• Archived issues
• Contact us
• Please donate
• Press releases
• Supported projects
• Who we are

FAITH-based violence is common in the Caribbean, and for years Orden David, above, suffered abuse and violence at the hands homophobes.

Facing ostracism and risking his life as the public face of the LGBTQ movement, David took his government to court in 2022 to demand an end to his country’s anti-sodomy law. And won!

In a profile published yesterday (Monday) by Religion News Service, the heroic young activist is quoted as saying::

I realized that with our community, we’ve gone through a lot and there’s no justice for us, We all have rights. And we all deserve the same treatment.

Growing up, Orden David was bullied in school and discriminated against outside its walls. People photographed him and posted them on social media,along with insults, and attacked him physically. He said:

What pushed me to go forward with this litigation case, to challenge the government, is that experience that I’ve gone through in life.

He added that, in 2019, he was knocked out by a stranger who hit him in the face while he was working in a hospital.

RNS reported that LGBT+-rights activists say David’s effort, with the help of local and regional advocacy groups, have set a precedent for a growing number of Caribbean islands.

Since the ruling, St. Kitts & Nevis and Barbados, have struck down similar laws that often seek long prison sentences.

“It’s been a legal and historic moment for Antigua and Barbuda,” said Alexandrina Wong, director of the local non-governmental organisation Women Against Rape, which joined the litigation coordinated by the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality.

Our Caribbean governments are getting a good grip of what the world looks like and how we can reshape our history and … the future of the Caribbean people.

The ruling said Antigua’s 1995 Sexual Offences Act “offends the right to liberty, protection of the law, freedom of expression, protection of personal privacy and protection from discrimination on the basis of sex.”

Image via YouTube

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said his government decided not to challenge the ruling:

We respected the fact that there should be no discrimination within society. As a government, we have a constitutional responsibility to respect the rights of all and not to discriminate.

The law stated that two consenting adults found guilty of having anal sex would face 15 years in prison. If found guilty of serious indecency, they faced five years in prison.

RNS pointed out that such laws used to be common in former European colonies across the Caribbean but have been challenged in recent years. Courts in Belize and Trinidad and Tobago have found such laws unconstitutional; other cases in the region are pending.

Malign Christian influence

Discrimination against LGBT+ people persists in the strongly Christian Caribbean. Some conservative lawmakers and religious leaders opposed the abolition of anti-gay laws invoking God in their arguments and calling gay relationships a “sin”.

Image via YouTube

Bishop Charlesworth Browne, President of the Antigua and Barbuda Council of Church Leaders, trotted out this well-worn nonsense:

I don’t think that God created man and woman to engage in that way.

For years, he has campaigned against easing the country’s anti-gay laws.

It’s not just a religious issue. It’s a health issue, It’s for the sake of our children, the health of the nations, the preservation of our people.

RNS reported that, although David didn’t face outright intolerance at the Christian church where he grew up singing in the choir, he grew disenchanted by some parishioners who tried to introduce him to the scientifically discredited practice of so-called gay conversion therapy. He eventually stopped attending, but still believes in God and prays at home.

Said David:

Christians need to realize that everybody’s human at the end of the day. And if you’re going to push Christianity and then think that being a homosexual is a sin … then you should put yourself in that same category, as a sinner. Christians are supposed to love, accept and encourage people, not push people away.

Working for Antigua’s AIDS Secretariat, he tests people for sexually transmitted diseases, distributes condoms and counsels them on prevention, treatment and care.

He’s also president of Meeting Emotional and Social Needs Holistically, a group that serves the LGBTQ community. And he volunteers. On a recent night, he walked across dark alleys of downtown St. John’s to hand out condoms to sex workers.

Same-sex consensual intimacy is still criminalized in six Caribbean countries, according to Human Rights Watch and the London-based organization Human Dignity Trust. The countries include Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Jamaica, which some LGBTQ-rights groups consider the Caribbean nation most hostile to gay people.

Téa Braun, chief executive of Human Dignity Trust saId:

Governments in these jurisdictions should be pro-active and repeal these laws now, instead of waiting for members of the LGBT community to force legal change. With three successful judgments last year and further legal challenges in the Caribbean ongoing, it is only a matter of time before these laws fall across the region.

Jamaica’s government has argued that it doesn’t enforce its 1864 anti-sodomy laws, but activists say keeping these laws on the books stokes homophobia and violence against the LGBT+ community in several Caribbean countries.

Kenita Placide, Executive Director for The Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality, added that LGBT+ people in such countries, face:

A constitution that criminalizes them on one end, and a religion that says they’re an abomination.

It has created a culture of stigma and discrimination, which has now led to violence. And in each of those countries, including Antigua, we’ve seen LGBT persons who’ve fled because of certain levels of violence.

If you support the Pink Triangle Trust’s mission to promote humanism, fight bigotry and fund LGBT groups, you can make a donation below. If you wish to report any typos or errors, please email freethinkered@aol.com.