by Scott Roberts Pink News, Europe’s Largest Gay News Service

Three people have launched legal against Jamaica due to the country’s continued enforcement of homophobic laws.

The case is being sent to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and has the support of the Human Dignity Trust, an LGBT-rights group based in the UK.

The people are: Gareth Henry, who successfully obtained asylum in Canada due to the violent abuse and persecution he suffered in Jamaica, based on his sexual orientation.

Dane Lewis, the director of J-FLAG – Jamaica’s only human rights lobby group and Ian McKnight, CEO of Caribbean Vulnerable Communities –  who are the largest coalition of HIV/AIDS groups in the Caribbean.

The Jamaican criminal code prohibits sex between men and sentences for buggery can include 10 years imprisonment with hard labour – the laws date back to the island’s colonial past.

In December of last year, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller promised to review the country’s homophobic legislation. – see below “New Jamaican PM to be sworn in”

However, campaigners have accused her of inaction.

J-FLAG Executive Director Dane Lewis told the Guardian that homophobic killings in the country have increased:

“This year alone there have been nine [murders],” he said. “The violence in Jamaica is having a spillover effect on other parts of the Caribbean: St Lucia now has a murder or so every year.”

One prominent Jamaican victim was John Terry, the 65-year-old British honorary consul in Montego Bay, who was found dead in 2009 having been beaten and strangled.

A note left on his body read: “This is what will happen to all gays,” it also featured the word “batty man” – a homophobic term of abuse.

Jamaican police claimed Mr Terry’s death was not a homophobic murder.

New Jamaican PM to be sworn in, with promise to review anti-gay law

Jamaica’s new Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, who has said she will review the criminalisation of homosexuality in the country and not forbid gays from serving in her cabinet as former Prime Minister Bruce Golding had, is to be sworn in today.

Simpson-Miller returns to power after a convincing win at the end of year elections in which her People’s National Party defeated Golding’s replacement, Andrew Holness, who held the position for two months.

In a televised debate in December, Simpson-Miller said gays would not be forbidden to serve in her cabinet, and that the government should “have a look” at the criminalisation of gay acts, and vote freely on the matter.

Holness, of the Jamaican Labor Party, and Simpson-Miller were asked whether they supported the statement made by the former Prime Minister Golding that gays were not welcome in his cabinet.

After saying it was his responsibility to make sure the “institutions of freedom” were in place, Holness said: “My sentiments reflect the sentiments of the country. The Prime Minister has a discretion, but that discretion cannot be exercised in a vacuum.”

Holness, who was Jamaica’s youngest-ever leader, had accepted earlier in the debate that there were minimum standards of human rights to which the country had to adhere, but said Jamaican society should determine its own “civil rights”.

Simpson-Miller, however, who was Prime Minister in 2006 and 2007, said she would choose cabinet members because of “their ability to manage and to lead”, not their sexuality.

Earlier in the debate said she wanted to protect the human rights of all Jamaicans, believing the government should protect people against discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation, and would “review” the laws criminalising gay sexual acts.

The People’s National Party won 41 of the 63 seats at the end of December, leaving 22 for the Jamaican Labour Party. Previously, the party had occupied 28 and 32 seats respectively.

Holness said the people had “spoken”. He said: “I wish the new government well. There are challenges that they will face, challenges that we are quite well aware of. And we hope for the benefit of the country and for the interest of the people of Jamaica that they will do a good job.”

The new government will primarily have to deal with the national debt, which stands at 120% of GDP, a figure approaching Greece’s 2010 debt level of 126.8%, as well as widespread unemployment.

Simpson-Miller said she would work “unswervingly to achieve the desired growth, development, and to lift the standard of living in Jamaica”.

As a result of her relatively pro-gay comments, one member of the then-ruling party questioned whether Simpson-Miller had been paid by the international LGBT community to speak up for gay rights.

Paul Canning of LGBT Asylum News told PinkNews.co.uk it was “a common tactic of anti-gay politicians the world over, most often seen in Africa”.

“He asked if Simpson-Miller had made her comments in exchange for funding – the exact same ‘wedge’ tactic used against then opposition leader in Zambia, Michael Sata.”

Daryl Vaz, the minister in question, has said the questions he raised over Simpson-Miller’s statements resulted in death threats.

For more on these stories go to:

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/01/05/new-jamaican-pm-to-be-sworn-in-with-promise-to-review-anti-gay-law/

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/10/26/jamaica-faces-legal-action-over-anti-gay-laws/