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The year in progress

This year has been very challenging. As much work has not been done in this area I had to think of ways to tackle the situation. Without any previous work to look at, I have had to look at things afresh. The first thing I did was the find out information on the Internet that helps black Asian and other minorities. I found a lot more help than I thought and some of the links have been added to the PCS website.

Due to the PCS magazine with an article about my work as black members rep, I was invited to the Black and Asian conference in Nottingham looking at the needs of black and Asian LBGT people. This event gave me the knowledge and information I needed to press things forward. The report has been edited and sent out and my own report is finished.

I have put together a black members plan for the black members rep and what the problems are and what we should be doing to address them. It is clear that the work we can do is limited but with working with other organisations I am sure the work can be pushed forward with better results.

As a result of the plan I have now put together an action plan of how we can address the problems and deal with them.

One of the issues brought forward was the anti-hate lyrics of the Jamaican Rap artists but this was not dealt with in the best way and the motion brought forward lacked any real solution to the problem. In the meantime other organisations like BME of Terence Higgins Trust got involved and helped with other pressure groups to get a deal with record companies and promoters not to promote artists who indulged in anti- hatred towards LGBT people. This was agreed and has helped a lot by a lot of organisations publicly shunning these artists and pulling out of concerts etc.
I went to a meeting in with JFLAG and Amnesty International re the violence, discrimination and killing of LGBT black people in Jamaica – as a result a motion was written.

In Reference to the Branch Model Motion

LGBT Rights in Jamaica

In reading the motion it is very unclear to see how this issues can be brought forward.
Some of the information is incorrect in regards to HIV and education and also from the motion it is clear that the human Rights report has not been read.

I agree that the work with Jflag needs to be highlighted and more people need to know about the issues, but I do not think that writing letters is going to change the situation or make very little difference.

The campaign last year to highlight the issues of Black Gay people in Jamaica had people send postcards to the President calling for changes. What did this do? Unfortunately it did very little to change things. The issue has been brought forward to the public’s attention around the Jamaican Reggae singers and the messages of death to gay people.

This motion did very little to tackle the situation.
It was not realistic in its aims or achievements.

Writing letters will do nothing to change the situation.

Education, awareness and promotion are needed and you have to do this by getting people in Jamaica on your side and getting them to understand and listen.

We need to highlight equality, fairness and working on the lines of fair treatment to everyone regardless of their colour, gender, sexuality etc.

Highlight the work of Jflag and bring other black gay organisations together, get gay press involved and work together to educate people here as well about the trials and difficulties of black gay people.

We need to move on forward and get record companies to back up their stance by getting albums with anti-gay or hate material off the shelves and not promoting or helping people who spreading hate and violence against sections of society.

Look at history of gay people and black people and Jews etc.

Remember the bombing in Soho and also the death of Matthew Shepherd and other gay people across the world including black people.

Remind people of all the black gay people whose murders have been unsolved and forgotten.

People who went to the meeting with JFLAG and Amnesty International had not read the human rights booklet. The booklet has clear solutions to some of the problems facing Jamaica and this was missed out at the meeting. I had looked through the booklet and read the section on solutions before going to the meeting, but I had little chance of saying very much. A lot of time could have been saved if people had the read the Human rights booklet.

This was discussed at the Black Members Forum and one of the members of the foreign office are looking into what is being done regarding this by the government and what they intend to do.

The advice was to help by giving money to organisations that help black people and are helping the cause like “ Dare to Care” which pays people a high amount of money to look after people with AIDS as there is such a stigma about it and these people are shunned and given or no help or support. The other unions are following the stance that we need to tackle all forms of homophobia across the world and not just center on Jamaica. They are just one country out of many still not giving rights to gay people and treating them like criminals.

I put forward the usual stance that discrimination is wrong no matter where it comes from and then quote Martin Luther Kings widow saying just that. She felt that discrimination against people because of someone’s sexuality was wrong. See the extract.

“All forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere,” the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. told activists gathered for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s 13th annual Creating Change conference. She continued: “I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.”

Mrs. King gave a forceful statement on the importance of gay rights to the overall civil rights struggle

And this was not the first time Mrs. King made it clear that groups like the Concerned Women for America have no idea what they're talking about when they try to speak on behalf of African-Americans by criticizing the struggle for gay equality. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.

This is important as many religious camps are using Martin Luther King to say that what he said had nothing to do with the gay equality struggle and it is not to be compared with the struggle for black people.
To treat other in the same manner you would like to be treated – a phrase from the bible sums up that if you want and feel discrimination against you because of colour is wrong then you discriminating against gay people is also wrong. I talked about the bombing in London by someone from the BNP and how he targeted all minority groups and how we should work together to abolish and get rid of these groups.
I made it clear that everyone has a right to their views but to spread hatred and violence and use religion is not right when these are the things you are fighting against due to your religion, colour, creed, background etc.
From the conference and the knowledge I was able to put together a plan of what I wanted for the future. Next was the way we were going to bring this to fruition.
One of the major problems is that we do not know who and where most of our black/ Asian members are and how to contact them. The Website is up with black members page – though changes need to be done on it is way to communicate with black members. The other way is articles for the magazine but that does not seem to have worked at the moment.

This year we need to move on and push the work forward.