Truth or Not: Guidance counsellors not discriminatory

Now who are we to believe on this matter outside of the shouting match is has been made to be. Why has the Guidance Counselor Association President supposedly changed her tune since the original position.

Have a read a make some sense of this latest salvo, bearing in mind Ian Boyne's take on this and if counsellors do admit that they have refused engagement with any student then it is grounds for dismissal. Sadly it is stuff like this that just clouds the all important middle road needed for sensible discourse with truthfulness as part and parcel of it.

also see: Ian Boyne: Gay-Friendly Counsellors For Students?

now comes formerHIV ally turned LGBT opponent and President of Lawyers' Christian Fellowship Helen Coley Nicholson:

The firestorm over comments allegedly made recently by president of the Jamaica Association of Guidance Counsellors in Education (JAGCE), Nina Dixon, continues to blaze. Dixon reportedly said that some guidance counsellors in Jamaica’s public schools, who are of the Christian faith, are refusing to help gay and lesbian students who may be struggling with their sexual orientation. This prompted calls in expected quarters for the removal of “radicalised faith-based counsellors…whose continued presence pose a danger to school communities and individual students”. Others, quite reasonably, asked for the facts before rushing to judgement.

In an interview with me this week, Dixon set the record straight. This is the first of a two-part report.

Helene Coley Nicholson (HCN): Mrs Dixon, tell us the backdrop against which the controversial comments were published.

Nina Dixon (ND): We had a student commit suicide on Friday, and on Monday the article came out, so it was really a dark period grieving for the student and at the same time feeling as though guidance counsellors in Jamaica were put in a bad light based on how the article was constructed. It was twisted around and certain things were left out.

The interview was wide. We spoke about different issues: what counsellors are facing, the societal issues, how the JTA [Jamaica Teachers’ Association] negotiates for the counsellors, and what we want them to negotiate for us. We spoke about what initiatives we plan to take to the minister [of education] so that he can help the growth of guidance and counselling in education. We spoke about a myriad of topics, and the last question the writer asked was, “How does the JAGCE plan to deal with students in the LGBT community?” I think that’s what the question was, and I responded that we don’t see the students based on their sex or their gender, whether it’s male of female, or their sexual preference, or what have you, we look at the issues that the students come with and we deal with those issues. I went on to say that there are three levels of homosexuality and when it comes to the second and third, the experimental stage and the committed stage, some counsellors are uncomfortable dealing with the issues that come within that stage.

The first level is the curiosity stage, where children or teenagers during puberty go through an identity crisis. They’re trying to find themselves. So all teenagers go through that stage, and sometimes they may feel a particular way, and so, talking, you realise that this person was just curious, or this person has now changed his or her mind, or they no longer feel that way or have those feelings.

A guidance counsellor can’t say this is right or this is wrong. You have to just let the students talk and express themselves. This curiosity stage is something that we can deal with. Now the experimental stage is somewhat sticky because I don’t remember in the teachers’ college getting in-depth in homosexuality and dealing with these stages. I learned all of this from a workshop that the JAGCE put on a couple years back at our annual conference.

I went to high school in New York and lived in Atlanta for years and I was exposed to a myriad of news reports, working with persons in that community. So counsellors would call me to say, ‘ Nina, how do you deal with this, or what steps do I take, who can I refer to?’ So that is why I know there is some level of discomfort when dealing with certain levels. It’s not that the counsellors don’t want to deal with them, sometimes we just don’t know how; and I know persons will probably get on me for saying that, but if we don’t know how to deal with it we just don’t know how; and this is where we need to do workshops and get other methods of sensitising the counsellors, so that the child can get the help that he or she needs.

HCN: Is there a problem of discrimination by guidance counsellors as it relates to students who are experimenting or who are at the committed stage of homosexuality?

ND: I wouldn’t use the word discrimination. I would use the word discomfort. I don’t know of one guidance counsellor who has discriminated. I’m a reporting queen. I report cuts and minor bruises, so there is no way that I’d have a guidance counsellor or know of a guidance counsellor who is being discriminatory or is shunning a student and not report that guidance counsellor.

I don’t know of a guidance counsellor who has ever victimised a student because he is curious or experimenting with homosexual behaviour. No one has ever reported that to me. I just know that they feel uncomfortable dealing with certain areas of homosexuality, and it’s not homosexuality alone.

We have guidance counsellors who are uncomfortable in other areas. For example, I have a difficulty dealing with grief when it happens in my school. We have guidance counsellors who can’t deal with a case of rape because maybe they were raped. We are human beings and things happen in life. It happens to the best of us; whether we are lawyers or doctors, guidance counsellor, priest, things happen in life, and sometimes certain things trigger and this is when the counsellor or teacher or whomever goes and gets the help that they need not that they should lose their job or be criticised or condemned, they are human beings.

