Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society gets worked up over a phonebook!

sure he's not! a former headline on the group in 2013 in the Gleaner

Yet again we are subjected to total nonsense from the goodly folks at the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society to laughable proportions. The selectivity indeed hypocrisy of this entity and its colleagues at its predecessor Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, Lovemarch, Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches and Montego Bay Ministers’ Fraternal to name a few have all been trying to latch on to issue they can find to legitimise their piety yet often end up in abject failure with a captive audience laughing with popcorn spillages to boot. The age old criticisms thrown at the JCHS et al is that they have only strength for homosexuals and the so called LGBT lobbyists but are silent on virtually everything else, especially after the Gleaner headline “We’re Not Crazy” some time ago which pin pointed the nonsensicality of the group’s advocacy; nothing on the corruption front, nothing on clerical abuse or very persons in the pastoral and priesthood care yet very little as a dribble, nothing on lotto scamming and the involvement of so called pastors directly or indirectly via ‘spiritual protection’ from enemies or police capture, then there is the pastors themselves who are forced into silence with a now infamous bombing of a church just because the pastor spoke out on the illegal activity.

The silence on church abuse by the very pastors themselves of psychologically weak church sisters and indeed brothers as well even while promoting celibacy, fearmongering and intellectual dishonesty on HIV/AIDS rates from especially foreign sources. Now comes the headline, what a waste on the part of the JCHS when more important matters scream for attention. By the way who uses phonebooks these days when smartphones are in and APPS assist in locating persons plus WhatsAPP, SNAPchat and so on that may eventually eliminate the need for a hard copy directory in the long run? When groups such as Women’s Media Watch WMW discusses objectification of women in media as they have done for years where oh where these ‘church groups’ to aid the awareness.

The Gleaner carried this by Jovan Johnson:

the actual cover proposed for 2017 that caused the uproar

the new or alternate cover

Jamaica's church lobby has forced the publishers of the 2017 Yellow Pages to produce an alternative version of the telephone directory because of an "offensive" dancehall depiction it says is spreading "wrong" values.

The Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society led the campaign against the directory, which Global Directories Ltd was hoping would celebrate indigenous Jamaican music.

The depiction at the centre of the controversy shows a reggae scene with scantily clad women dancing with men at what appears to be a typical street session.

"We have challenges with our young people in terms of the values, the conduct that they are being exposed to. We thought that what was displayed there wasn't something that was beneficial," said Dr Wayne West, chairman of the coalition.

"We didn't think that scene, which was sort of a dancehall scene, was ideal. It wasn't the best thing that could have been done for the Yellow Pages - something which is so widely distributed and which is supposed to be the product of a company that should be seeking to elevate rather than to encourage behaviour that is not necessarily ideal."

Yesterday, Ian Neita, chief executive officer of Global Directories, said while the company would not apologise for using the scene, it understood the Christian group's concerns.

"In our response to their letter, we apologised for offending them because it was not the intention to offend them. We're not accepting that the depiction was offensive because that is a matter of interpretation," Neita told The Gleaner.

"We have provided an alternative cover for institutions such as churches and schools. Anybody who is offended by that depiction, they'll have a choice in having a replacement," he said, adding that the controversial depiction done by Raymond Jackson would remain in circulation.

Three directories are printed for Jamaica yearly: one for Kingston and St Andrew, an islandwide publication, and one residential. The controversial picture is on the cover of the directory for Kingston and St Andrew.

Ska is on the residential directory, while the scene depicting reggae is displayed on the islandwide copy.

In the reggae scene, scantily clad women are shown dancing with men at what appears to be a typical street dance.

Neita said that the company admitted that there's a "commercial and principled" aspect to the decision to print an alternative version.

"A church may be listed in the book [and] once they advertise in the book. In a kind of way, they become a co-sponsor. If it were a private magazine that we were putting forward in the public space, I think it would be a little bit different. I don't think we're resiling from a principled position by saying, 'Hey, I'll give you an alternative'."

Questioned on whether the company was setting a bad precedent by appeasing the church group, Neita said the "power" of the local religious lobby could not be ignored.

"In our society, the Church is a powerful lobby. We are a society that is fundamentally based on Christian principles. I don't think it's something that we can disregard. I'd like to think we kind of took the high road rather," he said.

"We still ended up having both (genres of music)."

Meanwhile, dancehall expert Dr Donna Hope said she did not see anything wrong with the scene.

