The False Dichotomy of the religious right on the LGBT advocacy Godlessness

Firstly let me make it clear there are Gay Christians right here in Jamaica and others who subscribed to a belief system of a supreme being. The clouding of religion with morality has led to all kinds of arrant nonsense over time. Not because the loudest voices in the Gay lobby presently locally subscribe to an aesthetic, secularist or humanist view means we are all some heathen hosts trying to use the struggle for LGBT rights and recognition to deny the existence of “God” that for one has turned the debate inside out and has raised unnecessarily so the temperature on the issue of philosophical, etymological (homophobia word use) and ideological positions on either side of the coin, who in the lobby however is measuring or monitoring the responses and rebuttals properly to realise that we sometimes give the religious right some of the ammunition they throw right back at us?

The debate has never been about the existence or non existence of God as its central theme yet we in some way have allowed personas like Dr Wayne West to divert the attention from the real issues of privacy and consent in regards to same gender sex albeit the cabinet surprise announcement on the buggery review via a conscience vote as was suggested by the present Prime Minister is coming soon although I do not trust them on it and still to this day feel it is a trap of some sort to secure or regain political capital lost in recent difficulties and haemorrhaging support nationally

In recent times in Jamaica the LGBT lobby has indeed splintered itself somewhat on its positions as to various aspects of the religious intolerance and proponents of such towards male homosexuality in particular in many ways. Those anti gay religious voices for the most part do not see homosexuality as innate and limit the expression of same as a lifestyle only supposedly with disastrous consequences for humanity on the strength of procreation (onanism) as their base and an end of the species ideology. Then there are the intellectual dishonest attempts and others who glibly follow un-subconsciously conflating and deliberately presenting same gender sex as abuse under the imperative to protect vulnerable youth from homosexuality, that attempt also includes using or skewing overseas research data on HIV infection rates and sexual practices by sub groups under the men who have sex with men MSM umbrella to raise to the level of law proscriptions on how we should practice or express our sexuality with the possibility of imprisonment excluding privacy and the use of my anatomy. I am in total agreement with public commentator Carol Narcisse (Chair of the Jamaica Civil Society Coalition) on this false dichotomy that she so aptly pointed out in a recent radio discourse with Dr Wayne West.

I have tried to point out for example Dr Wayne West of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society’s universalizing and twisting the data from the Lancet and other studies on unusual same sex practices such as fisting, felching, scat and others to suggest that those practices exist here in the MSM community and to use the shock value of sex to deny homosexual orientation’s existence.

Then there is the name calling such as “Dunce” “Depraved and “Diseased” also used to describe the cohort yet the same man and his supporters cry foul on the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, IDAHOT observed May 17 around the world to suggest the word “Homophobia” is hate speech and an insult to Christians and those like him who oppose homosexuality (Peter Espeut) as he takes his personal spat with his openly gay atheist son (Dr Keon West) public in the running campaign. In the same breath the JCHS which he heads and the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals tries to put a tolerant spin on their own masked hate speech such as gratuitous wordings on their anti gay full paged ads saying they do not support violence against anyone (in very fine print) and jumping on the bandwagon in November 2012 after the University of Technology student abuse incident claiming they do not support physical violence against anyone yet they have no qualms covertly inciting same as recent headlines in the print media suggest a martyrdom imperative by their pastoral supporters now added to the mix when no violent tones were taken by the gay lobby in any instance. The “Love the Sinner, Hate The Sin” line does not wash with me anymore as it does not seem a genuine position when placed alongside the rhetoric opposing the “homosexual lifestyle”

see a recent letter from Al Miller: HERE

The HIV is a gay disease ploy has been masterfully woven into their campaign with various full paged ads in print and workshops now quietly arranged and hosted so as not to have gay lobby representatives present and if they are present the exchanges are highly monitored and sanitized during the rebuttal, questions and answer segments or feedback segments. The use of unverified and unscientific data as well has become common place and resorting to psycho-social expertise who openly defy the Diagnostic criteria guidelines as laid out in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, DSM for psychologists and instead resorting to controversial and unproven studies from American anti gay groups such as NARTH – National Association for the Reparative Therapy of Homosexuality despite open dissent from its own researchers who have come out to say their studies have been erroneously or deliberately misused for deceptive purposes, some have gone as far as to take legal actions blocking the continued use of same yet theologians, pastors and Christian Psychologists and even secular ones continue to rely on the material in pushing reparative therapy as a solution to supposed damaged individuals.