In those situations, we have a referral system within the ministry because we have social workers assigned to the ministry in each region. We lean on them as well as our education officers sometimes when we are stuck. Then we have various agencies, depending on the situation, that we make referrals to and psychologists that work for the Child Guidance Clinic who offer their services privately. So we have a protocol and we’re trained in teachers’ college or wherever we went to school. Where there is discomfort or you have used up your requisite skills you refer.

 let us not forget her statement according to the Gleaner article

Meanwhile the implicated JAGCE President Nina Dixon in an interview on Nationwide radio with a counsellor Nadine Maloy, Ruel Reid Principal of Jamaica College and another Principal one Kassan Troupe on January 19, 2016 said the following practically changing her stance in my eyes when asked about her comment to the Gleaner:

“We notice that really some counsellors are uncomfortable dealing with issues that they were not trained to deal with; counsellors are well trained, we have well trained counsellors in our country but some counsellors are uncomfortable giving guidance without proper information dealing with that sensitive topic ....... it’s a taboo; it’s still a taboo topic.”

When asked if counsellors are refusing to counsel LGBT students she said:

“No, they would be fired, we work for the ministry of education and the ministry states that we look at students and listen to their issues, if we are uncomfortable or if we don’t feel that we can help that student fully we have a referral system that we utilize; and we have different agencies and different specialists that we turn to when things get difficult; you know that we can’t handle or deal with.”

She then made the definitive denial:

“A guidance counsellor has never refused to treat a student however they’ve stated that they are uncomfortable with some situations and sometimes it is based on their Christianity, what they’ve been taught in the church, how they’ve been raised; our culture."

Now I am even more befuddled than ever since this matter broke as where is the proof from Miss Nina that NO counsellor was dismissed due to non-engagement while not specifying LGBT students as the subject in the sessions and why didn’t Cliff Hughes and Dennis Brooks who interviewed her allowed that to simply fly pass in the wind? The JAGCE President did not mention the suicide matter as she did in another interview she gave to President of the anti gay group Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship LCF Helen Coley Nicholson and posted here. Given what transpired some years ago from as early as 2004 from memory when a male student was set upon by his own father who incited a mob at Dunoon High School and the subsequent discussions involving folks such as the late Dr Heather Little-White which resulted in some incremental changes to the referral systems as it was also unearthed that some counsellors were inappropriately using referrals as a cop-out or others were using a reparative therapy strategy for change while forcing students to suppress same gender desires with some transgender students allegedly being told they have a mental problem as well. Then came the ‘Lesbian learning matter’ and so called coercion on female students by other students as well as posted here; after the firestorm the Principals’ Association, guidance counsellors and other professionals also huddled sometimes in tense sessions to iron out the way forward and similar discomfort issues were mentioned which led to a further tightening of the referral systems etc.

So it seems both JFLAG and the JAGCE President need to heed some advice in terms of tracking what both entities have done regarding this business of counsellors, LGBTQ students and where or what actually happened so that we can avoid such firestorms as this again; foot in mouth seems a chronic re-infection for the goodly J especially when the new blood do not take the time review the files or remove previously published press releases on similar matters so as to plan how to tread when present issues arrive as a curve ball at the crease. In the same breath the JAGCE President in addressing the matter at the Gleaner forum should have been guarded in her answer not for to deceive or cover up but for clarity and issue a caution answer whilst reviewing her own organization’s file as to what preceded her tenure seeing she seems young.

When will we have the courage in the education systems and at policy despite mere tokenism from the MOE on tolerance? The HFLE matter is still fresh in my mind despite years have passed as nationally we missed a golden opportunity to address early initiation, homo-curiosity, sexual orientation issues, sexuality, gender identity and such regarding teens instead fear got the better or persons who were supposed to be rational.


Think on these things.

Peace & tolerance

H

IOC rules transgender athletes can take part in Olympics without surgery

Female-to-male athletes can compete ‘without restriction’, while male-to-female athletes must undergo hormone therapy, according to new guidelines

Source: Guardian

Transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics and other international events without undergoing sex reassignment surgery, according to new guidelines adopted by the IOC.

International Olympic Committee medical officials said on Sunday they changed the policy to adapt to current scientific, social and legal attitudes on transgender issues.

Rio 2016: hopes high that Games can reacquaint world with sport’s good side

The guidelines are designed as recommendations – not rules or regulations – for international sports federations and other bodies to follow and should apply for this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“I don’t think many federations have rules on defining eligibility of transgender individuals,” IOC medical director Dr Richard Budgett said. “This should give them the confidence and stimulus to put these rules in place.”

Under the previous IOC guidelines, approved in 2003, athletes who transitioned from male to female or vice versa were required to have reassignment surgery followed by at least two years of hormone therapy in order to be eligible to compete.

Now, surgery will no longer be required, with female-to-male transgender athletes eligible to take part in men’s competitions “without restriction”.

Meanwhile, male-to-female transgender athletes will need to demonstrate that their testosterone level has been below a certain cutoff point for at least one year before their first competition.

“It is necessary to ensure insofar as possible that trans athletes are not excluded from the opportunity to participate in sporting competition,” the IOC said in a document (pdf) posted on its website that outlines the guidelines. “The overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition.

“To require surgical anatomical changes as a precondition to participation is not necessary to preserve fair competition and may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights,” it added.

The guidelines, first reported by Outsports.com, were approved after a meeting in November 2015 in Lausanne, Switzerland, of Olympic officials and medical experts.

Budgett said there were no plans for the guidelines to be sent for approval by the IOC executive board.

“This is a scientific consensus paper, not a rule or regulation,” he said. “It is the advice of the medical and scientific commission and what we consider the best advice.”

Former IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist, who was among the experts involved in drafting the new guidelines, said the consensus was driven by social and political changes.