"Dancehall culture is a very important part of Jamaican youth culture, and a dancehall scene on the front of the Yellow Pages, I and others thought it was an appropriate kind of image in a country where dancehall continues to provide response to and information about who we are as a people."

She said West has questions to answer.

"I would question Dr West on what children are exposed to in Jamaica and also wonder if Dr West is aware of the longevity of dancehall in Jamaica and the similarity in terms of his comment with that of many others."

The University of the West Indies senior lecturer added: "I would also want to find out if it is that Dr West, as a clergyman who is aware of the various challenges that we face in Jamaica, with multiple aspects of the socialisation planks, has also taken to task other critical aspects of our society that have been impacting our young people."

Neita declined to give the cost of the reprinting.

ENDS

Dr Wayne West and company seems to forget this is a free country where there is separation of church of state, this is not a theocracy; fearmongering on a simple artwork that is also representing older concepts of dancehall, yes I agree that appropriateness overall in other spaces where children maybe exposed is important but the photo(s) are tame compared to what children are exposed to on social media via smartphones that are not monitored and present dancehall aesthetics. Because the photos reflect the bowels of the people elitists such as Dr West would want to suppress expressions, the photo is not racy as now and is not relevant to the current context of dancehall. The age difference or generation gap is clear here as the values of older persons who mostly populate these anti gay and fanatical groups is way different and ever changing than todays ‘millennials’ generations as they are called they do not even use phonebooks some may not even know what such an item is; it is near obsolete and relevant to an older demographic as laptops (slowly going out of style as well) smartphones, tablets, fablets and possibly wireless personal communications in the touted forms of a cyborg type are coming as talk of such are here. Even church people are using Bible APP instead of a hard copy of the Bible and one has to ask where does this man and his foolish followers live? They are used more so for propping short people on a bench per say or just to decorate the coffee table at home or so.

Do we hear teens or kids ask for a phonebook!

This whole ugly mess is sheer nonsense and somebody needs to tell Dr West where he and his cronies should go jump off. In the words of Dennis Brook this morning on his ‘What’s on my mind’ segment on Nationwide, “Shut your pie-hole” JCHS just makes honest peaceful church folks look bad as the ‘church’ gets labelled overall as silly or behind the times. Sad the rest of the church community who seem not to want to ruffle the feathers of some stay silent when crap like this occur.

‘Nuff said.

Peace & tolerance

H

also see:
Leighton Levy on Gays are not our problem .... JCHS told to check the mirror

Ronnie Thwaites’ rubbish on flying rainbow flags grooms children into “particular lifestyle”


Christians say ... Don't force gay agenda on them ........ lol  

Hypocrisy from the religious bigots .. 

Silent on murders, vocal about gays 

Is this a joke .... Church group denies gay bias 

Healthy coalition nonsense! indeed

On World AIDS Day ....

As another World AIDS Day comes again we are left to ponder the loss of friends, colleagues and such from the related illnesses that have come over the years. Thankfully the days of said categories of persons dropping like flies in the late 1980s and 90s, when ones funeral clothes almost became uniforms as there was a service or two every month literally; the stores in downtown for example such as the now closed Rock-bottom or Hannah’s Better Buy, Lerner Shops, Ammars, Amart and others the staff could almost recognise some of us by virtue of our regular visits looking black shirts/pants/ties, dresses/hats (alongside women friends as a ‘guise to buy) for drag queens/cross-dressers and early trans-women. Some of us got so used to wearing black it became depressing, it is one of the reasons why I do not do funerals or candlelight vigils so much anymore that much as they remind me too much of those who have gone before. Like previous years we will have vigils and such again but in my near 25 years on this I am wondering if they have lost their usefulness or it is weariness on my part? Not sure, it’s starting to feel monotonous as the human component seems lost in translation but more so target meeting imperatives, statistics and analytics with social media explosion and despite these avenues rates are still high in MSM/transgender groups.

Once someone was missing from the social scene especially the folks from the lower socio-economic strata and displaced of homeless and one enquired, if the answer was there are at ward three of the Kingston Public Hospital, KPH or at the Chest Hospital for respiratory challenges, at UHWI or at someone’s house withering away as the host(s) watch helplessly then the colloquial adage would follow “dem have big A mi luv” (they have the big A as in AIDS my dear) or “dem a guh dung” (they are going down) and the inevitable would be forthcoming. The drugs or treatment courses then were not so effective then so quality of life was low, hence life expectancy as most persons I know who were taken were in their twenties or early thirties. KPH at one point became almost a holding pattern facility for persons at end stages of the disease intertwined with staff discrimination complicating matters. Some change has come since but the stigma still sits somewhere there and every now and again it rears its ugly head.

