Interfaith group pledges continued support for St Catherine homeless MSM

The last time we looked at this it was on Gay Jamaica Watch in December of 2012 where the group then had hosted a treat during the Christmas holidays for a select few.

The interfaith group who had expressed some interest earlier last year in assisting three of the young men after a series of incidents involving them and others in several forced evictions similar to those of their Kingston counterparts with the local authorities moving the men from all points they occupy and obstruct have vowed to continue while resources last. However in St Catherine it was residents who made those decisions with some disastrous consequences such as the reported chase and attempted flogging of a group who illegally occupied an empty house in the Sydenham area and men supposedly ran them out of town and boarded up the structure after the owners residing overseas were informed of the squatting activities by the men.

The numbers of men now reached by the group has changed since that last post on Gay Jamaica Watch and there has also been some disagreement between the group’s leaders as to whether to keep the outreach as is or to also include some sort of reparative therapy as well in order to win the men over to Christ as it were.

The interfaith team at the time consisted of pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventists, A church of God leadress and others numbering eight in total had approached the situation as aforementioned by providing short term odd jobs for the three young men they had identified to work with at first when the Syndenham incident occurred they thought the men were just homeless generally not ascertaining that there was more to their situation that the typical displaced youth on the street would have experienced. Then the real conditions became known to the group who were already assisting other dislocated populations as well, the stories however were flying out of the men as two members of the interfaith team took particular interest in the men after listening intently over time according to two of the men who related their encounter. Now the group has shrunk to 6 as two persons departed being the Seventh Day and another person as they felt they were supporting a sin despite also aiding the men’s welfare.

Temporary jobs ……………..

The men have been afforded temporary jobs and their numbers have also seen some changes, two of the original three have left for jobs elsewhere while four more persons have since been aided in some way by the mixed church group what seems apparent from day one was that there was some covertness about the operation as if not to allow their respective central leadership to become too aware of this unique outreach arrangement as I have not heard of a similar type in other parishes as yet. My concerns however are still there for the more effeminate members of the displaced in St Catherine as there seems to be some reluctance to reach out to them more so than their hypermasculine counterparts. The weed whacking activity continues as the interfaith team had acquired a new and a second hand machine but with the low rainfall, the frugality of persons spending on getting lawns manicured the incomes stream has slowed greatly. One of the men has become a mobile barber of sorts literally walking from door to door in residential areas offering his trim and shave services with repaired equipment but he has been improving with time I was told.

The old idea of affording the men items so they could sell in the main town’s environs has been shelved as funds have dwindled and the police crackdown on street vending is a cause for concern coupled with what is alleged to be a resurgence of extortion type activities with vendors as well as they have to pay some sort of fee, what this fee is for is unclear at the moment. The men are allowed to use a space in a church yard and there are prayer meetings and other group discourse carried out as well, I am told by the same man I met also that the group seems to try to steer clear of the homosexual bit with them, he says he is not sure as maybe it is because of their masculine nature that they do not rebuke them or visit the matter all that much, the two original persons however who departed the group would hint to homosexuality being an abomination and the whole Leviticusal bit.

While this group is being assisted the numbers of unemployed or unemployable gay/bi youth who have been evicted is growing as three more persons have since been added according to one of the men I ran into in Spanish Town recently, one of those newcomers is a high school student and is now having difficulty attending classes. Speaking of classes there is some hint as well of some assistance in getting the men to attend evening classes in the Spanish Town area as those abound and there is talk of some financial assistance in that regard as well.

Given the opposite stance taken by other church groups and leaders such as a recent seminar (photo of ad above) that used very old US NARTH studies to dishonestly justify and present homosexuality as some deviant activity and openly suggesting a cure it is good to see some other religious folks taking a more mature and sensible approach thus far to those who are different, I hope this lasts as long as it can and that the men make good use of this outreach, I am just concerned about the “queenz” in the lot though don’t they need to be reached too? I guess it’s going to take some more prodding and education on effeminacy in men to move in that direction.

Peace and tolerance

H

also see: On homelessness, evictions, hypocrisy & now JFLAG’s own displacement

 

The abomination of cowardice; The just and the unjust … John Maxwell’s 8y/o piece revisited

Some of you may know by now I have always liked this particular article from the late John Maxwell, in its original form it was one of those pieces that turned me on even more to advocacy and to think it came from a heterosexual at that in Jamaica is even more exceptional. His Maxwell House Blog is still up.

Here is the article in the form of an Observer Column published today:

The abomination of cowardice; The just and the unjust

Today marks the second anniversary of the passing of iconic journalist John Maxwell. In the following excerpts culled by his widow, Dr Marjan deBruin, from two of Maxwell’s columns (December 2004 and February 2007) published in the Sunday Observer, the journalist is at his trenchant best on issues over which the society continues to agonise.

SEVERAL years ago, various media outlets carried a rumour that homosexuals were planning a march on Jamaica House. I don’t remember anyone believing the story, but the media ran with it anyway. On the day appointed, dozens of idiots armed with cutlasses descended on Half-Way-Tree square prepared to teach the homosexuals a lesson. None, of course, appeared.

MAXWELL… if we do not ‘love’ one another, ie respecting the rights of all, if we destroy those who are different, we are sabotaging our own chances of survival by reducing the diversity and complexity of life, which is what enhances the odds that we will survive (Photo courtesy of Leah N Gold)

As I have said in an earlier column, it was a uniquely Jamaican occasion, because I don’t believe that anywhere else in the world would the press have been so willing to spread such a plainly ridiculous and dangerous story, given the homophobic environment; nor would there be, anywhere else in the world, people idle enough to assemble for a sporting massacre, as it were. It was a low point in Jamaican civilisation and none of our leaders said a word.

Unfortunately, on the question of homophobia and homosexuality, the press is at least as backward as the majority of Fundamentalist Jamaica. Reading the advice columns demonstrates just how ignorant and illiterate people — including some counsellors — are about anything concerning sex.

Betty Ann Blaine, a very nice lady who is also a well-known social worker, delivered herself of the dictum that homosexuality is ‘learned behaviour’… There is no authority anywhere for anyone to say that homosexual behaviour is learned.

On the contrary, controlled experiment with rats under environmental stress produced ‘homosexual’ intercourse which surprised the investigators because that was not what they were looking for. And homosexual pairing is well established among certain birds. There is also some evidence that there may be genetic predispositions which may or may not be reinforced by nurture. The fact is that no one really knows, which, I suppose, is as good a reason as any for murder.

Be fruitful and multiply…

 Diversity is the key to survival with species and among species. If we do not ‘love’ one another, ie respecting the rights of all, if we destroy those who are different, we are sabotaging our own chances of survival by reducing the diversity and complexity of life, which is what enhances the odds that we will survive.

To be fruitful and multiply is not, as some of us imagine, a prescription for uncontrolled breeding; it means that we should provide equal opportunity for the survival of all. Fitness arises from diversity, not the other way round.

The more diverse we are is the more likely that some of us will survive, which is directly opposite to the views of the sectarian bigots who now presume to lay down rules to decide who we should love and who we should allow to survive.

The prophet whose teachings they claim to follow, Jesus of Nazareth, was in fact a supremely practical philosopher whose teachings seem to contradict most of the stuff handed down by the new rule makers. When Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, it was clear that He was not discarding the Sabbath and what it stood for, but making the point that while ethics and principles and the rules derived from them were prerequisites for a healthy and productive life, they were designed to fulfil human purposes and not to frustrate human happiness.

