Fundraising Helps Legal Network Support LGBTQI People in the Caribbean

By Neil Armstrong

Photo credit: Maurice Tomlinson    From left to right: Chris Tyrell, Maurice Tomlinson, Al Ramsay, Jim Searle and Philip Wong at "Chill & Chat" on July 11, 2018 in Toronto, Canada.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has received an annual boost of its fundraising efforts to support the human rights of LGBTQI people in the Caribbean.

For the past five years, a private cocktail fundraising reception, “Chill & Chat,” hosted by Chris Tyrell, Jim Searle and Al Ramsay in the summer at the home of Tyrell and Searle in downtown Toronto has raised funds for the organization and its Caribbean Can Rainbow Fund.

 The network says the event is also an opportunity to hear from activists and legal experts building momentum towards LGBTQI equality in the Caribbean and learn how allies can play a role. 

Maurice Tomlinson, a Jamaican lawyer and senior policy analyst at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, is leading the organization’s efforts to challenge anti-gay laws and policies in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

The long-time activist for LGBTQI rights in the Caribbean works in collaboration with local Caribbean groups and activists.

The legal network says these laws contribute to the region having the second highest HIV prevalence rate after sub-Saharan Africa.  

It notes that UNAIDS and regional and national agencies have identified homophobia as a factor contributing to this troubling statistic. 

“In numerous countries, particularly the Commonwealth Caribbean, the criminalization of consensual same-sex relationships and gender non-conforming people — accompanied by wider societal stigma and discrimination, often intensified by fundamentalist religious groups — has had a damaging effect on health and human rights.”

As a result, the legal network is pursuing various strategies to ensure that basic human rights are enjoyed by all, it said.

“The “Chill & Chat” is hosted by donors, this is their initiative. They viewed the work that we did, specifically in the Caribbean, as an opportunity to support our organization. This fund goes specifically towards our work in the Caribbean on LGBTQI issues,” says Philip Wong, director of development at the network.

The network invites people to help sustain change by joining members of the diaspora community along with concerned allies to support the Caribbean Can Rainbow Fund.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s strategy includes initiating legal challenges to anti-LGBTQI laws in Barbados and Jamaica, and spearheading police awareness training on LGBTQI issues in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Suriname.

It also includes: supporting visibility campaigns such as Montego Bay Pride and Film Festival, convening with progressive faith leaders to spread a more inclusive message and challenge religious assumptions, and writing reports to national and international bodies detailing the impact of homophobia on Caribbean LGBTQI people. 

Photo credit: Maurice Tomlinson   Maurice Tomlinson, senior policy analyst at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, speaking at "Chill & Chat."

“We’re trying to encourage more diaspora groups to get involved so we put on events for diaspora groups to learn about what’s happening on the ground in the country, and to invest time and energy and resources to support this work,” says Tomlinson.

He said on June 6, the network launched a challenge to the Barbadian anti-sodomy law which he describes as the worst in the western hemisphere.

The network plans to host another Intimate Conviction conference which will have religious groups from around the globe meeting again in the Caribbean.

Tomlinson notes that Montego Bay Pride will take place again in October and the network will host another set of police LGBT sensitivity training in a Caribbean island.

There are nine countries in the western hemisphere that still have anti-sodomy laws and the network’s goal is to work with local partners to challenge as many of these laws as their resources allow, he said. 

So far, they have done so in Jamaica, Barbados, and intend to add another Caribbean country soon. 

[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, July 26-Aug. 1, 2018.]