Gaëtan Dugas

At least one of the redeeming events of the year is the clearing of the ‘Patient zero’ (above) legacy and years of negative press where he was blamed for being the sole carrier and disseminating HIV in the US hence a spread. Why it took so long to right-size is yet to be properly and truthfully explained.

The side effects of the older generations of ARV or HAART such as Combivir AZT helped some but doomed others but the present first, second and third line courses are much better namely Atripla or Truvada with Efivarenz (EFV), the administration of the treatment courses especially from the regional health authorities through type 5 clinics and social workers is much to be desired frankly. The aforementioned Tenofovir as part of Atripla or Truvada in the form of Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF) is an issue for some, the newer Tenofovir Alafedamide (TAF) however that was presented as a better alternative with little migratory side effects from one to the other according to some experts was mysteriously left to the realm of treatment naive users only after much hype for the release of newer brands such as Genvoya. Many raised hopes around the world were dashed as persons who could afford it through their practitioners were exploring the migration from TDF to TAF. What has also happened to the much touted second generation maturation inhibitor that was to come to address the end stage of HIV replication and a major development in research in years? We are now hearing complaints of funding issues with research and development yet vaccine exploration in guinea pig land our dear Africa are on yet again.

The sudden stuttering of the support group meetings in St Catherine, Manchester and further westwards is one such issue also for me in terms of adherence and overall well-being, oh that continuity problem again. An pilot of sorts named ‘Brothers’ Positive on Positive’ was introduced in the lost or no-meeting times to compensate for not only continuity gap but also the missing depth of the meetings via the social workers as it turns out they are all but one evangelical Christians hence certain other sensitive subject matters are either not dealt with or are off limits and are not ventilated. Meanwhile patients are also now being asked to travel sometimes long distances to pharmacies outside their parish to fill prescriptions as dispensaries at clinics and hospitals are limiting who they are responding too albeit for the disabled, injured or critically ill persons is understandable. But ‘able-bodied’ persons as one social worker told one person recently have to go as directed to fill their prescriptions. The Drug Serv pharmacies which were designed to help offset costs are already crammed by the elderly mostly who wait for long hours as early as 5am or pay someone or ask someone to hold a space to have an early number to coincide with the 8am openings at Portmore, Union Square in Cross Roads for diabetic and hypertensive drugs mainly.

The availability of other supportive materials such as Iron tablets, B-complex capsules, Co-Trimoxazole (Bactrim) for infections of skin and so on is fickle; more amore complaints come to hand as prescriptions carry over with them not acquired although the kind doctors still write them on the list and suggest buying them. Trouble is not everyone can although they may be considered ‘cheap’ the announcement on Jamaica Information Service, JIS that more pharmacies will be added to the National Health Fund, NHF and HIV drugs to offer cheaper drugs seems calming for some but if the aforementioned clinics and dispensaries are not doling out the drugs generally and the overburdened Drugserv outlets I wonder how the government is going to fund the co-payment for private pharmacies facilitate this new dispensation according to the present health minister when we hear criticisms by even doctors of general shortages linked to or caused by “free healthcare” zapping monies from taxes. Many of us are still weary via announcement-ti-tis from previous announcements and that pharmacies closer to the patients will be made available instead of out of parish trips to fill prescriptions.

Of course the usual all is well nice rosy picture is painted by some complete with a please puss smile and altered or bettered versions individuals and entities that all is well and functioning near perfectly. Everyday some new group is around yet all of them combined cannot make one functioning unit, yet the rates are stagnant; while ‘experts’ boast about achievements on flowery worded radio and television interviews complete with farcical hypocrisy. And why are most of persons living with AIDS PLWHAs not feeling the presence of some of these groups on the ground?

Remembering good folks ................