“It has become much more of a social issue than in the past,” he told Associated Press. “We had to review and look into this from a new angle. We needed to adapt to the modern legislation around the world. We felt we cannot impose a surgery if that is no longer a legal requirement.

“Those cases are very few, but we had to answer the question,” he added. “It is an adaptation to a human rights issue. This is an important matter. It’s a trend of being more flexible and more liberal.”

Under the new rules, an athlete transitioning to a woman must undergo hormone therapy and demonstrate that the total level of male testosterone in the blood has been below 10 nanomols per litre for at least a year prior to competing.

The previous rule stated that, in addition to reassignment surgery, the athlete required a minimum of two years of hormone treatment. How long it will take the athlete to reach the new cutoff limit will depend on individual cases, Ljungqvist said.

“If you change sex, you will have to have a hormone level below 10 for 12 months,” he said. “That does not mean a one-year guarantee. You don’t go below 10 from day one. It takes quite some time. It can take more than one year or two years.”

The issue gained extra prominence after former Olympic decathlon champion Caitlyn Jenner announced last year that she had transitioned to a woman.

The IOC document also cited the case of hyperandrogenism, or presence of high levels of testosterone in female athletes.

Indian sprinter Dutee Chand was suspended by the IAAF in 2014 due to hyperandrogenism and missed the Commonwealth games and Asian games.

But the court of arbitration for sport (CAS) suspended the rule last year, saying the IAAF had failed to prove that women with naturally high levels of testosterone had a competitive edge. Chand was cleared to compete, and the court gave the IAAF until July 2017 to present new scientific evidence.

The IOC statement urged the IAAF and others to go back to the CAS with arguments in favor of reinstating the rule.

“To avoid discrimination, if not eligible for female competition, the athlete should be eligible to compete in male competition,” the IOC said.

The issue of gender verification gained global attention after South African runner Caster Semenya was ordered to undergo sex tests after winning the 800m world title in 2009. She was eventually cleared to compete by the IAAF and won silver in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics.

The IOC used to conduct gender verification tests at the Olympics, but those chromosome-based screenings were dropped before the 2000 Sydney Games because they were deemed unscientific and unethical.

Ian Boyne: Gay-Friendly Counsellors For Students? ............

In a way I am some agreement with Ian Boyne on this and it reminds me of the unlikely support in the lead up to the decriminalization of sodomy in the UK and the intervention of the Arch Bishop of Cantebury then Michael Ramsey in the 1960s.

Trouble who will listen really?

Have some of us learnt from previous happenings with schools, students and guidance counsellors, firstly here is Mr Boyne's piece:

The National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) has reacted with alarm to the offer of help by Jamaica's gay lobby group to ease the plight of gay students in schools who are allegedly being shunned by guidance counsellors.

"The NPTAJ rejects totally the offer made by J-FLAG (Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays) to conduct counselling in schools," its president, Everton Hannam, said in a release last week. "If J-FLAG is serious about counselling, they can offer those services privately," Hannam counselled. (Of course, Hannam misinterpreted that J-FLAG was itself offering to counsel students; it didn't.) But not in our schools. "Let the guidance counsellors do their job."

But what exactly is their job? What exactly is expected of them vis-·-vis gay students or students struggling with their sexual identity? This has not been clear in all the discussion taking place on the issue. There has been much obfuscation and talking around the issues.

Fellow Gleaner columnist Jaevion Nelson laments, in his column last Thursday, that what is required of guidance counsellors is "simply for them to do their jobs - provide an open, safe space for students to seek support when they need it". But exactly what kind of support? Support to accept their gay identity? For failure to do so can, indeed, cause deep psychological trauma. Is it just "support" to deal with the prejudice and discrimination that gay people in Jamaica face?

WHAT KIND OF GUIDANCE?

Michael Abrahams says in his Monday column that "in counselling gay students, one is not obliged to say that homosexuality is good, right, natural or moral. But these students need help and guidance". But what kind of guidance, if one is to avoid touching what is "good, right, normal natural or moral"?

Abrahams goes on to muddy the water further by saying of these students: "Many suffer from guilt, shame and loneliness ... ." Now, how can the conservative or fundamentalist Christian help that student to overcome his "guilt, shame and loneliness" without that counsellor's abandoning his world view? That guidance counsellor can be professional, "objective", detached, value-neutral and all those fine things, but how does he help that child escape "guilt and shame" when that counsellor's religion sees homosexuality as morally unacceptable? Be realistic.

People have not thought through this issue very carefully. Junior, an online respondent to my column last week, says, "Yes, I expect Christians to leave their beliefs and Christian positions at home or church when they choose to serve in certain positions."

Junior goes on to say the point is not whether homosexuality is illegal or immoral: "It should be the psychological welfare of the child." But I put it to you that what constitutes "the psychological welfare of the child", according to "enlightened, scientific" folk, is precisely what no conservative Christian can fulfil. In the cultured despisers' view, the psychological welfare of the child is synonymous with that child's accepting his homosexuality and abandoning the futile struggle to suppress it. He must "come to terms" with his sexuality, rather than be blinded by a Bronze Age book with thousands of years of knowledge deficit.

Christian guidance counsellors remain Christian. They can't check their beliefs or values at the door of their offices. Their ideology maintains that homosexuality is disordered, unnatural, immoral and psychologically unhealthy. But I still say that there are some things which even conservative, fundamentalist Christian guidance counsellors can and must do in the discharge of their professional duties.

