GLMA Calls for End to Nonconsensual Surgeries on Intersex Minors!

As GLMA states on their website: In what is believed to be a first for a US-based health professional association, GLMA recently revised its position statement on care for children with differences of sex development (DSD) to call for delay in any medically unnecessary surgical intervention until the patient can provide consent/assent to the treatment. The revised policy statement is being released to coincide with activities related to the 20th anniversary of Intersex Awareness Day.

GLMA was also among a host of organizations, including the Intersex Campaign for Equality, that signed a joint resolution this past Intersex Awareness Day, October 26th. The resolution reaffirmed the following three demands of the Third International Intersex Forum, in Malta, co-organized by ICE founder and director Hida Viloria:

1) All intersex people have the right to make their own decisions affecting their bodily integrity, physical autonomy, and self-determination.

2) Medically unnecessary treatment, surgeries, and sterilizations of intersex people should not occur without said intersex person’s full informed consent.

3) Intersex people and the families of children born with intersex traits should have access to non-pathologizing psychosocial and peer support.

We thank and commend GLMA for supporting intersex activists and people everywhere in our quest for self-determination and bodily integrity, and for being the first medical association in the United States to do so!

also see:

Jamaican Intersex (ambiguous genitalia) baby case a cause for concern

Despite opposition, EU Parliament votes for LGBTI rights/trans identity depathologization 

Peace & tolerance 

H

No gays allowed at freaky party with one sided bi-erasue by The National Family Planning Board (NFPB)

Micheal Brown, the promoter of a 'freaky sex party' which recently came under scrutiny by sexual health and religious authorities, has come out in defence of the event.

Brown said it is safe and has strict rules which all participants abide by. Among the most pertinent rules, he said is that no gay men are allowed.

Last Friday, THE STAR published a story in which Leo O'Reggio, the communications officer at The National Family Planning Board (NFPB), warned persons against attending the risque event slated to occur at a popular hotel in St Andrew next month because of the various health implications it could cause, and the possibility of being subjected to sexual abuse, sounds a bit sensational to me.

But the NFPB, in a statement yesterday, said it neither condones nor condemns the sexual decisions of mature consenting adults.

"We encourage all sexually active persons to protect themselves at all times as they practice responsible sexual decision making," the NFPB said.

Meanwhile, Brown has said there are 10 strict rules in place to prevent any such occurrences, and one of them is refusing to allow homosexual men into the venue.

"We have all kinds of patrons that attend the party. We don't discriminate. One thing, we have a big number one rule, no gay men are allowed, because it is a straight party," Brown said. 

So the NFPB is ignorant to bisexual men who may want to patronise the event not for men but for women, another classic case of bi-omission o bi-invisibility here it seems and the narrow-mindedness of some in HIV prevention and family planning yet still. Bisexual erasure or bisexual invisibility is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, news media and other primary sources. In its most extreme form, bisexual erasure can include denying that bisexuality exists.

"You can never know who is who, but if you see a little man coming into the event wah look like a sissy, a flash off him hand, we nah let him inna we party."

On the other hand, lesbians are welcome, the promoter said. "You know how we Jamaicans are. We don't really put any emphasis on a person that is a bi-female or a lesbian, but gay men, we don't put that into our thing," he said. The idiot should have said anal sex will not be allowed so as to avoid any legal or backlash from others in attendance, that I could have understood but the foolishness continues by some.

Brown said that over the several years that the party has been in existence, there has never been a mishap because of the strict rules and security measures taken. He said no underage individual is allowed to enter the venue. He also said no one is allowed to touch anyone without consent. He said that everyone who engages in sexual activities must wear condoms, and no phones or recording devised are allowed in the event.

Masks are also provided at the gate.

According to Brown, these rules are enforced by several bouncers who work inside the party and police officers who secure the venue.

The promoter of the event dubbed, 'Jamaica's biggest, hottest freaky party', said he was appalled that the NFPB would speak against the party, as the board has offered its services at the event for the past fours stagings by setting up a booth at the event to educate patrons and issue condoms.

Brown said that the board offers free human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and syphilis testing to all patrons prior to the event.