Persons such as Leonard Officer my best friend and literally the voice for Jamaica AIDS Support (before the name adjustment of “For Life”) added at the end, hence JASL, one would call the office and his calming voice would answer the phone, even if your day was down at the time of the call the reassurance was comforting always given a warm customer experience in engaging the entity when they meant something for all intents and purposes, many can attest to this. Other friends such as former party promoter Donald “Fay Donnaway” Johnson who left us Good Friday 2001 was also one of those bubbly persons who jumped around and helped others then, including me in my difficult years 1996 post the short incarceration and three year court case on buggery; a total stranger to me prior but he turned up at Half Way Tree Court during my preliminary hearings and stuck with us (my co-accused) until the end and we with him as he died at home peacefully.

World AIDS Day indeed Human Rights work and observances of days have become monotonous to some including me, the stridency that once obtained in terms of prevention seems too relaxed and indeed populations have become too complacent given the lack of shock outcomes if you will to jolt persons into safety. As AIDS and related illnesses outcome can be controlled way better life expectancy has effectively doubled so people get or feel they can be reckless without serious consequences. But even as those matters attend ‘HIV blaming’ is also still an issue it seems as a pending court case has brought to bear. A pending court ruling slated for December 9 of a beheading case in 2012 has returned the issue front and centre.

As for the rates of infections in the midst of ever changing nongovernmental organizations growing in numbers, be they social media based or on the ground but they cannot seem to be in one accord to reduce said rates. The juxtaposing of bureaucracies, carrot baiting funders and such continue with no end in sight as the rates do not change. 32% effectively is the set number for the past 8 years since the snowball study in 2007 of MSM in Kingston in terms of prevalence rate and another 32,000 plus in the general populations are said to be unaware of their status with a prevalence rate of 1.6%, female sex workers coming from 25% down to 2.5% Mandeville and St Andrew of 201 subjects.

Homelessness via stigma, forced evictions and homophobia has surfaced at every phase of that study and others hence yet the NGO republic as is being cynically described in some circles of the intelligentsia have simply watched the problem fester and mature to a stinking sore in predominantly Kingston and elsewhere, yet very little by way of welfare has come but when HIV studies are to be conducted suddenly the populations are found and put to good use for reports and such. Then they are left to continue where they left off prior to the privileged visits. Strange that homelessness existed even before the formation of many of these NGOs some 25 years ago yet no serious answer yet, interest or the lack thereof is the elephant in the room interspersed with tokenistic gestures as feeding programs or care packages and after consuming the content the population is right back where they were found.

Coming from the days when fat lies were told to suggest MSM cannot be reached by interventions as the buggery law will interfere with such suggesting the facilitation of illegality which played right into the hands of the fanatic Christian right movement, and that issuing condoms will give a go ahead for anal sex that is illegal then we wonder why the prison riots of 1997 came to be when suggestions were made to have condoms in prisons, that has now been debunked thankfully, outside of that is the politics internationally (Tenofovir developments – TDF/TAF switch-a-roo for example) that is another matter, and as for PrEP (the chemical condom psychology ethics) that is unfolding even as I type meanwhile less persons are dying but with newer figures coming out recently of so called concerns on transgender infections rates the old figures have always been questioned especially by me, other early transgender activists and allies as the traditional ‘lumping’ of transgender in the MSM mapping as they are absorbed as gay or present as gay (male to female) and are made invisible by default or under the radar in terms of detailing specific (sub) groups. There is also the business of internal stigmatizations as for example persons are still doing this practice of taking photos of their negative test results and then cussing out or ‘bitching’ others who are positive which may help to complicate the matter if getting persons to test and safer sex eventually.

The aforementioned bureaucracy comes in here yet again as the lack of sensible programs when transgender were never engaged in any meaningful way until recently could explain why the rate was so high and stayed so for so many years. Specific groups require ‘outside the box’ responses and not the typical textbook and superficial interventions. The pigeon-holing every now and again of bisexuals as “a bridge for the virus” by epidemiologists past and present over the years outside of the creative responses and implied biphobia, bi-stigma yet bi-omissions, not to mention very little dribble regarding lesbians and risk for from program development or LGBT advocacy is just simply ridiculous and then we wonder why the rates won’t budge downwards since whenever. Simply relying on the mainstream spinoffs from traditional social marketing and adverts; commendable yes but the ‘high knowledge’ but little reactive actions problem persists. We all know that we must use condoms and while yet still very little push on abstinence or delaying sex messages, the sex industry is obviously not being engaged properly as evidenced in a recent dubious utterances by someone inside the family planning agency who are now the ones rolling out the HIV program. The P.L.A.C.E, Priorities for Local AIDS Control Efforts methodology for example has been adopted from a successful 2006 pilot which I was one of the outreach officers to cover street venues, adult clubs, tertiary level campuses, and plazas then but somehow the tailoring to our unique situations seems missing as it is just being rolled out as the text verbatim says with very little forward thinking by the powers that be, namely the country control mechanism for Jamaica and the Global Fund. Simply just having condom booths at LGBT events or hosting parities is not enough but if the people who are designing some of this are hardly not even from the populations how can they understand the issues when they refuse to learn as well.

