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Is Carnival season…six tips for safety

images courtesy Bohemia

Happy Carnival, family! Is winin season. Have real fun. But please do so safely. In blockin, in sexin, in drinkin, in drivin, in travellin, in leavin de party, in playin yuhself in public.

Welcome, too, to our foreign visitors. We’re proud of T&T’s reputation as the GLBT capital of the English-speaking Caribbean, where there’s no mob violence, little police harassment, a whole lot of social spaces, especially at Carnival, and certain people can walk down certain streets certain times in certain ways and not get bashed. But laws against homosexual sex are still on the books here (up to 25 years in jail, an HIV test, and listing in the sexual offender registry), even if they’re not usually used. And just like any other small place, public authorities and most police aren’t sympathetic to gay issues, individual attitudes vary, and you might be in trouble if you act “inappropriately”. So when you’re in public, pretend you’re in an ethnic or working class neighbourhood in your city; and listen to the natives.

Special warning: Over the past couple years an unacceptable number of us have found ourselves robbed, sometimes filmed in sexual poses, in some instances raped, and in a few cases killed by guys we met online, through A4A. These attacks were in people’s own homes as well as in strangers’ places, and not all were instant hookups. A few attacks have also happened as people left gay clubs. And Carnival is always a season of opportunity.

Unprotected – and unexpected – sex also happen quite a lot every Carnival. So make some plans. Guys: the chances the person you have sex with will be HIV+ are as high as 1 in 5; and he may not even know himself. You’ll find free condoms in most parties and events this season, but not necessarily lube and usually not dams. So walk with your stuff.

Here are six simple tips we hope you’ll remember throughout this season:

• Talk about safety with each other…think about safety for yourself
• When you’re thirsty, sip
• Start on the outside
• Always tell somebody
• If you get hurt, get help
• Look out for each other
  

1. Talk about safety with each other. Think about safety for yourself. When you dress up, when you do up, when you do stuff, when you go out. Keep your friends safe. Just talk about it. Make safety a part of how you do Carnival.

2. When yuh tusty…Sip! When yuh real tusty is when you’s make de wuss decisions. So when yuh know yuh tusty, try an sip!

3. Start on the outside. If you are going to meet somebody you met online for the first time, consider doing so in a public place you are familiar with, where there are other people. Don’t agree to have them come to your residence, and don’t go to meet them somewhere strange. You can always decide to go somewhere else once things check out.

4. Always tell somebody. Make it a habit. Point out who you are leaving the party or the band with. Ask who knows them. Text somebody where you’re going. Text the licence plate. Call somebody to say you reached. Text to say you got back safely. Tell whoever you are going off with or you are going to meet that you have people who know who they are and where you are. Even if it’s not true. If they think you have nobody or that you’re ashamed to let anyone know, you become the best victim. If you really can’t tell anybody, make files: write the information down, text yourself.

5. If you become a victim, get help. Get medical care. If you’ve been raped, don’t hide it from the doctor. Ask for “PEP” (drugs that if administered quickly can prevent you from becoming HIV+). Talk and scream and cry about it with somebody you trust. Don’t suffer alone. Call the Carnival Safety Line at 857-7676 if you need to talk, you don’t know where to go for care, or if you’ve been mistreated by a service provider. We can’t answer 24/7, but we can call you back, we’ve helped other people, and we want to prevent people from getting hurt.

6. Look out for each other. Don’t abandon your friends. Encourage them to be responsible. But help them reach home safe when they don’t.

If you want to read more about ways to be safe, or suggest some: click here.

CAISO 2010: putting you at the centre

Leaving a mark: CAISO’s new brand for 2010. We vote, we volunteer, we visible.

Here are some of the ideas and associations that our new logo has generated. Tell us what it means to you.

The logo was designed by Liam Rezende, who came to CAISO, volunteered to help us
develop a brand, and donated his creative services. CAISO 2010: putting you at the centre.

J’Ouvert 2010: CAISO Palancin wit Pride. Are you?

