Mistrust and Intolerance in the Caribbean Society

“The Caribbean today is characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels”. Many people may disagree or agree with this statement without fully understanding what it this short but powerfully means, the purpose of this blog is to shed some light on this statement looking at various themes. In the year of 2019 there is still mistrust and intolerance throughout the Caribbean especially with LGBT, Colourism and Persons in Authority .

LGBT-Are they accepted/tolerated in the Caribbean?

As of lately this abbreviation can be seen all over on the Internet and on Social Media, LGBT stands for Lesbians👭💏, Gays 👬💑,Bisexuals and Transgenders and they are represented by using a Rainbow Color Flag and this flag will be represented by a picture of my bowls that I took.

 Over the years members of this campaign have been campaigning for the legalization of same-sex marriages,workers protection,protections against discrimination,decriminalization of violence and adaptation(loopnewsTT,2019). However people in the Caribbean have not accepted their plea. According to loopnewsTT there are numerous Caribbean Countries that are rank the Most Dangerous Places for LGBT. Barbados is the most dangerous Caribbean Country for LGBT travelers. Barbados is ranked number eight, St Lucia twelve and Jamaica eighteen for the top twenty countries in the world where members of he LGBT community would be in danger. These Top twenty Caribbean Countries all have anti-buggery laws in their law books. There are other Caribbean Countries where same-sex relationships are illegal and this in return makes these Caribbean Countries dangerous for people in the LGBT to travel further more to live. These Countries includes St.Vincent and the Grenadines,Grenada, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda. The Caribbean do indeed has little tolerance when it comes to LGBT

Where did this intolerance begin?

There are some West Indians who may think that the intolerance for LGBT is of recent but this intolerance can be traced back into Pre-Emancipation time during slavery when Europeans captured Africans and carried them to the Caribbean as slaves and because Europeans where Christians more so Catholics, they made their laws base on Christian Values and Beliefs and one of their Beliefs is found in Leviticus 18:22. Pictures of the Bible verse that Christians often uses to justify the Buggery and Gross Indecency Laws were taken.

In this Scripture God makes it an abomination for a man to lie with another man and because of this buggery is illegal. Although The Caribbean is no longer under the British Colony there are some laws and policies we still use for the British Colonialism.  Two laws that is still in placed is the Buggery and Gross Indecency law and these laws prohibits same-sex conduct between consenting persons. These laws are still in place and accepted by many Caribbean Countries because Christianity Dominates these Countries and follows the Bible principles and as mention before same-sex is an abomination unto God.

Who have grave intolerance for LGBT?

There is a grave  Intolerance against the LGBT in the Caribbean especially from Christian .The church plays an important role in social welfare, communal life, socialization, and in shaping social attitudes and moral ethics and because of the these morals from churches families often reject their family members who come out as being a lesbian,gay,bisexual or transgender. Christians around the Caribbean are not afraid to voice their disapproval when persons in the LGBT community plea for Buggery and Gross Indecency  laws to be abolished or just to amend these laws and this was recently seen in St Vincent. Christians in St Vincent showed their intolerance on the 14th November,2019 when they came out in their numbers and marched around Kingstown. What triggered this match was when US-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines nationals Sean Macleish, 53, and 22-year-old Javin Johnson, 22 who successfully claimed asylum in the United Kingdom in 2017 brought the legal challenges against the existing laws back in September of this year(Daily Observer).These two men who are gay argued that the laws dating back to British colonial rule are discriminatory, inhumane and against the basic tenets of the Constitution of SVG that protect the rights and freedoms of every citizen and that they were removed from the UK some time ago and because of this a one day pre-trial hearing of the lawsuit challenging the anti-buggery laws in St Vincent and the Grenadines was set to be held on the 13th November,2019. A day after the trial which was the 14th November,2019 the Evangelical Churches, the Catholic Churches, Methodist Churches, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Mission of Seventh-day Adventist, and the Spiritual Baptist came out in their numbers in the country's capital Kingstown and held a rally under the theme " A Call to Righteousness, Calling our Nation to God", this rally was in support of the anti-buggery laws in SVG also they marched against challenge to anti-buggery laws in SVG (Iwitness News, 2019). A picture of a Church was used to represent Christanity.

Are there other people who have grave intolerance for LGBT?

Homophobic  also has grave intolerance for LGBT. According to loopnewsTT Jamaica was called the most homophobic place on Earth by Time Magazine in 2006. Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines also has a lot of homophobic people. Homophobic goes as far as getting physical with gays who goes around portraying female like behavior. An incident where violence was portrayed was in 2017 in St Vincent where a gay man was stabbed in Kingstown because of his sexuality( Iwitness News,2017). Jamaica has also displace violence towards gay persons in 2017 LGBT activist Dexter Pottinger dubbed the "face of Pride" was murdered in his home and other incidents gay men have been beaten shot and stoned to death(INSERT ). Some people  are more verbal where they will start singing lyrics from songs, especially the famous song by Buju Banton “Boom Bye Bye” as the gay persons walk in the streets where others will use slang. In St Vincent persons who are more verbal will use slang like “ Bun Bull”, “Fire Fi That”.As a Vincentian I have witnessed the intolerance at parties in my home country St. Vincent often deejays play songs that shows that they are against homosexual like the famous song as mentioned above from the famous Buju Banton homophobics in the crowds often response by lighting their lighters chanting “ Bun Bull, “Fire Fi That” or may beat on the wall on any close by objects and often tells the deejay to replay the song. I interviewed a Grenadian young man and asked about their tolerance for when they see they gay men and his response was similar to what happens in St.Vincent , he said they shout slang like “Fire Bun a Chi Chi Man”, “Fire Bun Fish”, and “Fire Bun Batty Man”.