O'Reggio yesterday admitted that the NFPB's HIV outreach unit targets certain high-risk events and locations such as go-go clubs and 'Back Road' to educate at-risk people, so the board might have had representatives at the freaky party, but he is not aware of it.

Here we have another example of how national bodies need to get with it, while they wok with LGBTQ groups and such there is a serious need for enlightenment here it seems.

Peace & tolerance

H

also see:
'Girl-on-girl dancing out of hand' .......... what!

Homeless Awareness Month 2016 issues part 2

It is indeed a sad state of affairs when after some forty plus years of some kind of organized LGBT advocacy from Gay Freedom Movement to present, to include the HIV years in the 1990s and slow periods yet with all the hard and anecdotal evidence of stigma driven displacement and homelessness there is no proper response to same. The fundamental question as to why this is so is yet to be properly and honestly answered.

In part one on sister blog Gay Jamaica Watch the home of this annual feature the focus was on MSM and transgender to a certain extent, seeing that women never normally feature in forced evictions and or homelessness under the LGBT populations label. However as hinted in part 1 the growing challenge with women is evident more so than ever coupled with the under reporting or late reporting sometimes years after the fact; persons feel the available systems and or NGOs will not be able to identify with their issues so they supposedly suffer in silence or keep the information in a close network of friends.

Apart from the two women who have been struggling to find permanent accommodations linked to the ongoing weed whacking project in St Catherine most same gender loving women who find themselves in challenges tend to rely on a closely knit network of friends; as mentioned before on this blog women being the naturals social creatures they are tend to recover from these matters way better both generally and SGL specifically, the trust factor is way stronger between lesbians and bisexual women to a certain extent despite biphobia and bi-invisibility as highlighted in a previous post on Bi-visibility Day.

Unconfirmed reports also speak to an arson matter in St James as well after thugs have been demanding the woman and her roommates should move as they (the thugs) want the house, coupled with that are reports of persons being either forced to sell their properties under some form of duress or undue pressure via visits to push the deal/sale through and sadly supported by high powered attorneys-at-law. The hesitancy in reporting those issues is quite stark specific to that case as the feeling is the NGOs and those who serve them are too young to understand the complexities or may not be able to identify with the issues as the class divide comes into play as it does and have been doing for decades.

Numbers suggest an increase in reports as some five reports involving women as outcomes of forced evictions and death threats, as per usual confirmation is a challenge but sources in the police have been helpful.

Standout cases:

Lesbian in her twenties in St James forced to relocate from her home nearing Glendevon in St James and other residents as well as thugs declare war on other lotto scammers and a recent deportee who is intent on cleaning up the area of all ‘fish’ (derogatory term for effeminate men) and ‘man royal’ (derogatory term for masculine acting women) an earlier shooting of a man and his friend in nearby geography seems to suggest a festering of this recent surge in shootings in broad daylight; the pressure from the police, US diplomacy (with an FBI office now fully present) and or the lotto scam task force seems to be causing in fighting with factions employing gunmen to protect their interest; avenues for scamming dry up and LGBT persons either directly involved or not but are identified as such can and have been finding themselves in challenges.

LGBT event planning to a certain extent has not escaped the effects of the growing crime tinged with homophobia, a small bar and club (not Bubbles Bar private membership that I am a resident DJ at in Discovery Bay) operated by an older lesbian for her friends and visitors by the old and short lived Calabash Club location has had to close its doors and extortionists have paid her visit and claimed they are aware of the patrons who support her whilst demanding some $100k a month in exchange for protection. The operator has since closed since July especially after a shooting incident several miles away of a sixteen year old scammer at a birthday party he paid for of a two year old; the alleged perpetrators were part of the crew who attempted to extort the woman.

A small guest house also was visited by three men aboard a white car some time ago according to a Facebook post now deleted in August which caters to a myriad of guests including LGBT visitors looking for rustic scenery was forced to employ stronger security measures as the men were demanding money, deep mistrust with the police only adds more fuel to the issues, the rotation of police personnel only confirms that mistrust so impacted folks simply move so as to avoid any problems.

