Closing the gaps that affect LGBTQ+ individuals in Latin America and the Caribbean

Barriers and social exclusion affecting LGBTQ+ individuals in Latin America and the Caribbean

 

An institution that promotes inclusion must ensure that there is a commitment to preventing and eliminating any manifestation of discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals at the core of its organizational culture

Three Actions to Support LGBTQ+ Inclusion from an International Organization

By María Caridad Araujo

How recent is the addition of LGBTQ+ issues in inclusion policy agendas?

Let’s put it into perspective.  No longer than 50 years ago, the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as a mental disorder.  Some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean decriminalized same-sex relationships in the 19th century, while others did so less than 20 years ago.  Homosexuality is still a crime in six countries in the region.  Thirteen years ago, Argentina became the first country in the region to legalize same-sex marriage.  Five countries followed, with Costa Rica being the most recent in 2020.  In 2004, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOTB) was established as a commemoration every May 17th.

Therefore, it’s no surprise this is a relatively new topic on the agendas of international organizations such as development banks.  The inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals, therefore, requires intentional efforts to invest in the issue and generate data and evidence on effective interventions.  We are in a constant process of construction.  At the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), we have taken firm steps in this direction.  Here, I want to share three lines of action and learning that have emerged as part of this journey.

1.LGBTQ+ inclusion starts from within

An institution that promotes inclusion must ensure that there is a commitment to preventing and eliminating any manifestation of discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals at the core of its organizational culture.  This begins with our selection and recruitment processes.  It also involves creating diverse and inclusive work environments.  Finally, it translates into actions to ensure that the projects and knowledge products we support in the region include actions that contribute to closing the gaps that affect LGBTQ+ individuals.  In this sense, the IDB has strong inclusion policies and constantly works to be a space where its employees can bring their most authentic selves.

2. Intersectionality and intersectionality

The actions we take must consider that LGBTQ+ discrimination is reflected in multiple spheres and in an intersectional way.  This means that aspects such as sexual orientation, gender identity, race or ethnicity, and economic or migratory status overlap and intersect in various ways.  For this reason, more work is required to understand the origin and impact of stigma and social exclusion.

Workplace inclusion programs like “Saber hacer vale” (Knowing How is Valuable) in Colombia, which includes LGBTQ+ individuals and focuses particularly on migrants, are an example of an intersectional approach.  Another case is the loan to the ProMujeres program in Uruguay, which seeks to strengthen gender-based violence prevention and response systems with a strong focus on lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women.  I also would like to highlight “Reprograma,” a digital skills education initiative in Brazil supported by BID Lab, which promotes the inclusion of transgender women in the technology sector.

Fighting LGBTQ+ discrimination is also important in the private sector.  That’s why BID Invest is preparing a toolbox for companies that want to strengthen their inclusion policies.  BID Invest also raises awareness about business opportunities and new markets when integrating the LGBTQ+ population as a workforce and potential customers.

3. Data for inclusion

The third point is to enhance the creation of knowledge about the LGBTQ+ population.  In Latin America and the Caribbean, data is scarce.  We know that we are underestimating the size of the LGBTQ+ population, but we don’t have the exact number of individuals belonging to it.  We have even less evidence of the gaps that affect them.

The flagship book published annually by the IDB, “Development in the Americas”. will focus on gender policies in 2023.  An innovative approach in this publication will be the inclusion of knowledge about LGBTQ+ individuals, providing a broader and deeper understanding of the gaps related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Additionally, last year, the IDB funded and published three new studies on the LGBTQ+ population.  These publications were presented in a session on LGBTQ+ inclusion at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Economics Association (LACEA).  In a live event on May 18th, the authors of the publications will share their findings on barriers and social exclusion affecting LGBTQ+ individuals in our region.

Inclusion is a journey to be traveled together

The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia is an occasion to highlight the heterogeneous progress in the inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals and to think of new strategies that lead to the end of stigma and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  On a day like today, it is important to make visible the multiple forms of exclusion that persist and, in some cases, have deepened.  Therefore, the commitment of international organizations to strengthen an agenda that prioritizes accelerating the social and economic inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals is urgent.