The minimum is that they must never, never ever shun any gay student. If they do so, they must be fired. It's dereliction of duty and gross irresponsibility. Second, they must maintain strict confidentiality. They must not disclose what these students are struggling with or even what they accept and practise. That's fundamental in counselling. A breach in that area should also result in dismissal.

The Christian guidance counsellor must work passionately to inculcate a culture of tolerance for gay people. He must let prejudiced, bigoted heterosexual students know there is no place for bigotry, let alone violence. We must make bigotry shameful and reprehensible. Bullying, teasing and mocking must be absolutely scorned in the school environment. Christian guidance counsellors must regard it as a part of their Christian duty to stand against any discrimination against gay students. Bigots must not feel that they have any allies in Christians - least of all guidance counsellors.

Guidance counsellors must be held to very high standards. They must be models of tolerance, openness, cosmopolitanism and anti-prejudice. If a guidance counsellor hears that a gay student is being persecuted at home; if parents are threatening to put him out of the house, ill-treating him, scandalising him, etc., that counsellor must immediately meet those parents and show - even from the Bible - how utterly wrong those approaches are. That guidance counsellor must use sources these so-called Christian parents believe in to show them the folly of their ways.

The Christian guidance counsellor must do everything to ensure that the gay student is not harassed, victimised, publicly shamed or discriminated against. He must ensure that family members treat that gay student no less than other members of the family. The guidance counsellor must help students, teachers, administrative staff at the school and members of these gay students' communities and families to eschew violence, discrimination and harassment. He must help them to embrace these gay students as full, equal human beings worthy of all love.

CHRISTIAN LOVE

The curious thing about this is that it is precisely in this area of love, tolerance and forgiveness that Christianity is most rich and resourceful. The Christian guidance counsellor should be the most compassionate and loving of all counsellors. Christian theology is based on love, mercy, forgiveness. At the heart of Christian theology is teaching on brokenness, our proclivity to mess up - and the enormous power of the Gospel to save people from all kinds of sinful conditions. Now it is here that my gay readers will scream condescension.

For I bet you that after I have outlined the most compassionate and tolerant approach to gay students, pro-gay readers will still not be pleased. Nothing less than full acceptance of their "enlightened, scientific, non-Stone Age view" will do. Talk about imposition! But, of course, their view is simply scientific truth - or, better yet, common sense. (I am grateful to Marx for helping me to understand the hubris of what he called 'false consciousness'.")

Gay fundamentalists will accept nothing less than the full acceptance of homosexuality as normal, moral and acceptable. There is no room for disagreement. Saying otherwise is like saying the Earth is flat. There should be no more tolerance for the view that homosexuality is immoral or abnormal than the view that the Earth is flat, gay fundamentalists believe. But conservative Christians will never accept that homosexuality is morally acceptable.

Quite frankly, gays should be happy that some fundamentalist guidance counsellors are shunning students. For what some would tell them if they did not shun them would cause those students far more damage and hurt than shunning them. I am a Popperian and an ardent believer in pluralism and the Open Society. Perhaps J-FLAG needs to organise its own counselling services where its own gay-friendly counsellors can offer a counterview to what is being offered in our schools, many of them Church-based.

Publicise your counselling services. Make use of social media heavily so that gay students have an alternative. For you can't depend on Christian guidance counsellors to go beyond tolerance and compassionate engagement to full acceptance of homosexuality. In a pluralistic society, we have to live together. Some Christians will be annoyed that I would countenance gay counselling services in the society. But this is not a theocracy. It is a democracy.

Some fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist gays will not be pleased with this column, but as Karl Popper would say, they are enemies of the Open Society.

- Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist working with the Jamaica Information Service. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and ianboyne1@yahoo.com.

ENDS

How comes JFLAG with their foot in mouth again with their statement withou checking their own archives

and here is an excerpt of the goodly GAJ President:

but she has changed her tone since.

But what about those previous instances that I hinted to?

Such as:

LESBIANS & LEARNING – SITUTATIONAL HOMOSEXUALITY AT A KGN ALL GIRLS SCHOOL ? 2012 (GLBTQ Wordpress blog)

The Star News also carried a VERY similar story in October 2011 posted HERE on GLBTQ Jamaica a press release from the J 11.03.12 entitled: J-FLAG CONDEMNS SEXUAL COERCION AND CALLS ON SCHOOLS ADMINISTRATORS TO DIALOGUE, this response to me shows the the lack of forward thinking and understanding of initiation, situational homosexuality and experimentation issues. Then again SGL women’s issues were never something they have dealt with effectively. 

Check out this old post as well which includes the late Dr Heather Little Whyte's intervention which aided the incremental strengthening of the GAJ, Ministry of Education and referrals which was being abused by counsellors who are refusing to or uncomfortable in engaging LGBT students:

also see:

URGENT NEED TO DISCUSS SEX & SEXUALITY NATIONALLY PART 2

ALLEGED LESBIAN COERCERS IN SCHOOL – SHOULD GET PROPER HELP – EXPERT ………

Weekend raid of CSWs in Mobay had homeless LGBT in dragnet

Gleaner photo

Seventy six persons, 43 females and 33 males to include homeless MSM/transgender, who the police say were operating as illicit sex workers, were rounded up and detained yesterday morning in a massive police operation which covered several sections of downtown Montego Bay.