What is next? Is the fundamental question though not openly asked by those who control the levers of the cogs of HIV, many continue the political correctness farce as a front; something has to give somehow and soon if any change is to come. When one can hear even younger folks cynical commenting “watch them” suggesting hypocritical pretence then one has to wonder what is really going on.

More anon

Peace & tolerance

H

OutBermuda Respond To Preserve Marriage

Saying that it is their “mandate to support the wellbeing, health, dignity, security and protection of Bermuda’s LGBTQ community, we issue this statement in response. support the wellbeing, health, dignity, security and protection of Bermuda’s LGBTQ community,” OUTBermuda has responded to an ad placed by Preserve Marriage.

Some content from Bernews

The statement said, “Preserve Marriage Bermuda today published an advertisement complaining that Bermuda’s Supreme Court is being asked to legislate marriage equality.

“Preserve Marriage also argues that when the Human Rights Act was amended in 2013 it was a foregone conclusion that marriage equality would follow, suggesting the amendment was a sinister attempt to introduce marriage equality by indirect means.

“Given OUTBermuda’s mandate to support the wellbeing, health, dignity, security and protection of Bermuda’s LGBTQ community, we issue this statement in response.

“Preserve Marriage’s advertisement ignores the fact that the decision of the European Convention of Human Rights in Oliari v Italy, a decision the organization has spoken much about, was not decided until after the 2013 Human Rights Act amendment.

“Oliari is undeniably a landmark judgment, which marked a significant shift in the European Court’s approach to issues of Lesbian and Gay equality in the sphere of family matters.

“While that judgment is central to any argument today about family life protections afforded to Lesbian and Gay people, there was nothing back in 2013 to foretell this decision.

“OUTBermuda rejects the suggestion that LGBTQ people and allies schemed to amend the Human Rights Act with a view ultimately to marriage equality.

“To suggest this demonstrates a lack of understanding and empathy towards the experience of fellow Bermudians who were given both legal protection and peace of mind in the areas of housing, employment and the provision of goods and services [including governmental services] as a result of the “Two Words and a Comma” amendment.

“Although Preserve Marriage says in its advertisement that it believes all people should be protected regardless of their sexuality, OUTBermuda has not seen or heard any practical suggestions from the organization about how it believes the family lives of LGBTQ people ought to be respected within Bermuda’s current legal environment.

“While advocating that Government cobble together a bundle of rights in an unspecified manner for the benefit of Gay and Lesbian people, Preserve Marriage has rejected out of hand options for marriage, civil partnerships and other similar legal arrangements, thereby precluding any viable option for achieving that aim.

“OUTBermuda is committed to creating awareness of the real life issues affecting Bermuda’s LGBTQ people, and to leading dialogue on these issues.

“Accordingly, OUTBermuda will extend an invitation to Preserve Marriage to enter into conversation on how the status quo, as it relates to Lesbian and Gay families, fails to honor and respect the dignity of all people in Bermuda.”

see the petition HERE

What’s happening with “HIV blaming” driven violence?

As World AIDS Day approaches on December 1 annually and there is also talk about on gender equality work and addressing intimate partner violence there is hardly any reference to the ‘HIV blaming’ piece of it, it seems. The pending court ruling of the March 2012 scheduled for December 9 beheading case has raised the subject as the motive by the male partner of the victim who beheaded him effectively killed the man as he accused him of infecting him with HIV or in the language used AIDS. This is separate from willful targeting persons and having unprotected sex in revenge to suggest the already infected won’t be the only one with the infection; it seems what drives that level of deception is the feeling that HIV is still a death sentence when it is not so in the age of improved treatment and research; as to whether both are keeping pace with making them available is another matter.