Once again, multilateral development banks have joined efforts to organize a series of activities, events, and publications that are part of the IDAHOTB 2023 campaign, aiming to reaffirm their commitment to work against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identities.  This year’s theme, “Always Together: United in Diversity,” encapsulates this collective effort.  For multilateral banks and other international organizations, the well-being of LGBTQ+ individuals is not just a one-day topic but an essential line of work in the development agenda.

In this link, you can find information about other events commemorating this date, as well as messages from executives of other organizations joining under this initiative.

Source

Looking for a leader in the Caribbean

By Robin Guittard:



It takes a strong leader to sit up and take notice when the tides of public opinion are turning.  Often the idea of real change can be concerning to politicians.  However, in Trinidad and Tobago people are crying out for their rights to be recognised, as a whole section of society suffers continued discrimination and abuse.  Will the leaders listen to their calls?

A few months ago, the country’s Commission in charge of the reform of the constitution pointed out “a high level of violence and abuse directed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual or intersex (LGBTI) people” in Trinidad and Tobago

But over the last couple of weeks something has changed, there is excitement in the air.  Perhaps the country is having its most mature debate since independence half a century ago.  The nation is discussing what place to give to those who doesn’t identify themselves as heterosexuals, those often called LGBTI.

The ground-swell of support has been palpable, and has come as a reaction to a mis-judged statement from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Last month, during an interview in New York, she ducked and dived when she was questioned about the“decriminalization of homosexuality” in the country.  She said that it isn’t something her government is seeking to do at the moment because “it’s too divided, there’s no consensus on that issue.” She then rapidly ended the discussion saying the question should be put before a national referendum.

Since then, a fierce debate has taken place. Many new voices have appeared to challenge the Prime Minister’s dismissal of her government’s obligations to protect the rights of LGBTI people.

The public debate has been bolstered by recent developments.

Recently UNAIDS, the United Nations agency in charge of the fight against HIV/AIDS, presented the results of a survey undertaken in Trinidad and Tobago.

An encouraging 78% of people interviewed said that “homosexuals should not be treated differently”, and 56% said that they themselves were tolerant towards LGBTI people.

Then, last week the country’s Equal Opportunity Commission announced that it will recommend including sexual orientation, age and HIV status in national legislation designed to protect citizens against discrimination.

Surely if the Prime Minister needs a green light to act on this issue, she has just received a strong message: the country is ready to move forward.

In fact, Kamla Persad-Bissessar herself has already shown she is open to change.  In 2012 she noted that “the stigmatisation of homosexuality in Trinidad and Tobago is a matter which must be addressed on the grounds of human rights and dignity to which every individual is entitled under international law.”  Amnesty International could not agree more.

However, while the prime minister can take strength from the outpouring of support and call for change, her suggestion of a referendum is not the surest way forward.  If the prime minister is serious about effecting progressive change she does not need to put the question to a referendum and risk a result that reinforces discrimination. She should instead promote legislation that would ensure that Trinidad and Tobago’s laws comply with its international obligations and implement appropriate awareness raising measures to combat society’s prejudices and discriminatory practices.

Above all, protection from discrimination is an internationally-binding obligation that has been voluntarily accepted by the Trinidadian state.  Over the years, UN experts have clarified that treaty provisions prohibiting discrimination implicitly proscribe discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.  It’s a responsibility which needs to be acted upon by the government, not something that’s optional.

Trinidad and Tobago has repeatedly proven to be a tolerant society.  Protection from discrimination is a key component amongst its diverse communities, the foundation on which the society has been built.

It’s exactly because of this strong track-record in tolerance that the prime minister’s inaction and excuses need to be challenged.  When so many people and institutions are voicing concerns that LGBTI Trinidadians are continuously facing discrimination, the Prime Minister can no longer ignore the issue.

To improve the human rights record in Trinidad and Tobago the country needs leadership.  Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar can be that leader and could truly make a mark on the country’s history and change the human rights environment for the better.