"Then is so much prostitute deh a Montego Bay ... all man prostitute to, but a wha dis father," remarked a passer-by as he watched lawmen loading the accused persons into several police vehicles.

The operation, which involved the Mobile Reserve as well as a team probing human trafficking, targeted several key locations across the Second City, to include the Hip Strip (Gloucester Avenue), Harbour Street, Church Street, Market Street, and the Charles Gordon Market.

Sadly our displaced and homeless MSM are still left out to dry by uncaring family members, the public and sadly or egregiously NGOs who turn their backs on them from years ago not because there was no money but internal politics.

UNDERAGE GIRLS HELD

Among those held were three underage girls, whose unexplained presence on the streets is a major concern to Senior Superintendent of Police Steve McGregor, the commanding officer for the St James Police division.

"Their (the underage girls) cases will be treated differently because this could be a case of human trafficking, which would be most unfortunate," said McGregor, who intimated that the girls' parents could find themselves in trouble with the law if they are found to be complicit in any way.

In addition to the alleged prostitutes, the operators of three of the city's unlicenced clubs, where sex acts were reportedly being carried out, were also taken into custody.

"What is quite glaring is that 90 per cent of these people are not from St James," said McGregor, who held a press conference in the aftermath of the operation. "These ladies are from parishes such as St Ann, Portland and Kingston, as well as neighbouring Westmoreland and Hanover."

SCANTILY DRESSED FEMALES ROAMING THE STREETS

Commenting on the operation, McGregor said that the police had been informed that scantily dressed females were roaming the streets of the city offering sexual favoursat a cost.

"We realise that (we had) females walking on the street scantily dressed, can't properly account for their whereabouts, where they are from or what they are doing, and are posing a danger to themselves and the parish," said McGregor, who also pointed to a recent incident in which an alleged prostitute was killed in downtown Montego Bay - the first murder in St James for 2016. "Police intelligence showed that the woman (who was killed) was a known prostitute who was close to the age of 50 years old," said McGregor.

It is understood that of the men who were detained, some were pimps while others were in the process of engaging the alleged female prostitutes in sexual favours. According to the police, however, at least three of the men were actually "putting themselves out for sale".

At press time, several of the detainees were interviewed, processed and released. Among those kept back were the three teens, whose parents will be brought in for questioning.

see this Jan 9 clearing exercise that made news on TVJ:

Police Raid Jan 09 2016 Homeless MSMTrans... by glbtqjamaica

here is an older eviction by police:


Homeless MSM Eviction 2013 by glbtqjamaica

also see: "DVD Reveller" still displaced? part 2

It was only late last year we saw a series of reports on clashes with men who targeted homeless gays also using the strip to turn a buck while pacing the pavement. As Kingston's challenges persons when they make some case are forced to relocate to other areas to try and keep up; they also track their clients as well to get repeat business.

The Sex Workers' Association of Jamaica has been trying their hand but lack the requisite resources to really make a serious impact while more powerful, older and organised entities are more interested in other issues that creates soundbites sadly than raising to the level of importance.

The detained persons were released the next day and were back on the block working the strip again but with light patrols passing and warning them.

Peace and tolerance

H

also see:
Man accused of extortion tried for coning lecturer of $1.2 
million........ (GJW)

Clash of cruisers & homeless again (GJW)

Independent candidate favours J’cans making decisions on Buggery & CCJ

PRESIDENT and founder of the United Independents’ Congress (UIC), Joseph Patterson says Jamaicans should be allowed to vote on major issues such as retaining the Privy Council as the final appellate court and repealing of the buggery law.

PATTERSON... we believe that when there are core fundamental issues that come before the people it should always be put to a vote.

“We believe that when there are core fundamental issues that come before the people it should always be put to a vote,” said Patterson who is seeking to represent the St Elizabeth North Eastern constituency as an independent candidate in the next general election. He was addressing reporters and editors at the Jamaica Observer weekly Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s head office in Kingston.

Speaking on the party’s national and foreign policies, he said Jamaica should not have a foreigner as a head of state and his party would be pushing for Jamaica to become a republic. He believed it was also unnecesary to have a head of state and a head of government.

“So we will be pushing for a combining of those two positions into one: having a democratically elected president who does not run under a party banner but runs independently and offers his or her views to the country and is elected on that basis,” Patterson said.

On the controversial call for the repeal of the buggery law by some groups, Patterson said it was the Jamaican citizens who needed to decide.

“As I have always said... it needs to be something that is put before the people. We need to have a good debate in the country whereby those who advocate for a certain lifestyle have a chance to clearly explain how they think that will benefit the country and those who are opposed to that lifestyle have a chance to clearly indicate why they oppose that position,” he explained.

Commenting on whether Jamaica should abandon the UK-based Privy Council as its final court of appeal, Patterson said the solution was “very simple. Once you get rid of The Queen as head of state and have a Jamaican head of state you would have dealt with that problem. We need to make sure that Jamaica is a sovereign nation,” he shared.