2010: putting you at the centre of CAISO

With boundless faith in our destiny: CAISO 2010

Happy New Year, family! And what a year it will be.

a "1919" vision of sexual orientation

CAISO holds our first meeting of 2010 today. In it we will look back on the magic of the past year: our unplanned formation, our unexpected success, and our unprecedented achievement. On the pleasures and memories that these brought us and many of you.

Stacy, sole survivor from Haitian support group

We will do so chastened: by the lives we lost to violence and illness over that same period; and by the horrible tragedy of Haïti’s earthquake, including the news we received this week that 14 of 15 men attending a support group at our partner organization SEROvie’s office in Port-au-Prince perished together. The sobering idea that everything can crumble in minutes.

Notwithstanding, we look forward with an incredible excitement to the possibility of a new year.

With the inspiration of Linden Lewis’s talk a week ago, and a hope in alliances. With the new vision our work with the international GLBT partners who joined us for CHOGM inspired in us of how our nation is blessed, and of what is possible here.

A vision of a new year that builds on the last one, that builds a bigger base, that builds more focused leadership, that builds more strategic direction, that builds more ambitious projects, that builds better relationships and more pleasure in our work, and that – whatever each of us believes spiritually – builds our faith in our own divine worth and our access to the power to achieve our vision.

A year in which faith will continue to be critical to our work.

We embark on the new year with a new logo that we’ll unveil to you, our community and allies, along with our plans for 2010, in the coming days.

Click and read on as a number of CAISOnians share their visions for the New Year with you.

Linden Lewis focuses Gender Ministry’s distinguished lecture on homophobia

To judge by the energy in the packed ballroom at the Crowne Plaza on Wrightson Rd. tonight, 2010 is off to a promising start. Even before the programme started, the room was filled close to capacity…with men – most of them African, many of them very young. The lobby was full, too, with a crowd browsing the agency tables with materials on men’s health and wellness. (Hmmm: they didn’t invite us to table…)

The fifth? “distinguished lecture” by the Trinidad & Tobago government’s gender ministry focused on masculinity and violence. The grey-bearded 56-year-old Guyanese university professor began his talk, “Abandoning Old Shibboleths of Masculinity in the Struggle against Violence”, by explaining the funny word in the title. He cited the Old Testament’s Judges 12: 5-6, where the term originates, then hauntingly brought the story of the lisp that kills home to Hispaniola in the Caribbean and the 20th-century Parsley Massacre – both cautionary tales of how social groups try to police who does and doesn’t “belong” with violence and with snap judgements about people’s behaviour that don’t always get it right.

Then sociologist Linden Lewis, president of the Caribbean Studies Association, former UWI instructor, international consultant, and current chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bucknell University in the US, addressed another “concept” in his title: violence. He wanted to highlight three aspects of violence – structural violence; symbolic violence; and denial of rights – though he wasn’t saying that these three things were more important than what we normally think about as violence, issues like domestic violence, kidnapping, rape; but they were aspects of violence that don’t usually get talked about. They could offer us different conceptual lenses on violence than the ones we are accustomed to.

He started off reminding us that the explosive Small Arms Survey report was published by an independent research institute in Switzerland and of its statistic that East Port of Spain is more deadly than Baghdad. He recapped the per capita murder rates in Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica. He cited that the Caribbean has three of the top ten rape rates in the world. He noted that prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Trinidad & Tobago – exceeding breast cancer.

Then dry, dry so, according to UWI gender scholar and activist Gabrielle Hosein, the man start talking about homophobia. And talking about homophobia. And talking about homophobia.

That the incidence of prostate cancer is linked to the fact that Caribbean men refuse to undergo rectal exams because they associate a doctor’s finger in their ass with bulling. The story of the 80-year-old blind man who would rather pee on the floor every time than sit down to do so – because if men stoop, the whole ideological infrastructure falls down. Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, a Puerto Rican 19-year-old from Cayey stabbed, decapitated, dismembered and burned by a man who took him home without realizing he was a man. So you get vex; but then you cut off his head and his limbs and you set him on fire… Then he lingered on Jamaica: MP Ernest Smith’s Parliamentary rantings about gays organizing, carrying licensed firearms and serving in the police; PM Bruce Golding’s “Not in my Cabinet” statement on BBC television; still images of the April 2007 mob beating of a Trans person in Falmouth, Trelawny. And then he just let the entire cellphone video of the same noisy attack that had horrified folks around the world play, pointing out at the end how many of the assailants were women, who responded equally to the young victim’s trangression of masculinity with violence.

Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister and new Commonwealth Chair Patrick Manning on human rights, GLBT genocide

It “really forms no part of the agenda…it need
not detain us.” It is “a matter of domestic
policy…individual countries, people have
their own positions on these matters”.

GLBTIQ Issues Make Inroads at Commonwealth Summit

For the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, at CHOGM in Trinidad & Tobago, there was significant representation of GLBTQ (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/queer) activists among civil society participants, and a concerted effort to highlight issues of sexual citizenship and rights. A delegation of GLBTQ activists from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean participated actively in the thematic assembly discussions and drafting process in the November 22-25, 2009 Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF), a gathering of civil society organizations that meets in advance of, and sends a statement to, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Working in partnership with gender, disabilities and other human rights advocates, they achieved visibility for a number of key concerns, and won inclusion of these issues in the broad civil society agenda for the Commonwealth.

The issues cut a wide swath: repealing laws criminalizing non-normative sexualities and gender expression; preventing and prosecuting bias-related murders and violence, including punitive rape of Lesbians; ending discrimination in accessing health services; creating safety in the school system from violence and bullying; addressing the need for support and resources for parents; and developing training and sensitization for a range of public servants and service providers. Both scheduled speakers and participants from the floor made moving contributions related to human rights violations on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in Commonwealth member countries. Especially powerful speeches came from Ashily Dior, a Transgender activist from Trinidad; Canadian Stephen Lewis, co-director of AIDS Free World and former UN Special Envoy on HIV in Africa; and Robert Carr, director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition. Together, contributors raised a comprehensive range of concerns in several of the assemblies, particularly those focused on Gender; Health, HIV and AIDS; and Human Rights.

The final Port of Spain Civil Society Statement to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting includes language calling on “Commonwealth Member States and Institutions” to “recognize and protect the human rights of all individuals without discrimination on the grounds of…sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression”; to “repeal legislation that leads to discrimination, such as the criminalisation of same sex sexual relationships”; and for “the Commonwealth Foundation to facilitate a technical review of such of laws”. Further, it issues a call for “Commonwealth Member States to ensure universal access to basic” health “services for marginalised and vulnerable groups”, including “sexual and gender minorities”, and to “work to actively remove and prevent the establishment of legislation which undermines evidence-based effective HIV prevention, treatment and care available to marginalised and vulnerable groups, such as sexual minorities”. Its Gender section includes a distinct item on “Transgenders, Gays and Lesbians” (“We call on Commonwealth Member States to include gender and sexuality as a specific theme on sexualities, sexual and gender minorities, related violence and discrimination, making them no longer invisible”) and echoes the recognition in the human rights section “that gender equity implies equality for all and therefore issues related to non-normative sexualities, such as sexual and gender minorities”.

The Statement also makes reference to proposed “Anti-Homosexuality” legislation introduced in the Parliament of Uganda, home of current CHOGM Chair President Yoweri Museveni. The legislation would require reporting of homosexuals, provide a sentence of life imprisonment for homosexual touching or sex, and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, if the offender is HIV-positive. In remarks in more than one CPF assembly and in a special press conference, Lewis, Carr and a representative of the Caribbean HIV & AIDS Alliance, spoke out forcefully against the legislation, asking Museveni to take a clear position on it, and calling on others to condemn it. The Trinidad & Tobago Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation joined these voices, asking its own Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who will assume the chairmanship of CHOGM, and other CARICOM leaders, to do the same.