A national version was published on Monday in the Trinidad Express

October 24, 2014

Caribbean News Now

Gay marriage and the natural law

BY BROTHER HAYDEN AUGUSTINE

GAY marriage has become a hot topic, a burning issue. Some time ago, on the front pages of our dailies, two women are captioned in matrimonial embrace. As we continue perusing the news, more captions, more divergent opinions and viewpoints, columns and letters are expressed on this most elemental of traditions. One journalist even feared for her life in the firestorm of opinions.

Is sexual expression a human right? Could opposition to homosexuality be considered a hate crime? Would homophobia be one day declared a mental sickness? These are some of the thoughts that run through my mind as I reflect on this ongoing impassioned debate about same-sex marriage.

Marriage has been a noble institution that virtually all cultures have embraced. It is the substratum of civilisation, the most fundamental unit of human society. By definition, it is the state of union between a man and a woman, a permanent and affective relationship of a husband and his wife that generates and educates its offspring.

 

All religions, not just Christianity, have denounced homosexuality and see no reason for it in marriage. That is to say, it is part of natural law. Christianity, which is Jamaica's bedrock religion, has pronounced unequivocally on the nature of marriage as the exchange of vows between a man and a woman, equally made in the image and likeness of God, and joined together in harmonious unity to "be fruitful and multiply, and (to) fill the earth and subdue it".

 

Thus, marriage is part of the natural order of the universe, the pristine and constitutive ingredient uniting man and woman in their joint stewardship of creation and as progenitors of the human race. Marriage is thus a primordial commandment, a natural law.

 

Is it now God's will that two women marry each other? Would the Creator unite two men in marriage? And to what end? We cannot now throw out the natural laws of God uniting man and woman, laws which have made possible the posterity of the race, the creation of family life and the guarantee of social cohesion, for this anomalous situation.

 

It is irrational and against natural law for two men or two women to marry each other. If they fall into sexual relationship, it is sinful and they can be forgiven. But they must control their passions and transform their relationship into friendship.

 

Indeed, its foundation is noble. It is friendship, but friendship which does not require marriage.  Friendship oftentimes grows deeper than marriage. Friendship is created for the sake of brotherhood or sisterhood, people get united to achieve one purpose or common cause. Companionship and fellowship are time-honoured joys of civilisation.

 

These must continue, be nurtured and allowed to flourish. Friendship is found in the myriad ways in which man relates with his fellow man in all the aspects of his life. Oftentimes it leads to heroic expressions of love and commitment far surpassing that of marriage, such as happened between Jonathan and King David: "They loved each other more than husband and wife......even unto death."

 

In the Christian dispensation, friendship without Eros is the highest form of love. Jesus said that "a man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friend." For the Christian, friendship is one of the foundation stones that builds the kingdom of God.

 

Friendship is also based on feelings. Feelings are beautiful and give power to our actions. They are part of the expression of our humanity, our personality, and they flavour our interpersonal relationships. But often they go awry unless we rein them in.

 

Feelings can be like an unbridled horse. If we don't control them, they will control us. Sometimes we must reject them, otherwise they create irreparable damage.

 

If we love God, we will obey His commandments, no matter how difficult. Life and love are difficult, requiring risk, trust in another, constant self-sacrifice, a veritable dying on the cross with Christ, so that something honourable and noble and beautiful is birthed in all our relationships -- with our friends, with our wives and husbands, our children, and our neighbours, without carnality, but in the love of God.

 

— Brother Hayden Augustine is a member of Missionaries of the Poor

March 26, 2013

Jamaica Observer

The facts about homosexuality

BY CYNTHIA BURTON

Jamaica Observer - Columns:

I want to add my thoughts to the much-talked about topic of homosexuality, and clarify, once and for all the facts about this lifestyle.

Let me first state that this issue is not only confined to the perspective of the church, but to the wider society as well.  The first point that must be made clear is that homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle.

Homosexuals were not created.  Man was created as a being of free choice.  He was also created with an inherent sexuality, which is also governed by choice.  If we look at nature and how it is designed, even the animals and plants exist as male and female.  It was so ordained for procreation.  Each creature has to procreate in a union of male and female to ensure the survival of their species.

 

I have used the word "created" guardedly, as there are those among us who do not believe in the creation theory, but would ascribe to the evolutionist theory that says man evolved from animal life.  Whatever your persuasion, we have to agree that the natural order of things is male and female.

