men were led, one after the othe,r up the ladder, handcuffed, and placed in the back of a waiting police van.

"Come 'Goodie'," said a female police officer as she helped one of the men out of the gully.

"Weh you a draw mi so fah?" asked the young man as the female officer held him by his filthy-looking shirt.

"You're quicker than me," the policewoman responded.

The men hid their faces as they were taken out of the gully and placed in the van. One warned the police against burning his personal items, which included female clothing.

The pointing of a television camera at the men in the police van sparked a protest. "Turn off the camera now, nuh!" one of the detained men shouted.

Another started wagging his tongue while being recorded. "Why you nuh come closer mek me spit ina de camera?" he taunted the cameraman.

"Why you nuh do it from there?" the cameraman shot back. "Please, mi a beg yuh!"

"The cold (spit) nah go get fi damage it," the remanded man said, before the cameraman walked off.

The men were then whisked away to the police station.

Commandant Murdoch promised that more operations would follow.

"We will continue to carry out these snap operations to find those who are robbing people in the New Kingston area," Murdoch told the Jamaica Observer.

ENDS

TVJ carried the raid:

notice that it is the same Superintendent who has been in fairness trying to also get involved in finding some solution when he appeared in the discussion program All Angles alongside business interests from New Kingston, see below:

here are two other videos from the last eviction from the upscale Millsborough Avenue house earlier in 2013 that repeatedly made news thus leaving some of the men to live in the gully/drain that they were removed from on December 1st, how many more stories like this must we continue to see while big LGBT agencies and advocates do not care? Also the same gully known as "The gulf" is also used by substance abusers.

also see from October in the previous raid: The toss up between MSM homelessness & public order makes news again 

and A claim on How to help homeless LGBT Jamaicans ......

Concerns for HIV prevalence rate in MSM in Jamaica & connected matters

see this other video recently shot by a supposed member of the group who are seeking donations to a church site captioned below:

the details of the project is missing, the target amount(s) as most campaigns ought to have is not there, the essence of the project is not shown so what are persons being asked to donate to and those who do not have a paypal account how do they donate?

You decide readers if we are seeing a genuine concern or another farce parading as concern when the persons behind the thrust such as Maurice Tomlinson say they have been around in advocacy for over twelve years yet they never saw homelessness in the MSM community until now? especially owing to the fact that they sat on the Board of the very agency that insisted on the closure of the safe house pilot project and chose not to intervene then but what for now to do so! .............. how opportunistic. It is deception like this over the years that has ate into the credibility of the lobby and we wonder why no campaigns seem to resonate with the ever cynical public or they simply do not accept the constant hue and cry of "homophobia" with alarmist crisis reporting instead of balanced objective analysis and advocacy. It is becoming a little sickening now as to note that the relevant changes to our laws could have been well closer to fruition or even happened (decriminalization) if it weren't for some serious mistakes and individuals with big egos in the way.

UPDATE from 76crimes site more deceptive crisis reporting but some members of the public have caught on to the trick, case in point this comment:

see the article here: Jamaican police seize, burn donations to LGBT youths

My comment I added which I doubt would be published was as follows:

More deceptive crisis reporting to get attention on a matter that has been around for so many years when these same opportunists were consulted they turned their backs yet it is now some activists who turned up their noses at the very group see them? 

what a convenient distraction from the tolerance ad case and the fact that it was thrown out of the supreme court revealing some issues that some do not want the scrutiny searchlight to be turned on to, case in point the amendment of the plead in the middle of the trial knowing fully well that the PBCJ in particular does not take paid ads by virtue of section 4 of the act that brought it into being and also the fact that the lawyers for all three stations intend to apply for costs to be awarded to them and paid by the claimant photographed above.


Not all of us can be fooled or diverted.

Check out this flashback podcast/commentary to 2012 where a television interview with persons from the NGO claiming to help homeless MSM was poorly executed:

Peace and tolerance

H