The matter came up for mention again this morning on Power 106FM where Thwaites has returned as radio show host and he went on and on about the parents and teachers in schools and the recent GSAT examinations passes and the recently made comments by him on CVM TV also came through as to grooming. Sometimes I wonder if Thwaites and others like him in thinking are feeling-less or never had urges or experimented with some sort of sexual desires?
Despite the experts’ advice that teaching about sex in a carefully done manner does not necessarily cause children to go simply do it; and it makes one wonder sometimes if these same persons as paranoid adults were not young once or played ‘dollyhouse’ and the little rude things that attended no sooner than our parents our guardians turned their backs. The cooled rainbow flag brou ha ha has been tied into the ever growing pile of impositions in the eyes of ever frightened antigay groups in their continued moral panic; thankfully more and more Jamaicans are coming to their senses if ever so slowly (wish it was faster) that the seeming obsession with gays is too much; even as other societal issues abound. Such sentiments were expressed on the Seventh Day Adventist run radio station NCU FM Sunday call in show Pressing Matters hosted by Dennis Chung in Mandeville. The rainbow flag and the commission of inquiry report took up most of the show but the clear separation of selective religious voices came through which I found interesting. Some callers asked where are these groups on corruption and such and yet they are so transfixed on gays?
Meanwhile what is ironic is that many persons may have passed the flag at the US Embassy at Hope Road prior to Mrs Forte’s tweet-faux pas I bet did not know what the flag meant until this controversy, so the good that can come out of this it is a teaching moment for us LGBT voices included who know the flag is for LGBT but do not know the history of it.
In a television interview on CVM TV on June 14, 2016 when asked after a public where the Prime Minister Andrew Holness expressed support to the families impacted by the Orlando Pulse gay club shooting Thwaites said that the flying of a rainbow flag at the US Embassy is effectively grooming children into “a particular lifestyle that is different from the Judaeo Christian norm which is in fact the foundation of our constitutional order and I believe of our personal and national health...... ”
NATIONAL Family Planning Board (NFPB) Executive Director Dr Denise Chevannes-Vogel has said that exposing adolescents to information on sexual reproductive health will not drive them to have sex if they are not already sexually active. Speaking at an HIV forum at Knutsford Court Hotel in St Andrew on Monday, Dr Chevannes-Vogel came out in full support of Comprehensive Sexuality Education, which has come under recent scrutiny after concerns were raised about the infiltration of the philosophy into the education system.
Dr Chevannes-Vogel called for “frank conversations” which, evidenced by the loud applause, got the nod from the audience. Though the forum — which was held under the theme ‘Health for All: Putting Youth and Adolescents at the Heart of the HIV Response’ — sought to raise awareness about adolescent and youth-specific issues in the response to HIV and AIDS, Dr Chevannes-Vogel moved to broaden the theme to put youth at the centre of a comprehensive sexual reproductive health response and sustainable national development.
“When we look at the correlation between good, optimum, sexual reproductive health and sustainable national development, the linkage is clear,” she stated. “And as a matter of fact, that was part of the basis of the integration of HIV and sexual reproductive health; they share common drivers — the gender inequalities, the cultural attitudes, the poverty, the unemployment, gender-based violence, sexual violence, incest.”
In May, Education Minister Ruel Reid met with representatives of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society to hear their concerns and made it clear that the education ministry’s philosophical position is that gender is fixed as male and female. So the new Education minister is already showing where he is going on this which seems nowhere as he too is playing to the gallery. The orgy incident recently at Coreville Gardens of some 14 students came to mind as well as instead of gathering the obvious misguided teens to start some sustained intervention in counselling they were arrested of all things; what a lovely way to start to foster even more rebellion than already exists with teens as we once were. We wanted some independence as teens lest we forget at some point in our lives. Even though some involved were below the age of consent of 16 they were no adults found in their company which means this was a group arrangement. Careful handling such have been employed instead to the alleged verbal abuse by onlookers the teens were escorted to the waiting police vehicles.
Another incident in St Catherine at a high school where two male teens were caught in a compromising position in what has been surmised as a partnered masturbation session; both boys were described as showing each other their erect penises and touching each other, a mob eventually came down on them as other students created an alarm and gave chase. Early initiation is something that has not been adequately looked at it seems on the face of it and relying on punishment or condemnation simply because teens or even kids were caught in the act is not the way to go; that would only force them into more secrecy. With social media becoming so pronounced in our lives the proliferation of sex tapes or what were supposed to be private tapes going public is another example of what we are up against.
An old case of an obsessed male teen at a co-ed Kingston school who liked his male teacher and sought to also express his sexual desire came through which caused some trouble in 2011 finally ended some time ago; the young man was exposed to sustained counselling and getting the parents involved after much police intervention as well as the teen attempted to blackmail in a sense the teacher. The teacher almost missed a buggery charge guilty findings as more and more details came out in court while some of the cops involved have changed their stance as the facts came through. The matter has been adjourned but the teen via his mother may have to answer some sort of false accusations charges dependent on the original accused pursuit to press such charges. Our teens are way more sexually active it seems to me than my generation or generations prior. But with quibbling antigay groups and misguided thinking while the field grows the horse starves. Our education system is missing the urgently needed sex & sexuality properly prepared and age appropriate to be rolled out despite the fears being expressed by ignoramuses and leaders make bold decisions while not playing to the gallery from veiled threats.
While abstinence is also a good avenue as an option especially for HIV interventions as a part of the cadre of options we must get real, not in a world where teens are bombarded with sexualised messaging of some kind. The trick is to empower adolescents in taking up other options such as extra-curricular activities while providing adequate age appropriate information. Besides if we think as some antigay groups do by sanitizing sexuality that will stop teens from getting it elsewhere namely social media and dancehall artists who provide a misogynistic lessons in song and videos. How does one compete with all the distractions that are around these days? Yet antigay groups are living in the dark and are so behind the times.
Think on these things
Peace & tolerance
H
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