They needed to be adjusted and fitted to serve human purposes from time to time, to advance the human. Our ethical principles needed to be developed out of experience to serve real needs and not to be accepted simply because they had existed for a very long time or because some old geezer claiming to be a prophet said so.

Our absolutists who want to burn homosexuals and other sinners appear to reject one of the most fundamental arguments advanced by Jesus: that while the law and the prophets were to be taken into account, he was promulgating a new principle in total defiance of Mosaic Law: a new commandment give I unto you, he said, “that ye love one another.”

…The Christian Taliban

 Much of the homophobic plague now disfiguring our society is incited by those I call the Christian Taliban, a gang of prideful know-nothings who come not to call sinners to repentance, but to deliver them into the hands of the vigilantes. Some have acquired their second rate theology for a couple of hundred US dollars from some self-styled Bible college.

What riles me is that, in the heat of their newly bought holiness, they want to crucify the rest of us, or more accurately, to stretch or cut us to fit their own Procrustean beds of sublime ignorance.

They depend on the Old Testament, a collection of some of the oral history of nomadic tribes wandering about the Middle East 4,000 years ago. This accumulated wisdom was life-preserving at that time, surrounded as they were by enemies and eating unreliable food, but as Jesus of Nazareth said, it isn’t what a man consumes that defiles him, but what comes out of him.

Because the Israelite nomads wanted to build up the numerical strength of their tribes they encouraged men to impregnate their sisters-in-law if their brothers died, and buggery — then and now the poorest but surest means of birth control — was an abomination as was, for the same reason, ‘Onanism’ or masturbation.

To their modern-day successors, like the Pharisees and Sadducees with their phylacteries and other tokens of holiness, what is good is not what one does but what one says, forgetting another apothegm from Jesus — that the Devil can quote scripture to his own purpose. As far as they are concerned, the idea that God is Love is nonsense: God is a terrible God, full of wrath, vengefulness and thunderbolts.

These whited sepulchres understand Jesus’ advice that we should be our brother’s keepers to mean that they should be their brother’s jailers. My old friend Peter Walker used to call these hypocrites “God-Botherers” because they seemed to have exclusive hotlines to their divinity.

Now they counsel us based on misinterpretations of 4,000-year-old ‘science’, that abortion is always wrong, that life begins at conception and a host of other nonsense, including the belief that sex education makes children pregnant.

The latest outrage is the idea of raising the age of consent, an idea some would interpret to authorise the jailing of anyone who had sexual intercourse before that age. Just say no, they blather — ignorance is literally bliss. I have news for them: if they really want to protect young people they should promote the raising of the age of consent to 24, because scientists have discovered that the brains of human children do not completely mature until about that age.

As I write this my friend Canute James has shown me a story from The Guardian (London) about a Jamaican who has, for the last 27 years, successfully pretended to be an expert forensic psychologist. This conman even had a motto which must have come straight from Jamaica: ‘Exposing Unrighteousness for the Sake of Righteousness’.

This man, one Gene Morrison, who didn’t even have a ‘genuine mail order’ degree, duped judges, barristers and their clients for almost three decades. He gave “expert evidence” in cases involving armed robbery, rape, death by dangerous driving, unexplained death and drug offences. Police are now having to re-assess about 700 cases looking for miscarriages of justice.

Never underestimate the power of a righteous Jamaican, especially one armed with the Wrath of God.

also see:  John Maxwell’s “The Abomination of Cowardice” from Gay Jamaica Watch

and: Betty Ann Blaine & foreign religious zealots continue to mirespresent male  homosexuality from GLBTQJamaica

 

Rev Clinton Chisholm accused of pushing “bad science” in regards to ex-gay therapy

as posted on Anti Gay Fact Check a new gay blogger on the scene and I am happy that the tool was rejected by some in LGBT advocacy has now become the very way to speak out on issues, the young blogger has been doing his homework thus leaving me time to see other points of view and focus on other areas.

AGFC wrote:

Rev. Dr. Clinton Chisholm who is a lecturer at the Jamaica Theological Seminary quotes some studies to denounce the “ex-gay” therapy ban in California for minors in an effort to sound smart.

As usual, we at AGFC are ahead of the game and we know when the anti-gay movement/”ex-gay” mythologists not only tell lies but have no clue what they themselves are even talking about.

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

We debunked his article entitled “That Puzzling California Law” below which you can read here: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20121009/cleisure/cleisure3.html

1)

The ostensibly progressive and rights-protecting California law banning all reparative (‘conversion’) therapy for minors is very puzzling and raises some very awkward questions.

What is it about homosexual orientation or behaviour (if unwanted) that makes it so uniquely resistant to psychotherapeutic behaviour-modification interventions? I say uniquely resistant because such clinical interventions are utilised for a whole range of unwanted behaviours, including alcoholism, sexual/gender identity issues, anxiety disorders (phobias), unlawful sexual urges, etc.

What then is the real motivator behind the rights veneer of the California law?

We should also factor in religious interventions. Bottom line: Is there any unwanted behaviour for which clinical behaviour-modification or spiritual intervention is ruled out, a priori, and why?

Now first of all Mr. Chisholm needs to understand three things. He needs to understand that homosexuality is not a behaviour but a sexual attraction to the same sex. He also needs to understand that reparative/conversion therapy is not modifying same-sex behaviour but same-sex attractions. He also needs to understand that homosexuality is not listed as a mental disorder by any mental health organisation. Can homosexuality be compared to alcoholism, phobias and anxiety disorders which are all classified as psycho-pathologies? What is so unique about homosexual orientation that Rev. Chisholm would want to force a child to “change it”? Do you change a child’s sexual orientation to please religiously motivated political groups or do you help them to overcome the social pressures which cause them to not be pleased with their sexual orientation?

Why does Mr. Chisholm believe that the Californian law is giving anyone rights? In fact, the law is there to protect the well being of children. Now, the American Psychological Association(APA) in 2009 produced a 130 page report on the efficacy of sexual orientation change efforts(SOCE) after reviewing 83 studies done from from 1960-2007. In it they said:

”We found that there was some evidence to indicate that individuals experienced harm from SOCE. Early studies documented iatrogenic effects of aversive forms of SOCE. These negative side effects included loss of sexual feeling, depression, suicidality, and anxiety. High drop rates characterized early aversive treatment studies and may be an indicator that research participants experienced these treatments as harmful“.

See here: http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/therapeutic-response.pdf

Another study done by Schroeder & Shidlo in 2001 on 202 so called “ex-gays” found that many of them experienced harm from the “therapy”. The study’s summary said:

“We found evidence that many consumers of failed sexual orientation therapies experienced them as harmful. Areas of perceived psychological harm included depression, suicidality, and self-esteem. In the case of aversive conditioning and covert sensitization, harm included intrusive flashback-like negative imagery that was associated with serious long-term sexual dysfunction. Areas of perceived social harm included impairment in intimate and nonintimate relationships. Some religious participants also reported experiencing spiritual harm as a result of religious therapy.”

See study here: Schroeder & Shidlo’s study

Is this not reason to protect children from so-called therapies which are harmful? Read our post about an experience of a child who went through this “therapy”(http://antigayfactcheck.org/2012/07/15/forced-ex-gay-therapy-led-child-to-his-death/). The results were disastrous.

