Source: Express Gay News and Jamaica Gleaner
The leader of the Metropolitan Community Churches, a worldwide assembly of gay and lesbian congregants, is calling for an International Day of Action Feb. 14 in response to a bloody attack against three gay men in Jamaica.

Rev. Nancy Wilson and leaders of the MCC are gathering GLBT supporters and human rights activists to protest at Jamaican embassies around the world.

“We’re just horrified,” Wilson said of the Jan. 29 attack, which left two men seriously injured with machete wounds and one man presumed to be dead.

The attack also prompted a letter of protest to the Jamaican counsel from the director of a Canadian gay rights group.

The surviving victims reported that a group of men came to their house in Mandeville, Jamaica, to demand that they leave the community because they were thought to be gay. The men later returned with a violent mob, which surrounded the house and began throwing stones and breaking windows.

The scene escalated and soon a group of men broke into the house wielding machetes and began attacking the men inside. The victims called police, but authorities did not arrive until 90 minute later. By then, two of the men were seriously injured with multiple machete wounds and a third man was missing.

The violent attack is the latest in a long string of homophobic attacks in Jamaica, an island nation that is considered to be the most homophobic country in the world, according to Human Rights Watch.

Wilson will make a speech in front of the Jamaican consulate in Miami Feb. 14. She said the action is meant to pressure the Jamaican government to take the issue of violent crimes against gay people seriously.

“There is no support on the ground for human rights for gay people,” Wilson said.

“There is only hostility and apathy. The global LGBT community will step up and say it’s unacceptable for people to live with this level of violence in their own home.”

"Egale Canada is seriously concerned about the escalating normalcy of mob attacks against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified people of Jamaica," wrote Helen Kennedy in an open letter to the Consul General Ms Anne-Marie Bonner of the Jamaican consulate in Toronto. Kennedy is executive director of Egale Canada, a group that advances equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-identified people and their families across Canada.

"In particular, we write to you around the recent homophobic mob attack on the evening of January 29 that left one man severely injured and another missing and feared dead," Kennedy wrote.

Egale urged Jamaican government to investigate all reported violence relating to homophobic attacks and to take "all possible steps in working and supporting the initiatives of the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-Sexuals and Gays, JFLAG."

The letter also calls on the government to amend a law currently before the country's parliament. It's called 'An Act to Amend the Constitution of Jamaica to provide for a Charter of Rights and Freedoms'.

Egale maintains that, under the current bill, the word 'sex' can only be interpreted to mean male or female. "This exclusion clause goes against international human rights law," Egale writes. "The government must take this opportunity to protect the rights of all citizens by including the right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sex, gender and sexual orientation."

Last year, the MCC’s Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale launched the Sunshine Cathedral Jamaica with the help of locals on the island. Sunshine Cathedral’s Rev. Robert Griffin said the church has about 100 members who attend secret meetings in Mandeville, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Kingston. The members shuffle meeting locations because of the high level of danger they face if they are outed.

Last year, mourners at a gay man’s funeral in Mandeville were harassed by a band of thugs who threatened to kill them if they did not disperse.

“If anything is going to [change] in Jamaica, it’s going to happen through the church,” Griffin said. “We will act on behalf of the [gay and lesbian] Jamaicans because they will be killed if they come out.”

Wilson said she will continue to work with other human rights organization to bring international attention to the atrocities that continue to occur on the island. She is calling for the government to develop a national campaign in Jamaica against homophobic violence and to mandate diversity training for police.

She is also working with several churches throughout Jamaica to speak out for tolerance and acceptance.

Full article: Express Gay News Online
Gov't urged tosupport JFLAG | Jamaica Gleaner