Some strange discussions is the only way I can describe it have emerged on various media platforms with reference to two previously popular episodes as well in St James and Kingston, the latter unfolded at a party after the individual doing the blaming arrived with tests results with as we say ‘blood in his eyes’ it also shows that maybe the post test counselling in that matter was not effective enough or may not have been done if any. There is a deficiency in the support group meeting department as they are not continuous and are sometimes haphazard and in response a soon to be concluded pilot called ‘Brothers’ Positive on Positive’ tried to address and better unpack with a small group of persons. It sought to fill in some of the gaps that the only hour long sessions elsewhere do not address some of the situations adequately.

Revenge via HIV blaming ought to be a thing of the past given the strides in terms of the high knowledge of safer sex and indeed post positive treatment adherence and diet alongside the support systems now available in the national program. They still need to get the medication collection part straightened out as long waits at dispensaries outside of the social workers collecting for really ill patients or disabled persons is ridiculous. An announcement via Jamaica Information Service, JIS recently though suggests that more pharmacies will be added to the mix to offer ARVs, CART and HAART prescription filling at a discounted price, the clip never mentioned the other supportive drugs for opportunistic infections such as Co-Trimoxazole to control basic infections and skin maintenance or vitamins and so on. Probably the emphasis has been too much on condom use and or prevention and not equally on sustained quality of life. Condom pinching came up as well in an online discourse which was a bit surprising to me as we thought we had gotten over that problem but apparently not.

As persons await the judgement of the pending case many have condemned the accused men; be it the partner and his roommate who he forced to assist him in dumping the body under pain of violence as well which came out in the trial and his unsworn statement. Mistakes can happen, condoms can break, less vigilance in the heat of the moment, using oil based materials as lube or when persons realise flaw but continue through to the climax while hoping for the best can be some of the avenues for facilitating transmission; outside of assaults and non consent. Overseas cases of deliberate infections have been addressed by some countries passing legislation to deal with it but this is after the fact. A recent case with an African American man just showed the madness that can flow from such matters.

An infamous incident on the outskirts of Emancipation Park in New Kingston some years ago where a man and his supposed partner ended up in an awful clash that led to security interventions and subsequently the police in 2013; yet more evidence how sensitive matters can spill out into the streets with unneeded attention or results. Accepting the positive test results as not a death sentence and that suspected infidelity or cheating needs to be and can be dealt with more effectively via conflict resolution measures and third party possible professional interventions. Fighting or violence is not the way out, if lovers really love each other even said cheating and sometimes surprise HIV positive results they should find a way out, if not they were not lovers to begin with, in the true sense but merely in a ‘spirit tek’ farce or tolerated relationship for matters of convenience and or co-dependency.

Then with talk of transgender persons now factoring supposedly more in HIV infection rates when really they always did as far as I am concerned, given transwomen (male to female) often have integrated themselves in the men who have sex with men umbrella group as invisibility of the trans population in HIV prevention prior was almost normative. The previous results there in HIV infection rate surveys are not brought into serious doubt if not disrepute as if the lumping was so pronounced as we are now beginning to find out then a whole new rethink will have to go into the design of the HIV response to marginalised groups. The violence that may attend to that may also have to be researched properly in the ever tendentious quest for ‘evidenced based advocacy’ but if the data and collection is already flawed how does the relevant agencies solve those concerns and arrive at the true situation or as close to it?

The conflation of drag queens with gay men only when feminization forced or unforced leads to the feminine aesthetic has been an issue leading to advocates, NGOs and even funders themselves misreading the landscape. More needs to be done in conflict resolution as stated above. Legislation may have to be considered for some of this but the gay/bi male populations may get left out seeing we are already marginalised by way of an archaic 485 year old piece of theocracy in a buggery law. If we do not have legitimacy in everyday life then why focus of issues affecting us via formal governmental structures.

Then there is the matter of assault driven willful infections in the MSM/transgender mismatch as the latter is seen as gay without any reassignment surgery to boot; so many stories often unconfirmed of said abuse and assault with HIV positive alleged perpetrators and yet the reporting to police is virtually nonexistent as the gross indecency or buggery charges may attend if one tries to. This is why the amendment of buggery in as far as rape is concerned between men as rape already in law covers women as a case I often referred to in former dancehall artist Zebra who has been serving a thirty year sentence after he raped and sodomised a young lady so the jury gave him 20 years for the rape and the full 10 years for buggery.

More anon

Peace & tolerance

H

also see:

December 9 sentencing for 4 year-old gay lover beheading case in St Ann

Concerns Mount As Transsexual Adolescents Push Up Jamaica's HIV Rates ................