A recent shooting incident in early September of a male call centre employee who was gay has only sought to muddy the waters regarding what is really going on in Western Jamaica, he was cut down as he exited a taxi and had been according to reports a target of verbal abuse, threats and pressure to either get involved in scamming or do more for the thugs who were aware of his association to the call centre business.

I found myself despite financial challenges offering some temporary accommodation to two persons since this year in one month stints each. They both encountered difficulties culminating from prolonged tense relations with community, family members and in-laws.

Even as this issues attend reports of forced evictions are around, mistakes on social media and or poor monitoring if not scuttling of online profiles lead to unintended outcomes. The use or misuse of older homeless persons for all kinds of things by some is so distasteful including photo shoots by foreign photographers; while the men as subjects for the most part remain homeless struggling to eek out a living mostly by commercial work and said photographers and so called pro-lgbt artists get paid via royalties but somehow it does not trickle down to the homeless used as subjects in their work. Repeated clashes with female commercial sex workers especially with the CSW explosion overall in New Kingston yet again proves the urgent need for proper interventions from both governmental and NGOs who are as in recent times very well funded yet not on the ground results. Said clashes also have traversed to Portmore’s infamous hip strip as we say ‘more water than flour’ groups and individuals clash for ‘business’ and with the appearance of a novelty of cross dressers openly operated assigned females feel threatened in a sense coupled with transwomen as it were who use inappropriately birth control pills and so on to feminize their look as they cannot afford legitimate hormonal courses.

Kingston's Mayor Burke receive Death Threats... so she claims yet with all her optics with JFLAG and such claiming she is concerned she cannot deal with homelessness citywide; some over a 1000ft westwards from her Church Street Mayor's office, infront of all places the Supreme & Appeals court also seen as the hallowed halls of justice buildings as seen below. 

homeless man on bench

How is she therefore going to address MSM/transgender homelessness that requires specialist interventions when the very JFLAG isn't showing any forward momentum on this for so many years?

Immediate service needs attention are not enough.

Proposals sit idly, unused with good recommendations conceptualised by then eager volunteers but as is the issue on a national scale reports abound but the action items or recommendations do not get the light of day. It seems as if some just want to use the homeless for superficial reasons for photo reels on Facebook yet no real change comes by way of the impacted persons. Asking a homeless person to be a part of some online campaign as this person as to either suck a dick to find the next meal or such whilst offering mere tokenistic gestures by way of feeding programs that only foster a dependency is so unethical. If the populations feel that Aunty so and so or Uncle so and so are coming with a care package or cook food then how can the groups feel to move towards some self efficacy? A recent so called small business effort where snacks and such were offered for sale to some of the persons has since fizzled and I am worried that such dependency driven responses can lead to entitlement issues later and as history has taught us breaking of attention can have disastrous effects.

The wave of outlets who claim to be registered as NGO such as Dwayne’s House, Larry Chang Centre names after JFLAG co-founder whom I and some others have lost faith in and Colour Pink where it founder found it necessary to run away from Jamaica all seem dead in the water. One can understand the funding constraints and resource challenges but sheesh all of them are linked to powerful NGOs yet no cohesive response, again as asked in my opening on this entry why this so, why is isn’t there any serious interest? The focus seems to be the more combatively attractive law reform focus or atheism to justify opposition to antigay religious fanatics while a visible outcome of the very homophobia outfits so designed to address just keep homelessness on the periphery. Instead such stay in the comfort of social media as it is way easier to manipulate whilst lulling persons into a false sense of security with superficial hash tags, tweets and such that really matters none in the final analysis.

Mayors have made grandstanding pronouncements on social media and elsewhere of concerns for LGBT homelessness whilst carrying out removal exercises of same, yet we are to believe that a mayor like their predecessors who could not address city wide homelessness as it exists some 1000 ft literally from the office in Kingston expects us to believe that a marginalised group often underground and who require specialist interventions will be addressed by said office! Even as the group the mayor was seen at and made the announcement is not interested in direct interventions, who do these folks, think they are fooling?

Finding good solutions as these many years has shown is still problematic when the persons who control the cogs of HIV and LGBT advocacy simply do not care, they do not have to worry about where the next meal will come from or whether if it rains or a storm as we are in the hurricane season will re-displace them, as for the rest of the LGBT populations some have dismissed homelessness as someone else’s problem. But hope remains while company is true as some forward thinking is still resident out there, despite the slow disappearance of those who would help due in part to the media pigeon-holing of the Kingston populations some are seeing the issues for what it is, urgent.