Is “ex-gay” the same as heterosexual?

2)

What then should one make of the implications of two articles in the American Journal of Psychiatry, namely, ‘The Masters and Johnson Treatment Program for Dissatisfied Homosexual Men’, American Journal of Psychiatry, 141 (1984), 173-81 and E. Mansell Pattison and Myrna Loy Pattison, ‘Ex-Gays: Religiously Mediated Change in Homosexuals’, American Journal of Psychiatry, 137 (1980), 12?

The Masters & Johnson treatment programme reports conversion success rate at 65 per cent after a five-year follow-up.

As usual the religious right loves to quote studies that other politically motivated “family” groups give to them but never bother reading or researching on these studies themselves.

The study done by Masters and Johnson entitled “The Masters and Johnson Treatment Program for Dissatisfied Homosexual Men” proves this well as Mr. Chisholm doesn’t even realise that one of the authors, Virginia Johnson, admitted in 2009 that the results were fabricated. Fabricated results masquerading as truth? Is this some deception campaign of the anti-gay movement? The famous science magazine, Scientific American, did a report on this. It said:

“Prior to the book’s publication, doubts arose about the validity of their case studies. Most staffers never met any of the conversion cases during the study period of 1968 through 1977, according to research I’ve done for my new book Masters of Sex . Clinic staffer Lynn Strenkofsky, who organized patient schedules during this period, says she never dealt with any conversion cases. Marshall and Peggy Shearer, perhaps the clinic’s most experienced therapy team in the early 1970s, says they never treated homosexuals and heard virtually nothing about conversion therapy.

Eventually Kolodny approached Virginia Johnson privately to express his alarm. She, too, held similar suspicions about Masters’ conversion theory, though publicly she supported him. The prospect of public embarrassment, of being exposed as a fraud, greatly upset Johnson, a self-educated therapist who didn’t have a college degree and depended largely on her husband’s medical expertise.

With Johnson’s approval, Kolodny spoke to their publisher about a delay, but it came too late in the process. “That was a bad book,” Johnson recalled decades later. Johnson said she favored a rewriting and revision of the whole book “to fit within the existing [medical] literature,” and feared that Bill simply didn’t know what he was talking about. At worst, she said, “Bill was being creative in those days” in the compiling of the “gay conversion” case studies.“

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=homosexuality-cure-masters-johnson

This is the third time we have heard about this Masters and Johnson study. The more they quote it is the easier our job gets.

As for the study “Ex-Gays: Religiously Mediated Change in Homosexuals“, well we have a real interesting story to tell about this one. In 1978, two outside psychiatrists, were allowed to interview members of Exodus International, the worlds largest “ex-gay” organisation which recently distanced itself from reparative therapy. Of the ministry’s 300 members at the time, 30 were selected by the ministry staff as having changed from exclusively homosexual to exclusively heterosexual in orientation. The researchers interviewed the 30 and determined that only 11 had really been largely “cured” of their homosexual orientation because they had remained celibate. However, 8 of the 11 continued to have a homosexual or bisexual orientation because they still reported homosexual dreams, fantasies and/or impulses. Therefore only 3 out of 300 members who underwent this “therapy” reported changing to heterosexual. This would mean that the therapy has a 1% success rate if we were to believe the 3 men. No follow-up study was done and the subjects were taken from a political organisation which probably skewed the results. The study has obvious methodological flaws.

The Pattison study included a table describing their interview findings with the 11 subjects (from page 1555, see below). Bussee was subject number two and Cooper was number one.

However something happened in 1979 to two of the participants. Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper left the organisation, divorced their wives and ended up marrying each other. These two leaving as failures prove that the study was very flawed. In fact, Michael Bussee today criticised the study and even the organisation he helped to found, Exodus International.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/5374/participant_discredits_the_original_ex-gay_study/

Do we want to put children through a therapy known to cause harm which according to a flawed study only resulted in 1% success?

3)

In the cutting-edge book Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation by Stanton L. Jones & Mark A. Yarhouse, Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007, the authors found, contrary to the belief of certain clinicians, that change is possible.

Though operating with an upfront Christian commitment, Jones and Yarhouse conceded that they did not find that change is possible for everyone. They write: “The fact that some human beings can break the four-minute-mile barrier establishes that running a four-minute mile is not impossible, but that same fact does not establish that anyone (every human being) can break the four-minute-mile barrier.”

So, then, are the California legislators unaware of the pro-change pieces of literature mentioned above and published in their own country? Behold, I show you a mystery, or perhaps mischief!

The study by Jones and Yarhouse was rejected by the American Psychological Association for methodological flaws. The authors themselves even  said on their website (http://www.exgaystudy.org/ex-gays/responses-to-criticism) in regards to what “conversion” means that: “Most of the individuals who reported that they were heterosexual at Time 3 did not report themselves to be without experience of homosexual arousal, and did not report heterosexual orientation to be unequivocal and uncomplicated.” In other words, the people who claimed they “changed” still experienced homosexual attractions and were thus bisexual. The study did not indicate as to whether or not they were bisexual before the study however. This study was clearly not a study to prove that homosexuals can “change” into heterosexuals but that some subjects experienced attractions to the opposite sex after “therapy”. Without knowing whether or not they were also attracted to the opposite sex before the study is a methodological flaw. The authors single sentence summary says: “In short, the results do not prove that categorical change in sexual orientation is possible for everyone or anyone, but rather that meaningful shifts along a continuum that constitute real changes appear possible for some.”

Education Ministry says it will take on coercion in schools …

The Gleaner carried this story on April 10th following on the accusations of older lesbian students supposedly abusing younger girls, interestingly the ministry jumps quickly to address this issue but the problem in co-ed schools remains any by extension the mainstream on buses and taxis where inappropriate behaviour and sexual realtions with older men and school girls goes on with limited monitoring it looks on the surface.

Let us see where this takes us, one hopes we do not hear or see in the correcting of the issue of abuse that what may remotely look as reparative therapy towards the same sex attracted students and that the measures only address the allegations of abuse and not sexual orientation

Have a read of the article and see what you make of it.

Ready To Take On School Sex – Thwaites Vows To Tackle Inappropriate Behaviour At All-Girls’ Institutions

Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter

A Ministry of Education report on investigations into allegations of forced sexual activities at some local girls’ schools is expected to be ready this week. Education Minister Ronald Thwaites, told The Gleaner yesterday that the ministry had conducted the investigation into the matter and was awaiting the results.

Thwaites said that, based on the outcome, the ministry would intervene to put an end to any such activity at the schools.

Early last month it was revealed that authorities at a prominent Corporate Area all-girls high school were struggling to deal with several alleged sexual attacks on young girls by older students.

School authorities had summoned parents to an emergency meeting as more and more young girls began reporting horror stories of cases where they were forced to perform sexual acts with older girls at the institution.

The Gleaner understood that some girls in the upper school regularly sought to recruit the young girls from the first and second forms.

Thwaites declared he was ready to take the appropriate action to rid the education system of the behaviour.

“The ministry must do two things; one, it must articulate very clearly the inappropriateness of any kind of sexual pressure in schools and, second, it must get the school community, which includes parents, teachers, all workers and the students themselves, to avoid any instance of this kind of pressure,” the minister stressed.

Thwaites said training for both teachers and parents was essential in order to better the system.