As usual the transgender community is still being lumped with MSM either by the response and by populations overall it seems and it makes the previous studies on MSM HIV prevalence rates of 32% in 2007 and others since problematic while it may be higher trans-persons who merge into the MSM community get counted as gay. The article below touches the very conflation and to think the very named agency is partly guilty of not making the stark differences between the groups even as trans voices screamed to them to pay attention.

The Gleaner carried this:

As a HIV-positive transgender youth, 22-year-old *Tory belongs to the at-risk group that is considered to be most in need of intervention if Jamaica has any hope of seeing further reductions in the number of persons living with HIV/AIDS.

According to a study that was released last week by the Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL), transgender persons who are HIV-positive are more likely to experience homelessness, stigma, forced sex and physical violence. Of the 71 transgender participants polled, more than 52 per cent were involved in sex work for accommodation and food, among other things.

"Now we are seeing where they are at increased risk more than gay men, and more than sex workers, of course, and so it's really just about how we are going to ensure that our programmes are attending to the needs of these persons," said executive director of JASL, Kandasi Levermore.

A UNAIDS report ahead of the commemoration of World AIDS Day on December 1 warned that 15-24 years is a dangerous time for women. It noted that an estimated 45 per cent of all new HIV infections globally in 2014 were among members of key populations and their sexual partners, and warned that new HIV infections are continuing to increase among people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men. The report went on to say that HIV was not declining in sex workers and transgender people.

Tory, a male who identifies as a female, has found himself in several of these categories. He became homeless at 16 years old and became a sex worker shortly after to provide for himself. His clients were mostly professional men, and at 18, he decided to go and live with a police officer who he said was a "regular buyer". He said he contracted HIV from the lawman.

"Being 16 and a sex worker, you get more clients because you are young, because you are new, because they like young people because they think you are not very smart. But I was very smart. Why I was homeless is because I was kicked out of high school because of my sexual orientation," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

MISTREATMENT AT CLINIC

He said due to the mistreatment he received at the first clinic he visited after his diagnosis, he did not take any medication for the first year. He, however, went to a different clinic where the attitude of health professionals was better, and he has since seen vast improvement in his health. He said he is now focused on becoming stable because his greatest desire now is to have a child, although he admitted that he had never had sexual intercourse with a woman.

"I am gay because I won't be in a long-term relationship with a woman," said Tory, before explaining that he is open to having sex with a woman for the sake of having a child.

"I want a child with my genes. Adoption is so hard in Jamaica at this point. She can be a lesbian or she can also be positive and virally suppressed, like myself. So there is a lot of hope to get a child if I want a child when I am ready," he said.

According to a report released recently by JASL, which was funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, there is very little knowledge about the HIV prevalence among transgender women in Jamaica.

However, the National HIV/STI programme noted that, "In contrast with the estimated HIV prevalence of 0.4 and 0.5 per cent reported in adolescent girls and boys aged 15-19 at the national level through the UNAIDS 2014 estimates, the HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual adolescent boys is estimated to be 14 per cent, while HIV prevalence in transgender adolescents is estimated to be 27 per cent."

Renae*, who came out as a transgender at 21 years old, said he is concerned that HIV is highest among transgender youths, and blamed this on the fact that those who adopt this lifestyle were often stigmatised or forced to engage in transactional sex.

"Being gay is a taboo, but being transgender is a greater taboo, and because of that, you have a lot of parents who actually do put out their children for these type of things, and you are out on the streets, you have no formal education, you have no way to really provide for yourself," he said.

"So you have to come up with means and ways to provide for yourself, and one of those methods is to become prey to sexual predators out there, or to offer yourself up as collateral, and oftentimes it is to persons who maybe know that they have the virus, but they don't care."

Although Renae was born male, he identifies as a female and is now an advocate for those living in the transgender community. He believes that while there have been improvements in access to treatment for those who are HIV-positive, stigma and discrimination are still forcing some to go underground instead of seeking help.

"That's why I work so hard within the health sector to make things better for trans people on a whole," he said.

[* Names changed to protect identity]

ENDS

And the signs continue to show us that the forward thinking in as far as the NGOs are concerned is still lacking and why are more persons being captured way better given the resources?

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Peace & tolerance

H

also see:

Continued oversight or deliberate overlooking of Jamaican SGL Women in HIV Prevention ............ 

Continued Trans erasure/invisibility by Jamaican advocates ......... 2012