The supposed Godless worldview has now been brought in the mix with moral nihilism as they new line item in the arsenal for the JCHS and others in opposing the gay lobby but as I said in my introduction and in an previous audio post on this notwithstanding that the loudest voices in the LGBT struggle also profess atheism as their mantra it does not and should not be interpreted that all others under the populations are of such ilk or subscribe to such beliefs. One weakness in the lobby’s agitation over these many years is the shifting ideological base and philosophies. As pointed out in the Sunday Gleaner of June 9, 2013 by Sociologist Dr Orville Taylor that a supposed maligning article by Time Magazine in 2006 that “labelled” Jamaica as the most homophobic place on earth has helped to make the resistance to the gay lobby’s effort problematic in my eyes as we have played on the sympathy of our foreign support to this end when the veracity of homophobic violence has not been properly presented to the public hence the cynicism and outright disbelief towards the cry of homophobia and the occasional murders of mostly MSM albeit for varying reasons. Personally I do not want rights gained on a false pretext it must be open, truthful as best as possible and fair so as to avoid future challenges.

Hence my unease with the conscience vote method the ideal situation of course would be a full debate in parliament on the matter of buggery, consent and privacy alongside the legal actions now being taken and awaiting deliberations. The easy way out is being taken and I fear we do not have time enough to properly educate the public and reach the members of parliament who are to decide on this matter in the vote similar to how it was done in the death penalty vote.

The reactions from certain LGBT voices who are atheist is in response to religious intolerance as far as I see it although they do get carried away and emotional sometimes on their platforms and not strategic in bringing across their positions. There are as I said gay Christians or like minded persons but they just have not come forth and are in fact not comfortable with the posture taken by those who on the face of it seem to be on a frolic of their own with any community based consensus a problem that has long plagued the community issue agitation as some feel they are just being dragged along while others glibly follow the supposed superstars in a kind of divide and rule construct.

The false dichotomy comes as part of religious fundamentalist anti-homosexuality imperative in when the challenges comes to the lobby from JCHS and their supporters claim the worldview that anything goes (moral nihilism) and that it has no moral base or God centred principles (when Jesus never mentioned or spoke to homosexuality) we are told that marriage and family life will be destroyed yet the institution has evolved with significant changes over time in various jurisdictions on race, gender and ages of consent and taking into account the divorce rates locally heterosexuals who already can legally marry and are the only ones who can are doing a fine job in that department of impacting family life. The fear mongering on that Godless premise is interwoven in the JCHS campaign so paedophilia, bestiality and other deviant forms maybe agitated for as normative for those persons if homosexuality is allowed to be raised to full acceptance. A similar sentiment also comes from secular or non Christian Psychologists such as Leachim Semaj who repeatedly express same on the airwaves even on the religious station Love 101FM on a program hosted by a noted theologian.

The gay lobby in Jamaica for the most part is not on some quest for the anti-Christ as repeatedly implied by some in the religious right movement voices now conjoined with the ever growing imperatives of the ‘unnaturalness’ of homosexuality, the purity and authenticity of a primordially homosexuality-free global African culture, to protect vulnerable youth from homosexuality, as conflated with paedophilia, the illegality of homosexuality and the imperative of disease containment (HIV/AIDS) and homosexual infestation.

Also see:

Dr Wayne West’s continued intellectual dishonesty ...

Jamaican Pastor says the LGBT issue is not about rights but acceptance of lifestyle

Listen to Wayne West of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, JCHS evade every direct question about whether the position he is trumpeting is not in fact stirring up prejudices and may lead to mob violence. Despicable.

Peace and tolerance

H