“This is where I think continuing professional development of our teachers is very important so that they know the signs, that they don’t over exaggerate and that they are adept at counselling young children and adults.

“This is also to emphasise the importance of vigorous parenting programmes so that parents can become active collaborators and fully informed persons who can assist their children in going through the sometimes turbulent years of growing up,” he added.

Principals concerned

The problem of sexual attacks had attracted the attention of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS) and Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison.

JAPSS President Sharon Reid, had admitted this was a problem in some schools and that the matter would be a major item of discussion at a retreat scheduled for next month under the theme ‘Facing Challenges of Leadership Together’.

Gordon Harrison had said there needed to be a public-education campaign to sensitise the offenders about the breaches they have committed.

nadisha.hunter@gleanerjm.com

Lesbianism in Schools talk continues …….

So recently two main articles have appeared in the Gleaner firstly since the original lesbian coercers issue raised its head again, here is a caption on Dr Heather Little White’s take on the issue albeit here article was only available in hard copy in the Outlook Magazine on March 25 entitled: Lesbianism among schoolgirls ..

She wrote in part: RECENT REPORTS of aggressive lesbian students terrorising younger girls in some Corporate Area high schools have shocked parents and school officials. One may ask why parents and school officials should be distraught when the provision of sexuality education is limited in the home and school. Sex education for girls tends to warn mainly against pregnancy and to a lesser extent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and often ignores the wider issues such as same-sex relationships, incest, sexual slavery, child prostitution and gender identity, among others. 

THE LESBIAN TERM 

The term ‘lesbian’ dates back to ancient Greece through a tragic story of an early Greek female poet Sappho who supervised a school for girls on the island of Lesbos in 600 BC. Sappho fell in love with one of the girls who did not respond to her romantic advances. Sappho took the rejection badly and drowned herself at sea.Sappho’s legacy was a rich collection of love poems written to women as well as men, thus making her an early example of bisexuality. The term lesbian evolved in reference to the island of Lesbos where Sappho was born. It has been suggested that Sappho’s relationships did not include any overt sexual relations and that female homosexuality was common on the island of Lesbos.

CONTINUE HERE 

Now in Sundays Edition of the same paper comes another article using the same photo of the women that is seen in the scanned caption above in a piece entitiled: “Sexual-Bullying Policy Needed In Schools” disturbingly the caption someone at the Gleaner decided to use under the photo was “Children in schools are being bullied for their homosexual orientation, as depicted in this photograph of a lesbian couple.” The article also seeks to evoke reparative therapy as well as a way to treat or in effect punish the so called perpetrators or coercers while unethically making the link to the widely held belive that homosexuals try to homosexualize others so to speak.

The article reads: 

JUST WHEN one thought all the factors negatively affecting and impacting Jamaica’s education system have been analysed, another form of impediment has reared its ugly head, that of sexual bullying. Sexual bullying involves comments, jokes, actions, or attention that is intended to hurt, offend, or intimidate another person. It is more common than we think, and it affects pupils in both single-sex high schools and co-educational high schools alike.

As with any form of bullying, the perpetrator seeks out that individual who is considered the weakest among the pack. Sexually bullying is no different. This form of harassment is usually seen more often in high schools as against primary schools. The focus of sexual bullying is on body parts, as well as the victim’s appearance and or perceived sexual orientation. Boys can harass members of the opposite sex as well as members of their same sex. Girls can harass members of their same sex and even members of the opposite sex, although I suspect the later is not as common as the others in our society. Adults can sexually harass children also.

Sexual orientation has to do with whom one mostly finds sexually and romantically attractive. A girl who gets crushes or who is sexually attracted to a member of the same sex may consider herself lesbian.

As a society, we have always operated in a hypocritical and paradoxical nature regarding sexual orientation. We have always viewed lesbians more favourably than gays, despite the fact that Jamaica is seen and considered by the outside world as a highly homophobic society.

As a nation we have failed our young people in terms of providing good role models. Our parenting skills leave much to be desired. A significant number of our children live in dysfunctional family units. Single-family female-headed households are now the norm. This, in itself, is the genesis of most of the problems/issues affecting the Jamaican family today. A working single female cannot adequately supervise her children, especially if she does not have the financial resources to employ a helper to assist her. The breakdown of the concept of the extended family is quickly disappearing from the Jamaican family. Many fathers’ names do not appear on the birth certificate of their children. The absence of our fathers in the rearing of our children, especially our boys, continue to add stress to the family structure. Our children no longer attend Sunday and or Sabbath schools. The moral teachings the church provides is, therefore, absent. The teaching of religious education as subject is quickly dying; this was also another avenue for moral teachings in our schools. Sunday is now a day for horse racing and other forms of entertainment. Additionally, our crude and sexually-laced popular culture, namely dancehall music, also adds to the destruction path we are on.

abandonment of values

Our proximity to North America and the influx and influence of subscriber television (cable television) are all factors which have greatly contributed to the abandonment of old values and good family life practices to that of new questionable values. As we become more sophisticated and modern, pornography has become more rampant in the society. Sexting” is now the norm rather than the exception for many teenagers. This is one way in which gossip, and sexually laced comments may be spread to destroy people’s self-esteem and character, especially in a relatively small space such of that of a school.

Therefore, we should not be surprised that our children are now experimenting with sexual diversity in this digital era we now live in. Children receive formal and informal messages about their gender identity from a multitude of sources. Some of which are families, peers, communities and, of course, the media. Your gender identity is who you feel as if you are on the inside (male, female, both, neither, flexible) While your gender expression has to do with how your act on the outside, that is, how you walk, talk, sit, dress and so on. Both gender identity and gender expression impact whether one sees him/herself as more masculine than feminine or vice versa. This always impacts how other individuals see and respond to you.

We can almost be sure that the problem highlighted at the specific Corporate Area all-girls school is not unique to that institution. All our educational institutions, co-educational and same-sex, are dealing with similar issues.

What can and should be done? The first line of defence against sexually bullying is the Ministry of Education, and as such, the Ministry of Education needs to take the lead in setting policies to address the issue of sexual bullying. A sexual-harassment policy or a bullying policy should be put in place to clearly inform all stakeholders that this type of behaviour is unacceptable. This policy should also outline the sanctions and penalties that will be applied if anyone decides to go ahead and bully another person. Clearly, we need to address the wider issue which presents itself. The wider issue here is our unwillingness to have a mature and frank discussion with all stakeholders regarding sexual orientation as a human-rights issue. By now, we should realise that by by ignoring or wishing the problem to go away has not worked and will not work.

therapy to change

Clearly, these students are in need of much therapy and counselling. Many experts believe one can change one’s sexual orientation through therapy. Our guidance counsellors are well-trained professionals and, therefore, their services should be made available to those troubled students as well as their parents. The perpetrators of the lesbian attacks should be asked to withdraw from school until they have sought counselling. By allowing them to remain at the school, we are sending the wrong message, not only to the victims of their attack, but the wider school community.

Counselling should also be provided to the victims of such sexual attacks. Maybe a change of school would also be in the best interest of those students. To remain at the school may only serve as a reminder of the horrible and horrific ordeal they experienced.

Additionally, administrators must be more vigilant in terms of what takes place at their school. After all these incidents occurred at the school. Measures must be put in place to have some sort of supervision and monitoring of what takes place on school grounds, regardless of the time of the day.

We should also encourage our children to speak out whenever they have been abused and or threatened.