 

This homosexual lifestyle is wrong and abhorrent, and moves so far beyond the realm of the Christian church that if you should examine all other major religions, such as Islam and Hinduism, homosexuality is tabooed.  Additionally, if you should approach the biggest don in the inner city or the dancehall artistes, who have nothing to do with the church, they will give out against this lifestyle.

In fact, several of them have been banned from certain countries because of the stance taken against their music which hits out against this lifestyle.

 

This lifestyle, therefore, is a classic case of doing and believing the thing that is wrong for such a long time that it now seems right.

 

Times have really changed as far as the acceptance of this lifestyle is concerned.

 

I remember as a child growing up that homosexuality had to be kept behind closed doors, and those who practised this way of life had to do so in their closets under circumstances of great privacy.

 

Now look at how our world has changed.  We not only now accept this as a way of life, but we are seeking further to endorse it, by allowing those who practise homosexuality to demand the same rights as heterosexuals.  We have now got to the point where we have put legislation in place to protect the rights of these persons, them the message that they have the right to this choice of lifestyle and can therefore make such demands.

 

Now let us look at the whole thing from the church's perspective.

 

What is the church?  The church in the bible is spoken about as the bride.  It is God's institution and the voice of God for man.

 

If we go back to the book of Genesis, at the time of creation in Genesis 1 vs 21:

 

"And God created great whales, and every living creature and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good."

 

Genesis 1 vs 27 and 28:

 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

 

(28) "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

 

Now for those who say that the Bible does not speak out against homosexuality, and that Jesus himself did not address this issue, let us move over to Romans 1 vs 24 - 27.

 

(24) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves,

 

(25) Who changed the truth of God into a lie.

 

(26) For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.

 

(27)And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of a woman, burned in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error...

 

Now we see the implications of societal acceptance of homosexuality, that people who practise this lifestyle have taken this matter to a different level, where they are now heading up the church and purporting to lead God's flock. It is the tolerance of this lifestyle that has now resulted in these persons now demanding rights of those things that are rightly the purview of heterosexuals.

 

Let us go even further with this dilemma.  Now homosexuals are demanding the right of marriage and the right to adopt children.  Gay marriages are very popular in modern society.

 

Can you imagine a scenario where a gay couple adopts a child and takes on the responsibility of raising this child in a primarily homophobic society?  The child goes to school and the school hosts a PTA meeting.  These two parents, male for argument's sake, turn up at the PTA meeting.  Who is Mom and who is Dad?  Can you imagine this poor child the next day at school with the other children?

 

Let us be quite clear -- marriage was an institution ordained by God between a man and a woman who are expected to procreate and create the unit called the family.  So important is this institution that Jesus performed his first miracle at the wedding in Canaan of Galilee.

 

Now to the big question.  Is homosexuality a sin?  Let us look at the definition of sin.  Sin is transgression of God's law.  So those who argue that all sin is sin, may want to think again.  Homosexuality is not provided for in the 10 commandments, because it is considered an abomination to God, and those who practice this lifestyle are flying in God's face and going against the order of things as God intended.

 

Now there are those who will argue that God created homosexuals.  Let us be clear that God created all persons including the homosexual, but our sexuality and our sexual preference is as a result of the free choice with which we were all created.  Some of us choose heterosexuality, some homosexuality and some abstinence.  How could God create something that he abhors?

 

We can now see the dilemma that we have created as a society.  The wrong has now become the right, and we are now creating laws on our books to not only allow the homosexual his constitutional rights, and to fulfil his everyday needs as stated in Maslows' hierarchy of needs, the right of food, shelter, the right to earn a living, but by extension are protecting rights that God ordained to be enjoyed between a man and a woman.

 

Additionally, while acknowledging these rights, we also have to be cognisant to the fact that certain professions, such as teaching, are not compatible with this lifestyle, because of the risk of perpetrating and influencing the spread of this lifestyle amongst the youth.

 

Finally, let us give the homosexual the benefit of the doubt and say for a minute that homosexuality is accepted and should enjoy all these rights.

 

Can we take it to the extreme and ask the question.  What if all persons should adopt this lifestyle?  Can you imagine that the human race would become extinct, as the only thing that the homosexuals could not do is to procreate.