More anon

Peace & tolerance

H

also see:

VACANT AT LAST! SHOEMAKER GULLY: DISPLACED MSM/TRANS PERSONS WERE IS CLEARED DECEMBER 2014

the CVM NEWS Story HERE on the previous eviction/raid taken by the police

Housing Minister seeks funds for Shelter from NHT Money ....... Will the LGBT Homeless be Assisted?

also see a flashback to some of the troubling issues with the populations and the descending relationships between JASL, JFLAG and the displaced/homeless GBT youth in New Kingston: Rowdy Gays Strike - J-FLAG Abandons Raucous Homosexuals Misbehaving In New Kingston

also see all the posts in chronological order by date from Gay Jamaica Watch HERE and GLBTQ Jamaica HERE

GLBTQJA (Blogger): HERE

see previous entries on LGBT Homelessness from the Wordpress Blog HERE

May 22, 2015 update, see: MP Seeks Solutions For Homeless Gay Youth In New Kingston yet to date: NOTHING! 

must read: And we continue to reap the world-wind for not addressing homelessness when it was manageable

Transgender Awareness Week 2016 ...............

Transgender Awareness Week, typically observed the first two full weeks of November, is a two-week celebration leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), which memorializes victims of transphobic violence. TDOR occurs annually on November 20, when transgender advocates raise awareness of the transgender community through education and advocacy activities. The first week begins with third parties hosting events at venues surrounding a main central venue, followed the second week by more venues at the main area showcasing more and more in-depth events. The purpose of Transgender Awareness Week is to educate about transgender and gender non-conforming people and the issues associated with their transition or identity.

Given recent utterances by anti LGBT voices namely Dr Wayne West of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, JCHS and others declaring transpersons as 'mad' and getting traction from it I decided for this year to look at what transgenderism is all about to include some links to previous posts.

Dr West specializes in demonizing persons while claiming he is a Christian yet uses terms glibly such as gender dysphoria and claiming that advocates are stiffing 'freedoms of speech' yet he is quite prepared to support Donald Trump's campaign for US President despite his stances that are disturbing to say the least. On Love 101FM today he reiterated his support and claimed his competition Hilary Clinton will continue where Obama left off by pushing abnormality on everyone else.

for example:

WHO set to declassify trans identity as mental disorder…but is it enough?

Aphrodite's P.R.I.D.E Jamaica, APJ Launches website

Transgender Awareness Month .......... Diva Whitney & more

Thoughts on coming out transgender to family

The difficult task of separating drag culture from transgender identity ..... 2013

Coming Out for A Trans Person ..........

Transgender people are people who have a gender identity, or gender expression, that differs from their assigned sex.

Transgender people are sometimes called transsexual if they desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another. Transgender is also an umbrella term: in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex (trans men and trans women), it may include people who are not exclusively masculine or feminine (people who are genderqueer, e.g. bigender, pangender, genderfluid, or agender). Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. Infrequently, the term transgender is defined very broadly to include cross-dressers, regardless of their gender identity.

Being transgender is independent of sexual orientation: transgender people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, etc., or may consider conventional sexual orientation labels inadequate or inapplicable. The term transgender can also be distinguished from intersex, a term that describes people born with physical sex characteristics "that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".

The degree to which individuals feel genuine, authentic, and comfortable within their external appearance and accept their genuine identity has been called transgender congruence. Many transgender people experience gender dysphoria, and some seek medical treatments such as hormone replacement therapy, sex reassignment surgery, or psychotherapy. Not all transgender people desire these treatments, and some cannot undergo them for financial or medical reasons or physiologies are not capable of handling the bombardment of hormones needed maintain post transitioning.

Most transgender people face discrimination at and in access to work, public accommodations, and healthcare. They are not legally protected from discrimination in many places.

also see:

Transgender Awareness Week: Taboo Yardies Screening in Kingston

Transgender Awareness Week 2013 ..........

Peace & tolerance

H