Schools could and should create bathroom messages that emphasise that no one has the right to abuse and or invade another person space, this by itself will not prevent some students, so a list of teachers to contact would have be most useful also.

The Ministry of Education could also have workshops for teachers to remind and expose them to the rights of children. By so doing, teachers will be better able to assist wherever the need presents itself. We could and should incorporate all the agencies of the state that work with children, as well, in this fight.

preventative measures

It is quite possible the events of recent times can serve to strengthen our Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs) and provide avenues for them to find creative measures to improve the security of schools in which they operate, such as investing in high-tech security measures. Maybe more PTAs could install surveillance cameras at central points to ensure that their children, especially those in the lower grades, are adequately supervised after hours. Maybe they could employ additional security guards to bolster the existing security; this may just serve as a deterrent to the predators. The truth is these older girls have become predators.

Our schools should be a safe place for teaching and learning. No one should be bullied, preyed upon, whether sexually and or physically. Our schools must reclaim what they once were; a clean and protected environment for all to fully maximise their potential.

Wayne Campbell is an educator and gender-rights advocate waykam@yahoo.com. Send comments to columns@gleanerjm.com.

ENDS

I tend to agree with the first comment made on the newspaper’s site which read as follows:

It’s as if this article was written to create more confusion and to further cloud readers’ judgement. 

The caption on the picture says “Children in school are being bullied for their sexual orientation, as depicted in this photo of a lesbian couple”. Now, it really says a lot about the quality of the newstaff at this newspaper that a person can look at a picture of two hands entwined and SEE children being bullied.Then, a so-called “gender-rights advocate” can call for children to be sent to counseling so that their sexual orientation can be changed:Many experts believe one can change one’s sexual orientation through therapy. Our guidance counsellors are well-trained professionals and, therefore, their services should be made available to those troubled students as well as their parents. The perpetrators of the lesbian attacks should be asked to withdraw from school until they have sought counselling” Apparently those “well-trained” counselors were not doing their jobs properly to have let these “troubled” students get to the point of harassing their fellow students.

Something really has got to be done about how much prejudice and selective misreading of research is allowed to pass for informed critique in this newspaper. 

The psychological strategy of the homosexual lobby BY DR Leahcim Semaj

(a note, the day before he appeared on CVM TV’s Live @ 7 where he postured the long held point on paedophilia becoming the next rights push item he produced this piece via his FACEBOOK pageand website, the supposed strategy by the us the gay lobby is to move to paedophilia after legalizing buggery as he tries to put forward here) 

ALSO SEE:  CVM TV’s Live @ 7 – Gay Brain Drain … on my sister blog which also had as guest from overseas now asylee and former advocate Maurice Tomlinson who left Jamaica under very dubious and cloudy circumstances and married a man in Canada although both do not reside there now.

Now here is Mr Semaj’s piece:

The psychological strategy of the homosexual lobby

BY DR Leahcim Semaj Sunday, Jan

Feburary 8, 2012

I take issue with the recent discussion describing Jamaican people who see homosexuality as dysfunctional or deviant as being sick people. This is what is done when one subscribes to the concept of “homophobia”.

Once persons refuse to accept the agenda that homosexuality is normal and healthy behaviour, they are labelled as sick, they have a phobia. How did we get into this mess?

Psychosexual Disorders can be grouped into two main categories: The first is sexual dysfunction: when physiologically normal functions fail, eg inability to respond to erotic stimulation with arousal, erection or orgasm, or when interest in sex is diminished or absent.

The second is sexual deviance: when a sexual behaviour violates the laws, or social norms of a social group or society. Prior to 1973, Psychosexual Disorders were defined in the following categories:

. Homosexuality, . Paedophilia (children), . Incest, . Voyeurism, . Zoophilia (animals), . Frotteurism (rubbing on strangers), . Necrophilia, . Transvestism (cross-dressing), . Urophilia (urine), . Mysophilia (filthy surroundings), . Coprophilia (filth, brown shower), . Klismaphilia (enema), . Troilism (sharing your partner and watching), . Masochism, . Sadism, and . Various fetishes.

Most of these have been retained in the psychological literature, but in 1973 the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the official manual that lists mental and emotional disorders.

Two years later, the American Psychological Association passed a resolution supporting the removal. For more than 25 years, both associations have urged all mental health and other professionals to help dispel the stigma of mental illness that many people still associate with homosexual orientation.

Yet all the other psychosexual disorders and perversions have been retained. Why?

Since 1976, the APA has divided homosexuality into two categories, Egosystonic and Egodystonic. This distinction proposes that people who are sexually attracted to their own gender and happy with that situation are normal, while those who are unhappy need help. Why this one disorder? Why not any of the others?

In 1994, the American Psychiatric Association, in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV, removed paedophilia as a sexual perversion. This event was followed in 1999 when the American Psychological Association released an APA Bulletin report, A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples.

In this report, Bruce Rind, et al, claimed child sexual abuse could be harmless and beneficial. This led to a situation in which Illinois State Representative Bob Biggins introduced House Resolution 325 damning the APA Rind study.

Later that year, the US Family Research Council held a press conference in Washington, DC. Here a coalition of members of Congress, child protection advocates, child abuse victims and public policy groups charged the APA to renounce the Rind study. This conference was largely ignored by mainstream media in the USA.

Concern is being expressed that the American psychological and psychiatric establishment are now setting us up to engineer a cultural endorsement of incest in the same way that the endorsement of homosexuality was orchestrated.

On July 28, 2004, the American Psychological Association finally showed its hand and announced its support for legalisation of same-sex civil marriages and opposition of discrimination against homosexual parents.

They concluded that denying same-sex couples legal access to civil marriage is discriminatory and can adversely affect the psychological, physical, social and economic well-being of homosexual individuals.

The report stated that prohibiting civil marriage for same-sex couples is discriminatory and unfairly denies such couples, their children and other members of their families the legal, financial and social advantages of civil marriage.

We now understand the full agenda: It begins with tolerance, then acceptance, then endorsement, then finally that we recognise same-sex marriages. This is inconsistent with my understanding of the order of the universe.

Years ago, Suzanne Dodd proposed that: “The Western World is quickly adopting the concept that homosexuality is a viable alternative lifestyle. If your son decides to marry another man, you are supposed to smile and say, ‘That’s nice’.

Be aware that soon enough we will be expected to see two men get married, and unless we smile and say, ‘That’s nice’ we might lose all our foreign aid.” (Money Index #366; page 46) Are we now there?

Alice in Wonderland approach to sexual behaviour

The use of the word “gay” is an attempt to remove the negative connotation inherent in the concept of homosexuality. The word “homophobia” implies that anyone who does not endorse and ‘big-up’ homosexual acts is sick.

The objective is for us to be on the defensive.

1. Why is it a “phobia” to not love homosexual acts and other perversions and to resist the pressures to give private perversions the status of public acceptance?
2. If we accept homosexuality as “normal” behaviour, why not accept all the other perversions and dysfunctions also?
3. If we believe that persons with the other perversions and dysfunctions are in need of help, why are not the homosexuals?

The poet Haki Madhubuti reminds us

That which is normal for us Will never be normal for us As long as the abnormal defines what normality is

Are there historical precedent and consequences for these actions? I believe that it is time for Jamaican psychologists to be straight with the people of Jamaica as to what our position is.

