The Creaking Hinges Of Closets And Cabinets

by Glenda Simms

It is rather surprising that the opinion makers and policy analysts in the Jamaican society appear to have been taken off-guard by the strong, threatening and direct statement made to the members of the Commonwealth exclusive club by the prime minister of Great Britain. He has unequivocally told all the world that aid from his country's coffers will be withdrawn from countries which have not removed buggery and other discriminatory laws that violate the human rights of homosexuals from their books.

Since 2010, the government of Britain, in preparation for the 2011 meeting in Perth, Australia, has put much effort into ensuring that the British Overseas Territories prepare themselves for the extension of all human rights treaties that have been ratified by the mother country. To this end, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women has been given top priority.

This new-found energy to ensure that all Commonwealth citizens realise their full potential in societies that respect the rule of law, democracy and dignity in a framework of full human rights was a major plank of The Eminent Persons Group which examined all the issues of human rights in the Commonwealth and proposed a Charter of Commonwealth Values in the name of all the Commonwealth people so that every one of the 54 countries in this post-colonial club take the persistent infringements of human rights in their territories more seriously.

In Canada, the Stephen Harper Conservative government had the full support of its members and the opposition parties to press for gay rights at the Perth meeting.
Similar proactive approaches were discussed in all the 'old Commonwealth countries'. No doubt, the planned agenda items and emphasis were transmitted to all 54 governments of the Commonwealth. Jamaica, therefore, must have been well aware of the seriousness of the human-rights implications of the Perth conference.

The issues raised in an opinion piece published by Michael Kirby on October 25 are very relevant to the outcomes of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that was recently held in Perth.
In his capacity as a member of the Eminent Persons Group that led the discussions on the future of the Commonwealth, Kirby has an informed perspective not only on the issues that would be discussed in Perth but also on the stance that would be taken by Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

In his article, 'Commonwealth must ensure gays are not equated with criminals', Kirby argued that the whole world knows that the British Commonwealth of nations is divided on the legal issues of sexual orientation. He further pointed out that this problem is a specific Commonwealth problem, because more than half of the 80 countries which still criminalise same-sex relationships between consenting adults are members of the Commonwealth.

He also argues that in 2010, there were many reported cases of physical and verbal violence against gays in the so-called "new Commonwealth". Jamaica is one of the countries that fall in this category of newness.

colonial criminalisation

The interesting point that Kirby makes is that the criminalisation of gays and their lifestyle is unique to the British colonial project. He argues that other colonisers such as the French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and Belgian empires did not have laws that criminalise homosexuality, therefore, this problem does not exist in the colonies that these nations spawned across the world.

In short, the issue of laws that criminalise homosexuals' private lifestyle is a uniquely British Commonwealth dilemma. By the same token, Kirby argues that "just as sexuality is a special Commonwealth problem, so is HIV/AIDS, which is twice as prevalent in Commonwealth countries as elsewhere in the world".

This issue was reflected in resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on June 10. In this Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS: Intensifying our Efforts to Eliminate HIV/AIDS, the following relevant important points were made by the General Assembly in its desire to guide the governments of the world.

Recognise that HIV/AIDS constitutes a global emergency, poses some of the most formidable challenges to development progress, and stability of our respective societies and the world at large, and requires an exceptional and comprehensive global response that takes into account that the spread of HIV is often a consequence and cause of poverty.

Express deep concern that HIV/AIDS affects every region of the world and that the Caribbean continues to have the highest prevalence outside sub-Saharan Africa.
Note that many national HIV-prevention strategies inadequately focus on populations the epidemiological evidence shows are at higher risk, specifically men who have sex with men ... .

Against this background, the Commonwealth nations of the Caribbean should recognise that stigma and discrimination based on the criminalisation of homosexuals through legal instrument, such as the buggery law, is strongly implicated in the spread of HIV in the region.
In other words, more and more men who have sex with men will find ways of hiding their sexual practices because they try very hard to keep out of jail. In the end, they pretend they are not gay. They oftentimes marry for social reasons in an effort to avoid the stigma and discrimination in their society.

It is, therefore, no surprise that in Jamaica, the Victim Support Unit of the Ministry of Justice, an article published in the October 25, 2011 edition of the Observer has discovered that significance of boys between age eight to 12 need therapy to deal with the fact that they have been buggered, no doubt by older men and bigger boys.
The time has surely come for the Government of Jamaica to rethink the effectiveness of the buggery law. While this law is designed to control the private activities of consenting adults in the bedrooms of the nation, it has not stopped paedophiles of all sexual orientation from sexually abusing far too many of the nation's children.
Now that the prime minister of Britain has threatened to withdraw much-needed funding from all Commonwealth nations which continue to violate the human rights of gay men, I suspect that Jamaica will have no choice but to find the oil to grease the creaky hinges of the closet and cabinet doors.

Glenda P. Simms, PhD, is a gender expert and consultant.