However, he questioned whether Jamaica could boast of being a sovereign state when it was currently operating under the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“After 53 years of being a so-called independent country, we now find ourselves where our policy makers, our legislators are actually acting on behalf of a foreign power in practically all the laws we have. Every new law that is introduced is one which is instigated, directed and required by a foreign power and my goodness we must not stand for that,” Patterson declared. “We need to say to ourselves enough is enough, we want our country back and we must understand what got us to where we are. A bad system of governance brought us here and we need a good system of governance to take us out of it.”

As it relates to Caricom, Patterson said he had always supported the position of National Hero and founder of the People’s National Party Norman Manley that there should be a Federation of Caribbean States.

“So if I had my way, I would be voting back then for a federation and I would vote now for federation. I believe the Caribbean people need to unite. We need to have one country, one set of resources, and become a powerful economic bloc in this area,” he said.

He noted, however, that Jamaica does not have the appetite for a federation now, hence the focus must be placed on uniting Jamaica. “If we unite as a country we can go out and help to unite the other countries and form a single, not just a market, but a nation of people because we are all related,” he said.

Patterson said he would definitely include Cuba and Guyana in that community because of the cultural connection, but pointed out that it would be up to individual countries to decide.

Guyana is already a member of Caricom.

“What I like about Cuba, while I despise communism, is they have stood the test of time against an aggressive power that has sought to prevent them from being who they wanted to be... I disagree with any international body or country trying to force another country to follow one path or another,” he said.

Patterson said his party intended to use various mediums to get his message out to the people, both those he is seeking to represent and the wider Jamaica. He noted that a core method of dissemination will be to connect with the people at the local level.

“As a result of that, from time to time we will be brought to the national fore like now,” he said, adding “In due time the message will be so powerful that we will hardly have to do anything. There will be people all over the place who want to share the message with others.”

Jamaican Bisexual man wins right to stay in the UK after protracted deportation battle

So finally Orashia is now able to remain in the UK amidst the high publicity his case had received and the fear of his return to Jamaica may have put him at way higher risk than normal given the sensitivities involved.

Vienna Browne with her son Orashia Edwards, pictured centre, his sister Ashema Edwards, far right, and her wife Issy Mangham-Edwards

Orashia Edwards, 33, has spent three and a half years battling attempts to deport him to Jamaica – where he says he would face discrimination because of his sexuality.
Mr Edwards, who has been detained a number of times, initially had his pleas for asylum on the grounds of sexuality rejected – after authorities claimed was heterosexual and had just been “experimenting” with men.

The UK government pushed ahead with plans to deport Mr Edwards, even though homosexuality is illegal in Jamaica, and LGBT people face the risk of vigilante violence.
But this week he finally won the right to remain in the country, after a string of victories.

He said in a statement: ” I want to thank everyone who has supported my campaign over the years, none of this would have been possible.

“I’m finally allowed to work so have applied for my National Insurance number and can go get a job and open my own bank account. Things are really looking up for me, I’m buzzing.”


Despite the victory, a number of other LGBT people are still battling deportation to countries where they face jail, violence or even death.

So many Jamaicans have had to leave our shores especially in 2014/5 as a sharp rise in incidents has forced persons to leave and also for economic reasons as well.

The Defend Orashia Facebook page has been positive on the issue and thanked supporters for their interest.

family and friends outside courtroom in 2015

I am pleased this one ended well and he can now move on with his life and also the great support from his family especially his mother who spoke publicly before.

Peace & tolerance

H

True confession: I am married to a man but attracted to women

IT is not uncommon for people still closeted to be in heterosexual relationships while hiding their attraction to people of the same sex.

In the case of Leah S, it is not a situation that rests well with her, and it proves to be a constant struggle as she has been married for 10 years, but is attracted to women, and even maintained a relationship with one during her marriage.

When Leah, who’s 35, spoke with All Woman, she shared that from as early as age 13 she felt different, but because of her religious upbringing she learnt to bottle up and ignore her liking for women and centre her attention on what was deemed right in the eyes of God.

Leah said this led to her forcing herself to like men and identify herself as ‘straight’ instead of bisexual, which she now admits to being.

“My teenage years were awful. I would see women and like them in a sexual way, but I somehow kept remembering that it was ungodly, that I would burn in hell, and the most gory parts of it to boot. I spoke to someone about it once and was literally rebuked. From that day I simply threw myself at men as the person said that it was better being called a slut than to be labelled a lesbian or bisexual.”

This new way of dealing with her sexual emotions led her to being branded by fellow church members as promiscuous and disobedient, and Leah explained that it got real bad when her parents told her she was a Jezebel who would end up unemployed with many children.

Determined to prove them wrong, she decided to settle down and go to university, but instead of falling into their ideal plan for her, she encountered a world of opportunities and an environment that embraced the side of her she was forced to suppress.

“Remember, I was never counselled about my homosexual feelings. I was rebuked and scorned and I tried to force myself to like men. When I got to university, because that wound wasn’t closed properly, it just opened a whole new can of worms and I saw that this was somewhere, a place I could fit in,” she said.

However, Leah pointed out that she still hid how she felt as she was surrounded by other church brethren who kept a watchful eye on her every move and at the simplest slip, would inform those back home.

“I had the way paved out for me to ‘bruk out’ as they would say, and just let loose, but eyes were everywhere. People knew me. I was involved in everything my church did, so I was known by my personal church and its extended body,” she said.