Eighty-six countries in the world currently have legislation criminalizing same-sex conduct between consenting adults as well as other non normative sexual and gender behaviours and identities; half of them are Commonwealth member states. Criminal provisions in these countries may target same sex sexual conduct, men who have sex with men specifically, or more generally any sexual behaviour considered “unnatural”. Some countries criminalize other non normative behaviours, such as cross-dressing, or utilize criminal provisions on indecency or debauchery, among others, to target individuals on their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. These criminal provisions not only constitute a violation of civil and political rights in and of themselves because they violate key provisions established by international human rights law; they also have significant human rights implications, representing a serious risk for the exercise of other fundamental rights, such as the right to association, the right to assembly, and the right to expression, the right to health, the principle of non discrimination, to mention a few. Furthermore, the mere existence of these laws is in many countries is an avenue for other human rights violations by state and non-state actors.

We acknowledge and welcome the civil society consensus on the above mentioned issues, and call on Commonwealth member states, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation to implement the recommendations of the Commonwealth People’s Forum.

You can access the Port of Spain Civil Society Statement to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 25 November at: http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/governancedemocracy/CPF2009/NewPublicationsCPF/

·     Alternative Law Forum (ALF) – India
·     Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana (CEPEHRG)  - Ghana
·     Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO) – Trinidad & Tobago
·     Gay and Lesbian coalition of Kenya (GALCK) – Kenya
·     GrenCHAP – Grenada
·     Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-Sexuals and Gays – (J-FLAG) – Jamaica
·     Knowledge and Rights with Young People through Safer Spaces (KRYSS) – Malaysia
·     Lesbians and Gays Bisexuals Botswana (LEGABIBO) – Botswana
·     People Like Us (PLU) – Singapore
·     Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) – Guyana
·     The Independent Project (TIP) – Nigeria
·     United and Strong – St. Lucia
·     United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) – Belize
·     United Gays and Lesbians against AIDS Barbados (UGLAAB) – Barbados
·     Global Rights
·     International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)

Links:

Human Rights Defenders Look to the Commonwealth

Mia Quetzel on Caribbean Transgender Issues

“Law to protect gays, lesbians”, Barbados Nation, 26 November 2009: Minister of Family, Youth and Sports Esther Byer-Suckoo promises domestic violence protections the day after participating in the Comonwealth People’s Forum

Fridae: Letter from Trinidad

LGBT Rights in the Commonwealth

Can’t Every Body Be a Commonwealth Citizen? Making Safe Space for Sexuality on the People’s Forum Agenda

Taking responsibility for creating spaces at CPF for discussion and action on questions of sexuality, gender and development

http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/uploads/fckeditor/00000206_CPF_2009_%20Final_Statement.pdf

The gayest CHOGM ever: join the conversation!

A Conversation on the Commonwealth and LGBTI Advocacy:
sharing experiences and discussing strategies

generously supported by Arcus Foundation, UWI-St. Augustine Institute of
International Relations, Josh Drayton, and an anonymous donor

Sunday November 29th, 2009
Classroom, Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies-St. Augustine

9:00 Setting the Stage
Stefano Fabeni, Director, LGBTI Initiative, Global Rights
Marcelo Ferreyra, Latin America and Caribbean Coordinator, IGLHRC
Zaharadeen Gambo, Program Officer, Global Rights Nigeria
Colin Robinson, Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation, Trinidad & Tobago
Timothy M Shaw, PhD, Director, Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies-St. Augustine

10.00 Decriminalizing Same-Sex Intimacy: first India, then Trinidad & Tobago?
Colin Robinson, CAISO, Trinidad and Tobago
Siddharth Narrain, Alternative Law Forum, India
Tracy Robinson, UWI Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP), Cave Hill, Barbados

11.30 Coffee break (provided)

11.45 Sexual Citizenship in the Commonwealth: charting a civil society agenda
Zoe Ware, Royal Commonwealth Society
Robert Carr, Commonwealth HIV & AIDS Group (CHAAG)/Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC)
Heather Collister, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Hassan Shire Sheikh, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project

1.15 Lunch (provided)

2.00 Viewing of LGBTI advocates’ interview on TV6 CHOGM broadcast

4.00 Coffee break (provided)

4.15 Human Rights in the Commonwealth
David Kalete, Civil Society Liaison Manager, Commonwealth Secretariat
Clare Doube, Commonwealth Foundation & civil society consultation processes

