February 8th 2012 was the night successful asylum seeker in Canada, lawyer and former self styled local advocate Maurice Tomlinson (seen above) made his first appearance on local television via live feed on camera on CVM TV to talk about supposed Gay brain drain, the impression given was that gay professionals were leaving Jamaica in droves like himself due to threats on his life or their lives. Truth is most asylum seekers from Jamaica to anywhere in the world especially the UK and Canada and recently Amsterdam are from the mid to lower socio economic classes who face far more real threats than professionals who are insulated in essence by virtue of their class and literal gated communities they live in. Besides there are so many ordinary LGBT folk who are threatened several times over but who remain as some of us know threats are relative in some cases. The complexities of our brand of homophobia are often left out of the limited timed interviews on media outlets.
An example of the supposed safety however of these persons from the professional class was presented by psychologist Leachim Semaj who was in studio to discuss to topic, he mentioned Stacy Ann Chin an open lesbian poet who usually returns to Jamaica for readings at the now defunct Calabash literary festival etc. and she has not been attacked, but then again she is a lesbian apart from her class insulation and SGL women are far less proned to be attacked that easily more so than perceived gay men although more butch identified women have been feeling the brunt of a new wave of lesbophobia since 2007 with evictions, corrective rape episodes and even arson.
Leachim Semaj however reiterated a position he has long held for years that paedophilia is also going to go the route of homosexuality via its removal from the DSM, Diagnostic Statistical Manual (guide for psychologists) which was done in 1973 by the APA American Psychological Association. "We had a list of behaviours nearly 18 of them, one was taken off the list, all the others are left in tact, now the question any kind of sexual attraction that anyone has whether its zoophilia, necrophilia and so on, are those ok? paedophilia is being targeted next, paedophilia is being eased off to move into a premise where in the next five years we will hear that paedohpilia is good, it's good for the kids to be introduced early, the same we did with homosexuality in terms of moving it from the deviant to the accepted, so when you want to shift the universe in that manner somebody has to speak out. If you speak back in anyway you are labelled as homophobic"
"Within the context of human behaviour there is a thing called natural order that which facilitates our collective survival and when you see a behaviour which is intended now, to bring that behaviour to be a centrepiece any behaviour which does not support our collective survival it is right to question it ...... in 1994 the American Psychiatric Association, APA removed paedophilia as a sexual perversion from the DSM IV .... it is now seen as it could be ok on behalf of that child to be so exposed, in 2005 they moved it even further .... that is the next one to be removed from the list, so this is not no fear-mongering."
He complained that the evidence that gays are attacked from the professional class was not available, he continued that it is public displays of affection that Jamaicans have a problem with. "when you want your private perversion to get public acceptance that's what Jamaicans respond to, what you wanna do in the privacy of your bedroom is your personal business"
On the matter of rights however for gay persons he was not forthcoming, it was at that point that the paedophile reference was made.
He also rubbished the reports that gays were attacked due to their perceived sexual orientation.
"The majority of instances that have been investigated where somebody allegedly is because they are homosexual is in-house, it is a lover it is someone close to them that killed them, the evidence is showing that, so to blame Jamaicans and to say we are these awful people the evidence does not support that. I can give you more instances of Jamaicans of prominence who have homosexual behaviour and public persona who are nor persecuted ..........I am saying there is no such problem it has been created from a political standpoint for persons to get visas"
He continued to say that the problem being postured by gays has been created for persons to get visas. he ended that he does not accept the construct.
Former Newstalk 93 FM talk show host and rights activist Lloyd D'Agular however went down the road I would have gone to suggest that since intellectuals, middle class persons and professionals was the area where Mr. Semaj was zooming in on then what about those persons from below those socio economic levels who are beaten such as the cross dresser in Trelawny or other poorer persons who are gay (Maurice was silent on this part of the discourse) he went on to say it was across the divide, which to me is not really so, it's far more persons from the lower socio economic levels. He also took Semaj to task that he avoided the question about rights for gays, he said he believed that their rights should be respected.
"If we are not homophobic why do we have the buggery law on our books, why don't we remove that?
Why is that after Portia Simpson Miller said what she said in the debate the church came down on her and there was a clarification from the Peoples National Party that the party had not taken a position and reminded us that it has to go to a conscience vote in parliament, we do know that if it is put to a conscience vote in parliament both the PNP and the JLP are going to vote to retain the buggery law so you tell me that's not homophobic?"
The last section of that comment I so agree with and have postured same in previous audio and written posts here as well. We need to get real in this matter and stop hanging on to a dream. But if it goes otherwise then that would be a miracle in and of itself given the make up of the cabinet and senate as this post is created. Mr. D'Agular also was scaving towards the host when she suggested the LGBT community was wanting much far too quickly to which he sarcastically suggested that police should continue to beat gays or they should be abused yet still.
Despite his questionable departure from Jamaica Maurice Tomlinson seems undaunted by critics locally and abroad as to the ethical cloudiness of his public presence on gay issues, the so called threats and the perceived use of the gullible LGBT community to further his own personal agenda, a point presented by some surprise voices locally and abroad. In response to Leachim Semaj's pointers he said that it was an unoriginal argument, societies that have accepted homosexuality and the rights of LGBT people have not gone on to accept paedophilia and bestiality which is the normal trite tired old arguments that are trotted out every time this issue is mentioned.
"You are dealing with consenting adults and what consenting adults do in private should never be the pervue of the law and it's also impossible to police it anyway so I don't know where Dr. Semaj has any examples of this leading to moral decay but certainly in the societies that I have studied which have recognised the full human rights of LGBT there has been no moral decay"
He continued that it was a fear tactic to keep gays down.
The question for the night was: Do you think homophobia in Jamaica is negatively affecting our development? here are some responses read on air.
Obviously we have some ways to go here as this interview shows, clearly the ethical positions of advocacy are still in question as to the truth of what we posture or as in this case postured on our behalf without consultation and the views of a professional while he flouts the DSM which ought to be his guide as a psychologist.
also see: Questions for Maurice Tomlinson from an anonymous writer regarding his departure and more, pity the author of that Gleaner letter never named themselves, I also added my two cents in that post as well. How we conduct ourselves publicly is of critical importance in my view, privately is another matter.
Peace and tolerance
H
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