Leah silently indulged in homosexual behaviour, but ensured she had a man whom she could get to love her and eventually propose to her. This was her way of shielding her acts.

After she wed, she initially decided to give that side of her life a break and focus on her marriage because she was bent on making it work.

“No one could know, and I wouldn’t allow [any whisperings that my marriage was in trouble because of my sexuality]. Afterwards, [I chose a female partner] who knew how much image meant to me and understood why I was the way I was. She never tried to impose on my personal life or tear my family apart,” she said.

But nothing stays hidden forever and her husband found her secret when he came home early one day.

“He just walked in on us kissing and stood shell-shocked, looking at me as if he was looking at a stranger. But he kept his cool and she left. When I tried to explain he said it was fine, and that he wasn’t going to leave me.”

She later took him through her history and the struggles she had endured, and he listened with a great measure of care.

While Leah is still attracted to women, the married couple attends counselling sessions and works together with the hope that one day Leah will break free from her attraction and be devoted to her husband.

However, though she admits that while she loves her family and would love to be 100 per cent devoted to them, her struggle has been going on for years and will take time to break.

“I’m working at it, but things don’t happen in one moment. My husband I and have come to the realisation that this is a very, very real struggle and we also know that it will take time and patience. One thing I’ve done, though, is not to engage with any other female as I’m working through it. So though the attraction is there, I try not to form any relationships for the sake of my marriage and children,” she said.

Thwaites: Ministry alone cannot deal with homosexuality

So the Minister had joined the latest drama on homosexuality and the education system, sadly the goodly JAGCE President like JFLAG subsequently have reacquired foot in mouth syndrome. Obviously we know that the MOE cannot deal with such matters but to try to avoid discussion sensible policies directed at openness and such giving the impression of not condoning homosexuality is a little disingenuous to me.

The President was reported to have said in part:

then came JFLAG's response:

We had an incident in 2004 at Dunoon Technical High School where a father inciting a mob to attack his own son and it was averted by forward thinking ancillary staff. Discussions following that with persons such as the late Dr Heather Little-White for example led to tightening the referral systems by school counsellors and reparative therapy etc.

Dr Heather Little White

The Jamaica Observer reported today:

MINISTER of Education Ronald Thwaites has said that the issue of homosexuality among students should not be limited, or addressed solely by the education ministry because the issue is more far reaching.

Thwaites was responding to recent allegations that surfaced in the media regarding the refusal of several guidance counsellors to work with students who are viewed as homosexuals.

“It’s not only the responsibility of the schools and guidance counsellors to do this. The pervasive homophobia in the Jamaican society cannot be dealt with by the education system alone. It must be dealt with [by] persons endowed with the love of God, parents who have responsibilities for their children and know them best, and very respectfully and very trenchantly by the mass media along with all the purveyors of culture,” Thwaites said. He was responding to questions fielded from a group of journalists who had gathered at the HEART Trust/NTA corporate offices in St Andrew for a press conference hosted by the ministry of education to provide an update on the current state of the education ministry, as well as to share projected plans for the 2016/2017 academic year.

Thwaites said that while no student, regardless of sexuality, should be discriminated against, it is important that the matter is addressed so as to prevent further hiccups in moving forward.

“We certainly will be meeting with the Guidance Counsellors Association and ask them to explain if they are having particular problems so that we can marshal the best possible team that we have nationally to so guide them,” Thwaites said.

He said that he, along with key stakeholders in the ministry, had already started making plans to explore best practices with the assistance of professionals to explore and develop strategies to tackle the issue.

“I intend, as a proprietor to that meeting, to ask the various interest groups — such as the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, and we have also been in contact with JFLAG — what they think is the best way that we can encourage our students to adjust and grow themselves, and it should be required as it probably will the continuing of training and best practices,” Thwaites explained.

However, the minister was quick to point out that the education ministry will not be taking any dogmatic position, but rather to encourage the greatest sense of fulfilment and engagement of all people.

“Our task is to set policy, and the policy should be one of principle and compassion towards any issue, and particularly issues to do with human behaviour. This does not mean that the ministry of education is a set of saps. It is quite the contrary. The society has established norms regarding behaviour that we are all expected to follow,” Thwaites said.

ENDS

So if both entities were in touch with their own histories we could have avoided all this and moved on to a possible solutions and clearing the air. The MOE minister's stance is not surprising as how he handled the HFLE Home & Family Life Manual controversy.

also see:

Northern Caribbean University female Cheerleader Suspended After playing male role in cheerleading

Education Minister dismisses counsellors LGBT students issue, says it’s a 'minority' matter

The UTECH gay student matter is no 9 day wonder

Urgent need to discuss Sex & sexuality nationally part 1

URGENT NEED TO DISCUSS SEX & SEXUALITY NATIONALLY PART 2

The UTECH Student Abuse and the podcast/audio-post

Also see: New sex education manual in two months and Defending Family Life Curriculum

Podcasts and related audio:
Urgent Need to Discuss Sex & Sexuality Nationally (Part 2)

"Str8up Talkshow" on Newstalk on controversial HFLE book with anal sex questions

Newstalk FM's Jerry Small on the UTECH issue (collective security point)

Happy that both issues are being kept alive as too many times we have nine day wonders for important matters and the mainstream media does not do the necessary follow up. The Minister of Education was more prepared to find scapegoats and motives imputing a "gay agenda" behind the questions in the manual while pulling this important resource from the schools and bearing in the mind argued guided imagery exercise was a private one between the student and the specially trained guidance counsellors exposed to the manual's outline and delivery methodology. Pandering to the religious powers?as he himself is a man of the cloth, what about separation of Church and state?