 

Finally, as a society, what legacy are we leaving for our children?  Already as we move from generation to generation, we find our youth becoming more tolerant of this lifestyle and are being taught in schools that it is all right to pursue this lifestyle.

 

What of our moral values as a society?  What will the decision makers of tomorrow embrace when they now become the leaders and legislators of tomorrow.

 

We therefore have to conclude that this lifestyle is unacceptable, abominable, and a clear message should be sent forthwith to all who choose to practise same, that they have the right to their sexuality, and all the other constitutional rights, based on their ability to contribute to society, but should not try to enforce this right to the point where we legislate for this lifestyle, thus threatening the whole moral fabric of society.

 

Let us therefore unite in a message of love to our homosexuals, that we love them as persons, but abhor their lifestyle.  Additionally, this lifestyle is not permanent, and can be subject to change as evidenced by reformed homosexuals.

 

If we examine the facts, we see that environmental factors such as economic circumstances, rather than genetic predisposition, have influenced homosexuality, and therefore organisations such as J-FLAG should actively try to secure a transformation of this lifestyle, rather than serve as a voice in society for its acceptance.

 

cynthiacburton@hotmail.com

February 09, 2013

Jamaica Observer

While prejudice, ignorance and hatred are still directed against homosexuals, we have made moral progress in The Bahamas in terms of loving and seeking to protect from abuse and discrimination our gay brothers and sisters

Prejudice, ignorance and hatred must be challenged

thenassauguardian

Nassau, The Bahamas

Dr. Perry Gomez, Director of the National HIV/AIDS Programme, is the leading Bahamian expert on HIV/AIDS with a stellar regional and international reputation for combating the disease.

He has been on the forefront of the fight since the onset of the epidemic in the early 1980s.  Dr. Gomez has helped to save lives by advocating for prevention, testing and treatment.  The first Caribbean HIV Conference, recently held in The Bahamas, was an occasion for both the country and the good doctor to be recognized for the many successes in combating HIV/AIDS.

These successes are many in terms of intensive prevention awareness and education efforts; aggressive medical treatment, including in mother-to-child transmission for pregnant women, and measures to address stigma and discrimination in various areas related to the disease.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, through his foundation has honored Dr. Gomez and recognized The Bahamas as an international leader in the fight against AIDS.  Dr. Gomez has earned his medical and moral credibility in fighting the disease through dogged advocacy and by journeying as a doctor and as a friend to many who have succumbed to the disease and others who continue to live with HIV.

 

SUPPORT

It was noted at the HIV/AIDS conference:

“The Bahamas has been a leader in developing legislation to protect the rights of minorities and others living with HIV.  In 1991 The Bahamas was the first, and is still the only country in the region, to decriminalize homosexuality.  The Bahamas was the only Caribbean country to sign the Paris Declaration in 1994, which set global standards for HIV and human rights.  We also strengthened protection from discrimination for HIV positive individuals in the workplace by amendment to the existing labor laws in 2001.”

Experts recognize the role that the reduction in stigma plays in preventing the disease, treating those affected, and reducing the incidence of the disease.  Nearly three decades after the onslaught of the epidemic there is still much to be done, especially on the prevention side.  There is also work to be done in the prevention of stigma and discrimination as evidenced by the unfortunate comments by Bishop Simeon Hall a few weeks ago.

Bishop Hall enjoys speaking out on all manner of issues.  In the past few years he has developed a reputation for being glib, and for being something of a publicity seeker.  Often he opines on matters of which he is exceedingly ill-informed.

At a labor conference in the past, a labor leader was stunned when Bishop Hall spoke to the gathering and pressed for additional protections for workers and changes to labor laws, unaware of the fact that most of the matters on which he opined had already been changed through new legislation.

Such behavior may be considered somewhat comical and harmless, but his comments relating to gays and HIV/AIDS were neither.  Indeed, they were extremely harmful even though Bishop Hall tried to backtrack in the face of criticism.  In yesterday’s Insight column in The Tribune, Joey Gaskins analyzes Bishop Hall’s doublespeak.