Are we following the dictates of the American Psychological Association? Or do our experiences, history, culture and heritage tell us otherwise? Mine do. I do not accept that homosexuality or any of the other perversions or psychosexual dysfunctions be endorsed as being part of what we identify as normal and healthy behaviours.

I would like the homosexual lobby to provide me with some answers to the following questions.

1. As we try to understand order versus disorder, I realize that two central components can guide us. The first is THE MODEL OF PERFECTION. This tells me that in any society there are certain values which are passed on from parent to child. These help us to understand what the ultimate values are. For example, we will hear parents say “I would love for my son to be happily married and have a family” or “I would love for my son to get a good job.” Have you ever heard someone say or will you yourself say “I would love for my son or daughter to grow up to be a homosexual”?

2. The second component we can refer to as THE MODEL OF NATURAL ORDER, i.e. any behaviour which facilitates our collective survival is automatically good. It may be pleasurable for the individuals to engage in behaviours which do not fit this profile but we cannot give the behaviour endorsement or public acceptance because to do so could pose a threat to our collective survival. If everyone started to do so, the consequence would be quite disastrous. Does homosexuality fit within the model of natural order?

3. One a writer raised the issue of homosexuality being about love, “how can we be against love”? Well, why do we not also endorse those who are in love with donkeys, sheep, goats, and dogs? We refer to these behaviours as zoophilia or beastiality. What about those who are in love with dead bodies? Should we also publicly accept these private perversions?

4. The DSM III defines homosexuality into two categories, egosystonic and egodystonic – this says that people who are homosexual and happy with it are normal, while those who are, and are unhappy need help. Can we expand on this? What about those who are into zoophilia (animals), transvestism (cross dressing), pedophilia (children), incest, voyeurism, frotteurism (rubbing on strangers), necrophilia, urophilia (urine), mysophilia (filth), coprophilia (filth), klismaphilia (enema) and various fetishes; As long as they are happy with themselves, should we not consider them normal?

SEXUALITY AND THE BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE

This term I teach the Physiological Psychology at the University of the West Indies. As expected, the North American text has a section dealing with homosexuality and the biological causes. They explore a range of data and a number of findings but interestingly, the conclusion is as follows;

“There remain also the possibility that a person’s lifestyle may affect the structure of parts of his or her brain; thus, the difference as mentioned… could be the result of people’s sexual orientation rather than the cause.” Foundations of Physiological Psychology, page 278

I wonder why we are motivated to look for biological causes of same sex preference. Why don’t we also look for biological causes for fetishes, animal preference, dead body preference, stranger preferences while we are at it? The evidence points in the direction of a group of individuals wishing for public acceptance for their private perversions.

Leahcim Semaj is a consulting Psychologist:

LTSemaj@Gmail.com

What About The Other Abominations? (Gleaner)

 

by Garth Rattray

The social network lit up during the excitement generated by the results phase of the recent general election. What caught my interest, however, was that cyberspace was peppered with angry/distraught Jamaicans expressing their wish to run away to some foreign land because the leader of the People’s National Party (PNP) was sober and honest enough to express her willingness to allow parliamentarians – after consultation with their constituents – to engage in a conscience vote on the matter of the law against buggery.

I further understand that an indeterminate number of voters stayed away from the polls because, as preposterous as it is, they harboured unreasonable fears of a society dominated by homosexuals.

Portia Simpson Miller did not brusquely respond, “Not in my Cabinet!” She did not dodge and duck the question, nor did she perform a verbose pirouette. She earned my respect by speaking forthrightly, despite the knowledge that her response was certain to bring her major negative points in the all-important leadership debate. Some people have related to me that they feel certain that the PNP would have picked up more votes were it not for that reply.

Honesty despised?

In my opinion, the voters should be happy that a politician exhibited such bravery and honesty instead of giving a politically correct answer or an answer that would appease the voting public.

Whether we agree with her or not, this is precisely the sort of thing that we need and deserve from our politicians, the truth, no matter what the conse-quences. Yet when some of us see it, instead of encouraging it, we berate it.

The problem, therefore, lies not so much in the fact that Mrs Simpson Miller was upfront; the problem lies in the topic on which she was outspoken. Among many Jamaicans, the topic of sexuality consistently strikes an angry chord harmonised with righteous indignation.

This single biblically labelled ‘abomination’ elicits powerful emotions, while other, far more serious and socio-economically damaging ‘abominations’ only manage to elicit measured and restrained commentary.

Why aren’t we as passionate about ‘people who possess a lying tongue’? What about the ‘hands that shed innocent blood’? How is it that our hundreds of innocently slaughtered citizens every year only get the perfunctory condemnation from politicians, brief, curious/morbid attention and muted whispers throughout society?

Biased righteous indignation

Where is the fierce anger and fiery passion for their lives? Why doesn’t crime and murder elicit rage and holy denunciation from our religious society? Where is the hellfire warning for such acts? Why aren’t we advised to ask our political candidates if they have, or ever had, any direct or indirect interfacing or connections with criminal elements before casting our votes?

Aren’t we, therefore, being very selective in the biblical abominations we rise up against? People remarry former companions all the time and most churches condone it. Many people commit adultery every day, yet there is no moralistic hue and cry from society about that.

Anyone or any group which truly feels that a particular sexual persuasion is abominable certainly has every right to express that displeasure. However, the over-the-top response to that alone is non-productive.

We would do far better to express our chagrin for some of the other abominations (oppression of others, especially the poor and vulnerable; hardness of the heart; violence, and many more too long to list here) that are extremely relevant to our modern-day society and hold people – especially public officials – accountable.

If our citizenry was as outspoken about the other ‘abominations’ that are so pervasive throughout our society, we would receive better governance.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.

ENDS

More ……………………

Need I say more?

Peace and tolerance

H

“Tell Me Pastor” says he does not condemn homosexuals ….

In the latest in the Tell Me Pastor series in the Star News we see a supposed letter to Pastor Aaron Dumas saying that Jamaica is getting slack (immoral) with regards to homosexuality or displays of affection in public becoming more visible, of course following on the rising public discourse on the Prime Minister designate and soon to be sworn in (4pm today) Portia Simpson Miller’s suggestion to review the buggery law and then to a parliamentary conscience vote, no mention was made of any changes to the Charter of Rights in case the vote is a positive one in favour of a repeal. Many doubt she will get that support even from her own ranks as this hot button issue of buggery and by extension homosexuality has been declared suicidal for any administration.

Here is the letter in the Star News:

Jamaica is getting really slack

Dear Pastor,

Something is really bothering me. What do you think about a man lying with another man? My Bible is against it and these people are too upfront with these ungodly acts. Jamaica is getting really slack.

A.

Pastor responds

Dear A.,

I read the same Bible you read. My position on homosexuality has not changed. The Bible condemns it. Therefore, I cannot encourage people to engage in it. However, I do not condemn homosexuals, whether they are males or females.

Most homosexuals who have written to me have declared that they hate what they do and they yearn for deliverance. And often when I quote the Bible in responding to them, some people say that I am condemning them. I have never condemned homosexuals. I only say what the Bible says.

I believe that no one is beyond God’s mercy and power.

I used to work with a psychiatrist and I have referred homosexuals to him for professional help and he claimed that the last young man I sent to him, has received deliverance and is now a Christian and has a wonderful wife. So, I say, give God thanks for what he has done for this young man.