Here was one of those religious zealots on the matter at the time:
Shirley Richards on the withdrawal of the controversial HFLE curriculum/book

Newstalk FM's Freshstart host Clyde Williams on nondiscrimination laws & msm

Minister of Education says no to condoms in schools & grooming of children to see homosexuality as accepted 2013

my podcast from then:

Review regional buggery laws, says UWI Guild Council

From left, Traverse Banton, post graduate representative for the University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine Campus; Dalano DaSouza, president of the Guild at the UWI, Cave Hill Campus; Davianne Tucker, president of the Mona Guild of Students; Aneka Lee, president of the Guild at the St Augustine Open Campus and Makesi Peters, president of the UWI St Augustine Guild of Students discuss the issue of guidance counsellors shunning LGBT students and restructuring foundation courses at a press conference on Friday following the Mona leg of the Inter-Campus Guild Council meetings.

SUBSEQUENT to the media reports of guidance counsellors shunning lesbian, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) students, the Inter- Campus Guild Council (ICGC) of the University of the West Indies (UWI) has called for a review of the buggery laws regionally, so that no citizen of any Caribbean Community (Caricom) country is disenfranchised.

President of the UWI, Cave Hill Guild of Students Dalano DaSouza said that the ICGC’s position is that these laws are archaic and need to be looked at and brought in line with values such as non-discrimination, sexual orientation and different fundamental human rights individuals are entitled to.

“Each government in the region ought to make a conscientious decision to review these laws with a look towards streamlining them in such a way that no individual in the country is disenfranchised,” he said.

DaSouza, who was speaking at a press conference held Friday at the Mona campus to discuss decisions coming out of the Mona leg of ICGC meetings, said that when he heard the reports he was taken aback and stated that it speaks to how the society views issues that we are yet to move forward from.

“We’ve sort of been pushing a lot of these issues aside and being from a country across the Eastern Caribbean, when I saw the report in the media I was taken aback by it because I know that we try to encourage dialogue between students and their guidance counsellors,” he said. “To me I don’t think there should be an issue or a policy to say students can’t discuss this with their guidance counsellor. There should be open dialogue. These are the formidable years of the student and if it is that they are put in that sort of position it affects their development and the probability of success going forward, whether or not they move on to university and it affects how they interact with their family and how they interact with people of the opposite sex. We create problems for ourselves as societies and countries when we have these issues and sort of just push them aside and wait until we have bigger issues down the road.”

Traverse Banton, post graduate representative for the St Augustine Campus said that while buggery is still illegal for some Caribbean countries, shunning a student can damage him psychologically, which would prevent him from coming for assistance with other issues he might have. Instead, he said, guidance counsellors should think about the holistic development of the student and build on that.

Also, Guild President of the St Augustine Open Campus Aneka Lee said that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to enjoy the basic human right, which if denied in the form of shunning by counsellors, can be psychologically scarring.

Davianne Tucker, guild president of the Mona campus, added that before we get to the end result of somebody living in some big grassland with a makeshift kind of roof, we need to deal with it at this point and have active representation in terms of the support being given to some of these students.

Moreover, other parts of the discussions included the restructuring of foundation courses at the UWI, which the ICGC said is needed to prepare students for the real world.

DaSouza said that the campuses are currently in the pilot restructuring of the first foundation course, Caribbean Civilisation, and are looking at its content to make it applicable to all the campuses.

He said that apart from the history of the Caribbean, course developers should consider a foundation course in group dynamics and interacting as it is often said that students who graduate from the UWI have difficulty functioning in a work environment.

He added: “What about self skills — a course in helping students to structure or proposals as foundation courses, because never should a UWI student graduate and not have these basic skills. While they may be currently incorporated in different courses in different degrees, we sort of believe that there should be maybe a formulation of one or two courses that sorts of brings those skills together that every university student at this university should have the option of taking in order to bring themselves up to accept any position or fall seamlessly into the society after graduating.”

Strange that on a radio interview the head of the said Guidance Association who was reported that the concern is attributed to claims that no counselors refused to counsel LGBT students but instead were uncomfortable engaging such students given their lack of training for same.

Ahhh boi

also see:
Gleaner - Ian Boyne: Christians Unfit To Be Guidance Counsellors?

Peace & tolerance

H

UPDATE:

Education Minister Rev Ronald Thwaites says that he does not believe the Jamaican law can enforce matters such as the buggery law.

Speaking at the People’s National Party’s (PNP) face-to-face forum Thursday night, Thwaites, in response to a question about the buggery law said: “Personally, I don’t believe that the law can enforce matters like that. But if the law sets a standard then it is important”.

Thwaites added:” My religious belief tells me that I must hate the sin but love the sinner. And therefore I stand in favour of maintaining high standards of morality and remind myself that the condemnation in the scriptures about unnatural acts is equal to adultery or fornication and other acts of immorality”.

”Finally I’ve heard that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman,” said Thwaites in closing the discussion on the topic.

Despite his stance, Thwaites urged those who were in attendance to be even in their condemnation and to “let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”