 

DEMONIZED

Prejudice has always used ignorance and fear as its natural allies.  This is the means through which groups of people such as gays and lesbians are demonized and dehumanized.  Early in the AIDS crisis gays were ruthlessly demonized, with some using the disease as a warped metaphor for the supposed innate depravity of homosexuals.

We have come a long way in fighting the epidemic and the prejudice.  Yet we still need to be vigilant on both fronts.  What is refreshing is the response to Bishop Hall’s comments by medical experts, activists, journalists and others.

Bishop Hall is not the only religious figure who has used specious thinking to demonize homosexuals.  Pastor Lyall Bethel systematically demonizes homosexuals, using fear as one of his weapons while saying that he actually loves gays and lesbians.

A few months ago when The Bahamas supported a UN resolution which sought to protect various vulnerable groups from torture and violence, Front Porch criticized a group of ministers for their response to comments made by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette in support of the resolution.  (See “When Hatred Triumphs Over Love”, July 5, 2011).

Conveniently and retroactively, Pastor Bethel and his cohorts said they agreed that gays and lesbians should be protected from such violence.  Then why didn’t they demonstrate their love by quickly supporting the resolution instead of conveniently so doing after being criticized?

Worse, in response to the July 5 Front Porch Pastor Bethel was exceedingly disingenuous, fabricating that the column espoused gay marriage, one of the red flags which the apostles of discrimination often wave with abandon.  Readers will find no such reference.  But such fabrications and the employment of disingenuous moral and intellectual thinking is par for the course for extremists.

 

UNCOVERED

In another Insight column some time ago Tankea Thompson uncovered the source for some of Pastor Bethel’s tortured thinking, namely a Dr. Fields he has quoted to support his views.  A letter to the editor referenced her column:

“According to Ms. Thompson, the Dr. Fields that Pastor Bethel quoted to support his demagoguery is a known white supremacist, neo-Nazi and member of the Klu Klux Klan.”  She also notes: “Conservatives, who in the past have unwittingly cited Fields’ material, have publicly apologized and distanced themselves from Fields.”

Not only did Pastor Bethel not apologize, he defended his use of material from Dr. Fields by saying that people today quote from slaveholders like some of the American Founding Fathers.  The illogic behind this will not elude most basic students of logic or moral reasoning, though it seems to have eluded the pastor.

While prejudice, ignorance and hatred are still directed against homosexuals, we have made moral progress in The Bahamas in terms of loving and seeking to protect from abuse and discrimination our gay brothers and sisters.

Ironically, it is good when those like Bishop Hall and Pastor Bethel issue their screeds.  It highlights the demonization and ignorance that must still be fought.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us this during his struggle against prejudice and discrimination in America.

Sometimes the world’s moral heroes wear a clerical collar, sometimes they don’t.  Often, the moral heroes are people like Dr. Perry Gomez and the many others who have sought to uphold the moral dignity and protections of those living with HIV/AIDS.  This includes gay men who often in the face of stigma and the effects of the disease know that they are no less a valued citizen of this country and a child of God, made as much in His image and likeness as Pastor Bethel and Bishop Hall.

www.bahamapundit.com

frontporchguardian@gmail.com

Dec 06, 2011

thenassauguardian

...the laws criminalising homosexuality are depriving the Caribbean of the use of remarkably talented people in all fields of life who could be contributing to the development and prosperity of every Caribbean country

Gays have rights too: The Caribbean dilemma

By Sir Ronald Sanders

A statement by the prime minister of Britain, David Cameron, that his government will not provide budgetary aid to governments that violate human rights, including by discriminating against homosexuals and lesbians, has angered sections of Caribbean society.

The angry response may have arisen over a misunderstanding of Cameron’s remarks made in a BBC interview at the end of the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia from 28 to 30 October. The remarks were not made at CHOGM itself.

While Cameron did say that his government would not provide general budget support to governments that do not uphold human rights, including the rights of homosexuals, lesbians and vulnerable communities such as young girls, his remarks were not specifically about homosexuals and he did not say that all aid would be withheld. In any event, no independent Caribbean country is a recipient of General Budget Aid from Britain, and, therefore, not one of them would be affected. In this regard, the response to Cameron’s remarks could have benefitted from more careful study.