And I am sure that He can do the same for others.

Pastor 

ENDS

Clearly the restorative therapy cue is once again being infused and isn’t the strong castigation sometimes from pulpits and from even the goodly pastor himself in previous letters similar to this are kinds of condemnation given how heated the and vitriolic the responses can get at times? I have not yet met anyone even after accepting Christ as saviour and while initially denying or saying they have diminished same sex feelings in their new found faith and life who remain so for long, they tend to usually return to having those feelings even while wanting to please and serve God sometimes even more pronounced than before the conversion. I can attest to that as well, in trying to find purge and relieve as so I thought in younger years of my so called “nastiness” I too sought the altar, found it, thought I was “cured” and only to meet other men struggling in the very church I was attending and believe me we couldn’t take our hands off each other after realizing we were all the same thing. Is the matter therefore of abstinence more than changing ones attitude to same sex feelings or suppressing those feelings by allowing guilt and shame from religious teachings to block who one really is inside? Can one by gay and Christian? Maybe yes I say.

Have they become so consumed by the flesh that they simply sink into gay life once again as since most religious anti gay pundits seem to think homosexuality is all about lust and desire more so than ones makeup/identity, so in essence we are oversexed more than the average heterosexual and are so determined to convert others to our ways? What madness? as far as I am concerned one is either gay, straight, bisexual and the other orientations that exists and that can be properly explained outside of psychological disorders such as paedophilia. Sex and sexuality are issues the church as a whole need to look into.

We have been told by other psychologists that to suppress homosexuality can have disastrous effects as sexual orientation cannot be changed. Bearing in mind that Pastor Aaron Dumas (Tell Me Pastor) is also a psychologist and the guide for all practicing psychologists, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, DSM clearly does not list homosexuality as a disorder since 1973 so why is he not following the guide while pushing reparative therapy?

In response to the repeated Leviticusal battering here is an excerpt of a previous post on my sister blog Gay Jamaica Watch on the abominations:

When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus

18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination… End of debate.I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Haitians, but not Cubans. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Cubans?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in
Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual unseemliness
- Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord – Lev.1:9.. The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly states
he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the Police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination – Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there’degrees’of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle- room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/ polyester blend). He also tends to
curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16.
Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

Think on these things, homosexuality is not the only supposed abomination the Bible speaks to yet religious figures prefer selective readings.

Peace and tolerance.

H

Shirley Richards: No to reviewing the buggery law …..

Dear Editor,

Mrs Simpson Miller’s recent comments on the matter of homosexuality and sexual orientation have caused many of us to be seriously concerned. One wonders if Mrs Simpson Miller is aware of the following:

* In Europe, Canada and the USA pastors and others are punished for expressing disagreement with the homosexual lifestyle.

* Harry Hammond, the 69-year-old street preacher in England who was beaten by a group of homosexuals, was charged with inciting violence against himself.

* A middle-age Jamaican couple living in England, who had fostered children many times before, were recently denied the opportunity to foster because they could not tell a young child that it’s okay to be a homosexual.

* In Canada, kindergarten children in the public school system are exposed to homosexual teaching as if it were normal behaviour and their parents have no power to do anything about it.

* Catholic adoptions agencies in England have closed because they rightly refused to place children in homosexual households.

* Gary McFarlane, a solicitor of Jamaican descent living in England, who is also a professional counsellor, was sacked from his counselling job for refusing in principle to offer sex therapy to homosexuals.

* Buggery is the most efficient way to spread HIV/AIDS. Over the last two years the Government has spent over $590 million to fight the disease.

Shouldn’t Jamaica be doing everything in its power to discourage the disease? Why then review the buggery law?

Who are Mrs Simpson Miller’s advisors?

Jamaica is accustomed to standing on its own to defend principles. We are little, but we tallawah. Our success cannot be based on economics alone. Whilst we say no to physical violence against all persons, we also say no to reviewing laws and policies which currently block the acceptability of the homosexual lifestyle.

People of Jamaica, be warned!

Shirley Richards

St Andrew

meanwhile: Portia Simpson Miller – SIMPSON MILLER DEFENDS GAY COMMENT 23.12.11

also see previous Observer Letters linked below

Where was the church all along?

Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to all the organised groups of churches in Jamaica.

My name is Jevon Minto. I am currently in my second year at Northern Caribbean University, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in religion and theology.

Jamaica is one of those countries where the church still influences the decisions of the State. And while this opportunity exists, no other group of people is more unconcerned about social life than the church. Every other group is speaking out, except the church. I think you all deserve a beating from God for rejecting the prophetic ministry that He has called you to, especially where it concerns politics.

If secularism takes over Jamaica you all should be blamed! If Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller did not propose to review the buggery law — if she is re-elected — would Jamaica hear anything from you [the church] at this time?

Imagine, three national political debates and not one of the panellists represented the church. Not one question was asked regarding the church. Why speak now and talk ill of the proposition made by the Opposition?

I am definitely not in support of homosexuality, but if the church did not assume such a passive role in the affairs of the nation, then we would not have a leader even thinking about making such a proposal in public.

It leads me to question your integrity. Are you Christian, or are you Christian excused? Did Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, behave in such a passive manner where the issues of the nation were concerned? Was He hypocritical, or was He a self-aggrandiser?

Did He not care for the entire man instead of just the Spiritual man? Until you care more about Jamaica rather than the church, reserve your comments. They only make people laugh at you and make God disappointed in you!

Jevon Minto

jminto10@stu.nuc.edu.jm

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/Where-was-the-church-all-along_10447129#ixzz1hpPpGe5a

and

Jesus hates the sin, not the sinner

Dear Editor,

Mrs Simpson Miller’s statement regarding the buggery law was a brave and commendable act. I openly applaud her for exercising her right as a Jamaican citizen to speak freely about her views on the topical issue of homosexuality.

I believe that every Jamaican has the right to decide for himself or herself what sexual orientation he or she is comfortable with and wishes to pursue. This is why I believe that the uproar from the Council of Churches is just ridiculous. Firstly, she did not say she was about to legalise homosexuality, and secondly, how can the Christian bodies in this country advocate the continued marginalisation of a small fraction of our society?

Correct me if I am wrong. Wasn’t Jesus Christ the one who said that He came to save the lost and isn’t it also the belief and hope of every Christian to be like Jesus? So if they feel so strongly about the homosexual minority being ‘lost’ why not try to ‘save’ them by showing them the same love and compassion Jesus would?

Is it that those who choose to enter into same-sex relationships are less human than Jamaicans who are heterosexual? Homosexuals are people too. This I-am-better-than-you-and-so-have-the-moral-authority-to-bash-you mentality was the driving force for the enslavement of our beautiful black race for over 400 years, and it is definitely not Christian-like.

Jesus urged us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. As much as the Council of Churches dislikes it, homosexuals are our neighbours. Jesus hates the sin, not the sinner. It is full time for Jamaica to move away from homophobia. That sort of thinking is more crippling to our society than homosexuality is because it engenders abject disgust, hate and intolerance to our fellow Jamaican brothers and sisters who are exercising their freedom of choice.

Claudelle Maitland

 UWI Mona

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/Jesus-hates-the-sin–not-the-sinner_10448020#ixzz1hpQH3bBy

also

Why a conscience vote on sodomy, Mrs Simpson Miller?

