Adventist Purportedly Support Gays, While Frowned Upon by Politicians

HE TEAM: Panellists at the National Consultation on Constitutional Reform
from left Dr Hamid Ghany, former high court judge Amrika Tiwary-Reddy,
 Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar,
at the Diego Martin North Secondary School, on Saturday night.
—Photos: STEPHEN DOOBAY

President of the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation Colin Robinson says politicians should be fighting for his rights as a homosexual man but he has found them to be “hypocrites and cowards” on these issues.

Robinson was one of the attendees at the 13th National Consultation on Constitutional Reform, hosted by the Ministry of Legal Affairs, on Saturday night at Diego Martin North Secondary School. 

He commented that some of the things suffered by the homosexual community included “bad and inattentive” policing; being called derogatory names; the indignity in the court system and the inability to access justice.

He stressed that the Constitution should protect people from discrimination. 

Robinson said he was “afraid” to have Constitutional reform in the hands of a Government that had not yet passed the Gender Policy or reformed the Equal Opportunity legislation. 

“People have the right to get up in the pulpit on Sunday morning and preach on me. That is the right we have in this society. But I have the right to sleep in bed and have sex with who I want while they preaching on me. That is the nation we need to be able to create,” he added.

International televangelist Benny Hinn, who held a two-day crusade last weekend, came in for criticism from two attendees, one man saying that like all religious people they just wanted to take your money and another slamming him for “imposing Christianity on this country”.

Donald Berment, representative of the lobby group Men Against Violence Against Women, called for a gender balance in Parliament and for each gender to have at least above 45 per cent representation. 

He said the Constitution says every person should be respected in their personal life and questioned if a gay man is disrespected whether that can be challenged using the Constitution as a basis. 

A representative of the public affairs department of the Seventh Day Adventist Church said everybody has the right to choose a lifestyle including her “homosexual brother”, referring to Robinson. She added they should not be discriminated against and should have a right to justice.

She noted, however, that this country should not “swing to the next direction” like the Courts in Canada and Australia where people who refuse to marry same sex couples, refuse to build houses for same sex couples or those who wear the symbol of the cross to work are penalised. 

She stressed that religious people have rights and homosexual people have rights and when these come into conflict no one party should be disadvantaged for being a “conscientious objector”. 

She called for supremacy of God to be retained in the Constitution. 

She noted that in the last population census approximately 175,000 people reported not having any religion and therefore the majority of the population reported that they had a religion.

Another attendee described homosexuality as “unnatural” and “a thousand Acts of Parliament” could not make it right. He also said, as a “black man,” he did not appreciate the comparison of the gay rights movement with the civil rights movement. 

Other attendees supported the retention of the supremacy of God in the Constitution, one man commenting that to remove God would bring disaster upon the nation.

A few other attendees, however, supported the removal.

Source:Trinidadexpress

Gays in Trinidad and Tobago Insist that Gov't Does Not Care about Them.

Gay Couple

IF the Government cared about gays and lesbians in this country, they would have included the controversial issue of discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation in the Draft Gender Policy.

This is according to Kennty Mitchell, who is a member of the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO).

"They do not care about the gay society, how we live, how we survive. I am feeling bad and hurt about that.

"A country is only developed when it cares about its minority, you know. When you show that you care about the minority, and lesbians and what not, you are showing that you are developed. This country is not developed. They are still Third-World status, and they are treating us like Third World," Mitchell said.

"I want us to have equal rights and equality and that we are recognised. I mean, we exist."

On Wednesday, Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development Marlene Coudray said the issue of discrimination against persons based on their sexual preference was not included in the Draft Gender Policy.

The minister said the main focus was on discrimination against others in the workplace. Coudray said discussions were still taking place concerning the policy.

Colin Robinson, president of CAISO, said his organisation was involved in public consultation concerning the issue.

Commenting on the inclusion of the issue in the policy, Robinson said: "It would be something any self-respecting modern state would want to address, whether it is done through the gender policy or any other means.

"People are spending time trying to prevent other people from benefiting from a gender policy...a gender policy should be a gender policy for everyone."

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has promised she would not support the discrimination of lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgendered persons.

Reproduced from Trinidadexpress

Government to Enforce Anti Gay Education in Dominica

Dominica Education Minister: Petter Saint Jean

The Dominican minister of education is sending a committee into the small Caribbean island’s schools to instruct teachers on how to “better manage” homosexuality and “anti-social behaviour.”

“We must save the young people of Dominica,” says Petter Saint-Jean, education minister.

Saint-Jean says that to tackle these large-scale “problems,” a committee of three or four individuals is needed. “I have instructed that additional people be brought in so that we have a team that can really go out there and face that problem head on.” 

The Dominican government announced plans several months ago to create a task force that would crack down on homosexuality and “other deviant behaviour” in the country’s schools.

The government also asked that the task force investigate and identify “the root causes of deviance and the increasing incidents of homosexuality” amongst the student population.

Following the results of the investigation, released Sept 14 , Saint-Jean claims that the issues of “deviance, misbehaviour and homosexuality” are “bigger than previously thought” and require extra measures.  

This is all part of the government of Dominica’s "Child Friendly Schools Programme."

Homosexuality is illegal in Dominica. The country still enforces the British colonial anti-sodomy law, which makes sodomy punishable by 10 years of imprisonment and psychiatric treatment.

Reproduced from xtra.ca

The Gay 'Pride'

Tonight, what can be seen as an act no less than sacrilegious has been committed by a prominent leader, Pastor Winston Cuffie of Miracle Tabernacle. As I viewed with utter disdain and contempt I listen to the hypocrisy of a so called "Man of God" as he ventilated support for Gay Marriages seemingly forgetting his prejudicial stance against the entry of Elton John to this Sovereign state for Tobago Jazz Festival in 2007. How can a person of your stature bring into disrepute a office held so pious and sacred? How can someone like you spit in the face of the "Divine" with such canal verbalization. It is with grave concern that I have noted that Trinidad and Tobago, for the Past few months, have sounded the alarm (very aggressively) for vital discussion about Homosexual Marriages. I ask one question, are we ready and mature as a society to deal with the ramifications of such a Secular philosophic leaning? I would answer in a subsequent posting, I rest my case for future deliberations.