Cameron did not state a new position. What he said has been the British government’s published policy since earlier this year when the Department for International Development (DFID) conducted a study, involving a wide range of organisations and countries, from which it was decided that General Budget Aid to governments should be linked to good governance, accountability and respect for human rights. British budgetary support is only 16% of the UK’s annual aid budget of £7.46 billion (US$12.1billion).

Nevertheless, the policies, laws and practices applicable to homosexuals and lesbians are real and growing issues in the Caribbean, not only from a human rights stand point but as a public health one too.

At the CHOGM in Perth, an Eminent Persons Group (EPG), of which I am a member, delivered a report to Heads of Government, who commissioned it at their meeting in Trinidad two years ago, on ways to reform the Commonwealth to make it relevant to its times and its people.

Included in the 106 recommendations in the report was one that governments “should take steps to encourage the repeal of discriminatory laws that impede the effective response of Commonwealth countries to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and commit to programmes of education that would help a repeal of such laws”. Amongst these laws are those that criminalize homosexuality.

The recommendation proved to be difficult for many African and Caribbean governments. Of the current 53-nations of the Commonwealth, 41 of them retain laws that criminalise homosexuality in particular. Some of these laws dictate that homosexuals should be flogged and jailed. Of the 41 states with such laws, all 12 of the independent Commonwealth Caribbean countries are included.

Remarkably, these laws are relics of the colonial past. They were introduced in the Caribbean by the British Colonial government. But, while Britain, like the majority of countries in the world, has moved on to decriminalize homosexuality, the colonial laws remain in many parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

In Britain, Australia, Canada, the United States and the majority of European and Latin American nations, many homosexuals and lesbians, freed from the criminalization of their sexual preferences, have risen to the top of their careers. Many are captains of industries, government ministers, leading sports persons and even members of the armed forces doing duty in dangerous places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. In the Caribbean, however, homosexuals are marginalised and the majority remain hidden, terrified of the consequences of “coming out”.

Caribbean governments face serious difficulties over this issue. There is a strong prejudice in societies based on both a lack of education and reluctance to engage the issue in public fora. The churches in the Caribbean are the most unyielding, constraining political parties from adopting a more enlightened and modern-day view of the matter.

The facts indicate that 60 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV and 33.3 million presently live with the virus. Over 60% of the people living with HIV reside in Commonwealth countries. The region with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS per capita is the Caribbean. In this sense, the problem for the Caribbean is one both of human rights and public health.

Homosexuals who live under the risk of flogging and jail are reluctant to reveal themselves if and when they become HIV infected. Consequently, they are left untreated and the disease spreads and eventually they die, although the real cause of death is usually hidden.

In any event, the laws criminalising homosexuality are depriving the Caribbean of the use of remarkably talented people in all fields of life who could be contributing to the development and prosperity of every Caribbean country. Some homosexuals have already emerged – despite the laws and the stigma – as outstanding Caribbean citizens, revered not only in the region but in other parts of the world, but they have been persons of great courage and unquestionable ability. Others have simply fallen by the wayside, or are living lives of lies.

On the eve of CHOGM in Perth, Helen Clark, the head of the United Nations Development Programme wrote to Commonwealth leaders pointing out that “it is important and urgent” for them “to promote and secure the repeal of the discriminatory laws which impede effective national HIV responses”. She called for “legislative initiatives and programmes which will repeal discriminatory laws” that “can not only turn back the HIV epidemic, but also improve the health and development of their citizens”. She urged leaders “to seize this opportunity for the Commonwealth to turn a corner in preventing and controlling HIV by embracing the proposals to repeal laws which impede effective HIV responses”.

In part, it was to this urging that the British prime minister was responding when he spoke in the BBC interview of the need to repeal discriminatory laws.

The issue will not go away. Britain’s linking of General Budget Aid to respect for human rights is one response. Others will follow in different ways. As the international community sees it, homosexuals and lesbians are entitled to rights too, as long as they do not affect the rights and preferences of others.

The Caribbean will have to face up to that reality -- as most of the rest of the world has. The best way to start is by informed public discussion.

November 11, 2011

caribbeannewsnow