Part one

In the motions this year were some very important issues affecting Black and Asian LGBT people and issues that are important to them. I also made a lot of new contacts from all different unions and LGBT black and Asian people.

This year was very important as we had the highest amount of black and Asian people ever come to conference. There was about 24 Delegates and visitors included. We met as a group and decided that we are going to form a black forum to discuss issues and to move the black and Asian agenda forward. This group to included Imam, BME Terence Higgins Trust, chair and Commission for Racial Equality and many other Asian and Black groups and agencies.

Two motions were carried regarding issues for Asian and Black and Ethnic LGBT people.

One motion looked at the amount of Asylum seekers who are LGBT being refused their applications for Asylum and being sent back to countries that are homophobic and put gay people in jail or murder or torture them.

The other motion was connected with JFLAG, which also deals with the way Gay Jamaicans are treated in their country by the police, hospitals and their own people.

Let's deal with each motion

While I agree with the motions I am not sure about the way forward. Pressure needs to be put on the government to change the way applications are dealt with so that a lot of LGBT people do not have to go back to countries where they would not be safe. Policies need to be changed around this so that a lot of applications do not have to the Appeal Courts costing the government a lot of money. The application form I have been informed around LGBT people is discriminating in a lot of ways. The application form is type casting and offensive, asking questions about decoration and whether you use Laura Ashley or liking the music of Barbara Stressed etc. While some gay men do like these things gay men are very different in their tastes in music, culture and film and anybody who bothered to find out this would find this to be the case. I think there should a group of people including gay organisations that should monitor the applications of people who seek Asylum. I agree with the campaign to promote and campaign against the discrimination against LBGT asylum seekers. We need to get money from all gay organisations and gay press or for gay press to advertise this for free to help the campaign. I also agree that this matter should go to the international agenda.

Motion 9 dealt with - International Homophobia - Jamaican Violence

This motion was important as member of JFLAG was here at the conference to talk to the conference about this issue and he was the co-chair of the group.

This is a summary of what he said.

Homophobia is rife is Jamaica where LGBT people live in constant fear of their lives. JFLAG is not even recognised as an organisation by the government. JFLAG works with other organisations to help put in simple laws and give support to LGBT women and men. The Government has kept the laws that were put in place and repealed in this country back in the late sixties around Homosexuality. Jamaican Government has no plans to change the law now or in the future at this moment in time. He has had death threats in the street and by phone and by emails too. He has watched friends being beaten and even killed and when he reports it nobody in the police wants to know, as gay people are not important and are worth less than an animal. A couple of policemen were beating on a gay man and the crowd found out that the man was gay. They asked the police to give the man to them and they would finish him. The crowd chased him and beat him nearly to death. They had broken ribs, legs and other parts of his body too and he is blind in one eye as a result of this. At one time a group of 60 people came to his house and asked him to leave, as he shared his house with other males. Sometimes when he takes phone duty he does not want to answer the phone due to the death threats. What makes this worse is that the government do not want to believe that this sort of thing goes on but even politicians use anti- gay songs in their campaign empowering people to treat gay people in the way that they do.

People who denied protection and are sent back to Jamaica have lost ties with their family and most of the time the family does not want to know them. They have no home or place to stay or a job and then are left to fend for themselves leading them into crime. Others are sent back to die or to suffer. They are not wanted in their country and all they want is to be free and themselves – something gay people in the fifties and before had to fight.

He was asked what was the response from the black community and he said that he had been sent hate messages. A lot of Jamaican organisations had been very hostile as they felt that letting the outside world get involved was helping to paint a bad picture of Jamaica. They felt it was a European sickness that has affected the Black community. The Black community see that there is no real gay people in their community and those who are have been infected by white illness. How can you challenge people who will not admit to the existence of gay black men in their community?

This kind of attitude makes me sad as black people are just like other people in lots of ways and there are people who are open and accepting and those who are blinkered and sexist, racist and homophobic. When I hear comments made to black women who are with white men, aren't black men good enough for them and other hateful things I feel ashamed of these men shouting the comments. This attitude can also come from women. Love is not about colour; it is about feelings towards another person.