Both days are free, catered and open to the public and the UWI community.
To reserve a meal, please RSVP to caisott@gmail.com

Monday November 30th, 2009
Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social & Economic Studies (SALISES), UWI-St. Augustine

9.00 The Commonwealth of Nations: functions, opportunities, obstacles and allies
Stefano Fabeni, Global Rights

10.30 Coffee break (provided)

10.45 Framing an LGBTI advocacy strategy
Moderators: Marcelo Ferreyra & Zaharadeen Gambo

12.00 Conclusions

12.30 Lunch (provided) & Networking

Eighty-six countries in the world currently have legislation criminalizing same-sex conduct between consenting adults a well as other non normative sexual and gender behaviors and identities; half of them are member states of the Commonwealth. For the first time at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, at this week’s CHOGM in Trinidad & Tobago, there is significant gay, lesbian and transgender (GLT) representation among civil society participants, and a concerted effort to highlight issues of sexual citizenship and rights. Working in partnership with gender and disabilities advocates, GLT participants have already achieved visibility for a number of key GLT concerns, and won their inclusion on the broad civil society agenda for the Commonwealth.

Read more about the event:

Uganda: CAISO calls on Museveni, Manning, CARICOM to speak up on homosexuality, make CHOGM a “cathedral of human rights”

CAISO released the following statement yesterday:

CAISO stands with human rights advocates of all stripes across the Commonwealth and the world in issuing a call to Commonwealth Chairs Ugandan President Museveni and our own Prime Minister Patrick Manning:

We urge them to use Trinidad & Tobago’s shores to speak out forcefully against legislation introduced by a member of the Ugandan Parliament that would deprive all gays and lesbians and people with HIV of the core benefits of citizenship. We urge President Museveni to bring to defeat the bill which would prescribe life imprisonment for consensual sex, and which singles out lesbians and gays with HIV for death if they have sex, even with a partner to whom they disclose their HIV status.

Photo courtesy Newsday

Sadly, CHOGM in Uganda saw lesbian, gay and transgender Ugandans beaten by security forces for speaking out in the Commonwealth People’s Space. CHOGM in Trinidad & Tobago provides an opportunity to repair that. We encourage Prime Minister Manning and all other CARICOM leaders to join President Museveni in making CHOGM here in Trinidad & Tobago a cathedral of human rights by joining their voices in joint opposition to moving any Commonwealth state backward on human rights.

No self-respecting leader of the Commonwealth, either incoming or outgoing, or of the region, can turn a blind eye to such a threat to sexual freedoms. Public health leaders have made it eminently politically safe for our leaders to do what is right when it comes to protecting the freedom and equality of their citizens who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and living with HIV, and who seek to harm no one in pursuit of our human and God-given gifts. What is more, here in Trinidad & Tobago doing so has no real political cost. It is, more importantly, a deeply principled way to show leadership in the world community, ensure human dignity, and save human lives.

LINKS:

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2009

Remarks by Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World Delivered at the Commonwealth People’s Forum on the Eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)

News articles

“Ugandan church leader brands anti-gay bill ‘genocide’”, UK Guardian

“Row Over Uganda Bill” by Andre Bagoo, Newsday, 26 November 2009CNews lead story, 24 November 2009: “Former UN Official criticizes leaders criminalizing same sex activity”

Museveni messaging sticks: Newsday article on his address to Commonwealth Business Forum opens: “Even as his administration is under international fire for a proposed bill which seeks to impose custodial sentences and even death for homosexuality, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni…”

“Proposed Uganda legislation could accelerate Caribbean homophobia” by Gary Eleazar, Kaieteur News, 26 November 2009

African websites

Africans Against Hate

SMUG: Sexual Minorities Uganda

Gay Uganda blog

Pambazuka News

Human rights & research

Political Research Associates: “Globalizing the Culture Wars: US Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia”

International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Human Rights Watch

“This Alien Legacy”, HRW report on the colonial legacy of sodomy laws in Africa and Asia

Former UN Official criticizes leaders criminalizing same sex activity
Tuesday 25th November, 2009