LETTER: CARICOM citizens congratulated for vote at UN Assembly

As CARICOM citizens we are proud that a majority of Caribbean nations stood up in the United Nations General Assembly on December 22 and voted together, in the words of the Rwanda delegation, to “recognize that…people [of different sexual orientation] continue to be the target of murder in many of our societies, and they are more at risk than many…other groups”.

Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada and St. Kitts-Nevis joined 85 other nations in voting to specifically mention sexual orientation, in a biennial UN resolution, as one ground of vulnerability for being murdered or executed unlawfully for who you are.

All but one of our Caribbean governments had supported an effort in committee by a bloc of Arab, African and Islamic nations, several of which execute gays and lesbians or would like to, to remove the reference. We appreciate their responsiveness, with the notable exception of Trinidad & Tobago, to our reasoned appeals.

We salute the foreign ministries of Belize and Jamaica who communicated with gay and lesbian voters about their December vote, a welcome measure of accountability and transparency in our foreign policy. On the other hand, the St. Lucia delegation seems not to have listened to their Prime Minister’s pledge in Parliament this April to “stand against stigma and discrimination in all its forms” and “guarantee non-discrimination against persons on the basis of sexual orientation”. St. Lucia stood apart from CARICOM in voting no.

We in the Caribbean have lived largely free of the levels of violence experienced by post-colonial nations like Rwanda. But we continue to harbour a colonial mentality that some groups are more worthy than others; and homophobic killings are a reality several places in the region. We hope that, without the need for atrocity to teach us this lesson, our governments will mature in their understanding that everyone has an essential right to equality and protection because they are human.

The vote is a hopeful sign that in 2011 Caribbean governments may get serious about their commitments to these rights at home.

Dr. Marcus Day & Kenita Placide, St. Lucia

Ashily Dior & Brendon O’Brien, Trinidad and Tobago

Vidyaratha Kissoon, Guyana

Nigel Mathlin, Grenada

Caleb Orozco, Belize

Daryl Phillip, Dominica

Victor Rollins, Bahamas

Maurice Tomlinson, Jamaica

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5 Comments

  1. eagles125
    January 2, 2011

    I believe that God should be the one to decide who should live or die. The issue of life or death is not in any of our hands. On the other hand we should live our lives as God intended. God made Adam and Eve. Marriage was ordained by God to be a union between one man and one woman and not between two men or two women. The issue of same sex marriage is definitely against God’s word and His ordinances.

  2. Reason
    December 31, 2010

    Thanks for the refreshing letter.

    The British imposed alot of those laws on us “highly sexed natives” back some 130 years ago and then they went and got rid of the same laws in their own country.

    But lo and behold, hypocrits that we are, these are the very colonial laws that we, ” the natives,” wish to keep.

    Many of our neighbours do not have those laws: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Monserrat, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius freed themselves of that stupid legislation years ago. And they have not turned into any dens of iniquity and debauchery. Grow up people!

  3. Chakademus
    December 31, 2010

    Big Stupes! What about our moral and ethical traditions? We do not condone violence against anyone but what about our principles, should we be in the business of supporting a lifestyle that goes contrary to everything that we know is right and decent? We are far from the kind of violence seen in Rwanda and using that to justify our government supporting this deviant lifestyle is intellectually dishonest.

  4. chgewilcum
    December 31, 2010

    I am very happy when people start defending the rights of those who are being shunned in society for the way in which they choose to live their lives. No one should be killed because they are of a different race, color, sexual orientation, country or social status. We are all equals in the eyes of God, & maybe if some of us closed our prejudicial eyes against the flaws and variances of others; we could be in a much safer & loving world. We all have to answer to God for our indiscretions; no one has the right to judge or condemn someone’s way of living unless they are the Father of lights! If I condemn someone for being white/Caucasian/Asian/mixed/homosexual; God will condemn me for condemning them; and that makes me just as bad, if not worse than they are. May God bless you & keep you whole. Amen.

  5. Kristoff
    December 31, 2010

    Way to go guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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