In the same way the black community were against the movie the colour purple because of the way it portrayed black people they are doing a similar thing with the gay issue and other issues too. "The colour purple" was about us, about love, about abuse, about hope and also about women who love women. It was honest and showed the black community at that time and was written by a black woman. It took a long while for the Black community to accept that film and that makes me sad. What does this say about the black community to come forward with these adverse and negative and extremist views? How different is that attitude to the people who have persecuted black people and their fights in history and still are now.

I am only part West Indian but I have not grown up in the black community and what I hear makes feel that it is best that I did not. The most important thing to mention is that not all the black community are Anti-gay and they’re a lot of black women and some men who are supportive of gay people. This openness has been seen on big brother 2005 by Makosi and Kumal. There are a lot of issues regarding male sexuality within the black community and links with low self worth, low qualifications and getting into different kinds of living that are not legal to make money and boost their credibility. Gayness is therefore a real challenge to this and is treated with hostility.

Religion and homophobia

I agree with freedom of speech and the right to discussion, but there is a fine line between freedom of speech and promoting hatred. It all starts with words and then that leads to actions and that leads to consequences. Some churches and people preach hatred against gays and other people like transgendered people from the pulpit. They call them evil, paedophiles and lots of other untrue things. They incite hatred by giving people the belief that taking out that hatred against these kinds of people is ok and their speech gives them permission to do so. This has led to people killing gay people and crowds acting out hatred towards these kinds of people. In fact - this has led to murder and therefore spreading hatred means churches and other people have colluded and in fact have blood on their hands.

One of the top commandments is do not commit murder. It is for God to judge and do not judge for you will be judged with the same judgement you use. Leave it to God. You do not understand everything and do not know if the bible is correct or if a lot of the books have been changed and you cannot use it to spread lies or hatred as it is not the word of God but the word of many different men - they are not infallible.

Here are some of the questions I had prepared to ask the panel - one a gay clergyman, one from Imam, one from Jflag.

" How can we help Jflag as it is an issue that the PCS Proud committee have been dealing with and we have become a little stuck in the way forward?" My friend George Sheppard was chairing this part of the conference and I got picked to ask the question. Jamaica should protect the civil liberties and human rights of all people including LGBT people in law and life.

By this time Gareth from JFLAG had spoken to conference with a standing ovation lasting about 3 minutes. Most of us were moved and nearly crying. He said that the love and support of TUC LGBT conference and other similar groups and gay organisations. We can help by keeping the issues out there and promoting the work of JFLAG. The TUC had written to other affiliated Unions in Jamaica but had not response.

The second motion was around the Human Rights abuse all over the world in many countries to LGBT people, something that Amnesty International have been involved with publicising the plight and treatment of LBGT people in certain countries all over the world. Colombia where a woman was paraded on a donkey with the word lesbian around her neck and then she was raped and was found later dead with her breasts cut off. There was similar story of gay man in the Eastern block that was found to be gay. He was also paraded around on a donkey with toilet seat around his neck saying he was gay. He was then put in jail and then he was to be stoned and buried alive. His parents managed to pay the police to let him go so he could escape and ran here to England and eventually applied for stay in this country. The government are refusing applications from these kinds of people telling them to go back and keep their sexuality quiet and they will be all right. They are sending these people back to be killed, tortured, raped or worse. Are the Government murderers? Do they have blood on their hands and what is being done to monitor what happens to these people when they go back? Most of the time these people suddenly disappear.

The second question I was going to ask was: spreading hatred from the pulpit and passing that on was giving people empowerment to abuse and discriminate against LBGT people. The Mormon Church spends thousands of dollars near a million to oppose the gay marriage law. What should be done to prevent religious organisations forcing their views and opinions on people through politics or law? This question was put forward in the end but another person asked a similar question.