Dear Editor,

Baggaley et al of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Paddington, London, UK, reporting in the International Journal of Epidemiology of August 2010 in the article: “HIV transmission risk through anal intercourse: systematic review, meta-analysis and implications for HIV prevention”, stated that among both heterosexuals and homosexuals, “Unprotected anal intercourse is a high-risk practice for HIV transmission”.

Also, local media reported that the Jamaican Government found it necessary to set aside a total of some J$594 million for HIV prevention during the 2009 to 2010 and 2010 to 2011 fiscal years.

In light of this data, why would Mrs Simpson Miller consider bringing the decriminalisation of sodomy to a conscience vote ?

Wayne West

 Kgn 6

 wayne_west@hotmail.com

Rev Al Miller on the Abnormality of Homosexuality & the invented gay marriage rights ploy

So this week again on his television show Word Power as was expected Reverend Al Miller pushed his anti gay position and associated the invented gay marriage issue as was hinted to by the Prime Minister in an interview with Ian Boyne on Profile on television Jamaica and a previous Gleaner editorial posted HERE.  No LGBT group or individual at this time of ever as far as I am aware has asked for gay marriage rights and it has been a smoke screen used to deny any acceptance of tolerance of LGBT issues in the public domain. We cannot even get past this debate and the confusion of buggery with homosexuality in general. One wonders if Reverend Miller is using this issue to repair his public image which has taken a battering since the Dudus Coke matter earlier this year and the subsequent missing gun trial where he, the goodly pastor was found guilty, a recent news service reported:

Reverend Al Miller has been found guilty of negligence resulting in the loss or theft of his licensed firearm. 

Reverend Miller, who is the pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle Church, in St Andrew, was charged in January earlier this year.

Senior Resident Magistrate Lorna Williams announced the verdict when the case resumed today in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.

In handing down her ruling, Williams said she rejected the unsworn statement Miller gave in his defence.

Responding to the verdict, Miller said it shows flaws in the system.

Allegations are that the reverend and his daughter were on their way home when they stopped at a school in the Shortwood area, of St Andrew, to pick plums.

He reportedly left a pouch containing the firearm and several rounds of ammunition in his car, but returned to find them missing.

Reverend Miller is also before the courts on separate charges. He has been charged for harbouring a fugitive and attempting to pervert the course of justice after then fugitive Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke was captured in his car along the Mandela Highway, in St Catherine.

Does Reverend Miller have the moral authority to speak? what is a pastor doing with a firearm? that is not to say he does not have the right to bear arms but the power of God should be your guide not a weapon that destroys that ends up missing and he conveniently forgot to report it to the relevant authorities.

This weekend at the Heroes Circle Reverend Al Miller’s church will be hosting Pastor,  self described ex gay Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin (above) who will be here for two days of concerts and meetings with other clergy. Is this a sign of the use of reparative therapy rebuttals towards the present debate on the UK aid removal, the challenge by Lord Anthony Gifford et al to the buggery law, homosexuality in general and a shot in the arm to the mounting opposition from other circles and individuals such as Shirley Richards past President of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, LCF? In 2004, Mr. McClurkin sang at the Republican National Convention. The appearance generated criticism for the event organizers and McClurkin for his statements on homosexuality. He claims to have struggled with homosexuality during his youth for several years, but states that he is now “delivered” from the condition. McClurkin wrote that homosexuality is a spiritual issue and that one can be delivered from it but by God; “The abnormal use of my sexuality continued until I came to realize that I was broken and that homosexuality was not God’s intention [...] for my masculinity.” He then describes himself as going through a process by which he became “saved and sanctified.” McClurkin has stated that homosexuality is a curse McClurkin also speaks openly about sexual issues since becoming the biological father of a child with a woman to whom he was not marriage  He uses these life experiences in his concerts and speaking engagements.

Let us never forget that both Miller and Richards were present at the Charter of Rights sittings which saw the change of the definition of sex in the original draft of 2006 as they thought it was a loophole for homosexual rights in the future.

This morning Reverend Miller said among other things:

“…remember to pray for our leaders because the word of God says that first of all that prayer should be made for those in authority that we may lead a quieter and peaceable life, remember that the decisions that are made  by those in the seat of governance affect our lives so we want to pray that the wisdom of God, we want to keep the negative forces of evil away so that they will make the right and wise decisions that will ensure our nations is able to become  a productive nation and deal with the social ills.  

Last week we mentioned that issue, the homosexuality thing  continues to be in the air ……… lot of continuing comments to what the British Prime Minister said in the wanting to pressure nations like Jamaica to conform to change our laws to allow that the homosexual lifestyle should be accepted as an alternative   normative lifestyle and as he indicated that those who don’t conform they are considering cutting aid I have indicated we appreciate the aid from our international partners we need it as part of our development process but aid must never be at any cost if it is against the principles of spiritual righteousness  holiness and challenging the morality of our society then it is not a price we are prepared or can afford to pay for economic aid and let us know that if we take a principled stand that out prime minister has done I hope and pray he will continue to maintain a principled stance as the former prime minister did and their government to stand strong and resolute against that practice.

We are not by any means against persons  who have a certain lifestyle, we’ll understand it, we’ll help them, we’ll support them we will pray for them but we cannot take a position that it is normative, it is abnormal, it is not normative and it is not something we can now redefine marriage to include by no means  and so if it means aid won’t come because of that then we must be prepared to suffer for what is right, I tell you more if we stand for what is right on principles  then God will make another way for us all the time deliverance will come from another place, so I’m not worried, don’t you be worried either, we have a God who is on our side cause righteousness exalteth a nation ……”   

Al Miller on UK Aid & The Abnormality of Homosexuality 19.11.11

Al Miller sounds like that Ugandan preacher from the Uganda Unitarian Church leading the anti gay campaign as funded by US conservative religious groups which was revealed recently (also see:  Intersections of Church and State where the connections are shown in a documentary on the issue) In 2009, the Ugandan Parliamentary proposed an anti-homosexuality bill that would impose the death penalty on serial offenders of homosexual acts. Inciting fear and sanctioning homophobia, the bill has caused LGBT Ugandans to be hunted in their communities and forced into exile, the documentary focuses on the man behind the bill and his supporters, and exposes the political and financial influence used by powerful conservatives in the U.S. to export their anti-gay agenda overseas.

also hear my commentary:

-

No to Gay Marriage in Jamaica etc .. my two cents from way back in 2009 (ignore snapvine references please)

and 

Homosexuality is Not Illegal in Jamaica …. Buggery is despite the persons gender 12.11.11

Let us also not forget we got some $327 million debt relief earlier this year.

Here is Bruce Golding on his feet where he cleverly merged the invented gay marriage smoke screen into the Charter of Rights Debate in October 2009

PM Golding seen here gesticulating in a documentary called “Taboo Yardies” where he said among other things“…… I have challenged the gay community to explain, when they insist that we must change our laws to recognize and accept homosexual relations as a normal thing and we must do it because people should be free to choose, that’s the philosophical argument ….” 

see Rev Al Miller’s previous sentiments some months ago:

Rev Al Miller says gay lobby is using the guise of tolerance to get the nation to accept the “gay lifestyle” on September 11, 2011

here is an older interview

Aug 23, 2011

Rev. Al Miller Fellowship Tabernacle (Church) and Arlene Harrison – Henry ( Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights I.J.C.H.R.) Debated about Sexual Equality

Peace and tolerance

H