Source: Washington Blade, Jamaica Gleaner, and Radio Jamaica
Leaders of the US-based Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) led a demonstration in Miami on Thursday to protest a series of reported anti-gay murders and gay-bashing incidents in Jamaica.

The church also sponsored protests at consulates in New York, Toronto and Philadelphia.

In response to the protests, some leaders of churches in Jamaica issued a strong condemnation of homosexuality.

Rev. Nancy Wilson, MCC’s leader, and a contingent of religious leaders from the MCC’s Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale met with Jamaican Consulate General Richard Allicock and three top staff members for more than an hour in the consulate’s office in downtown Miami.

“We were encouraged,” Wilson told a group of about 25 protesters who came to Miami for the protest from Sarasota, Boynton Beach and Fort Lauderdale. “We had a frank honest discussion. We’re engaged in a long-term discussion and were not going to stop until gays and lesbians are protected in Jamaica.”

Wilson said the MCC is “on the verge” of calling for a global boycott of Jamaica. She said she is waiting to see how the government responds to the church’s demands: namely that the government launch an educational campaign to decry anti-gay violence in Jamaica, and that the Jamaican police begin sensitivity training regarding the GLBT community.

According to Human Rights Watch, Jamaica is among the most homophobic places on the planet. Gay and lesbian Jamaicans risk their lives if they dare come out of the closet or express themselves as gay people. The life-and-death stakes of being gay in Jamaica got worldwide attention with the 2004 murder of Brian Williamson, Jamaica’s leading gay rights activist.

Human Rights Watch has documented numerous other incidents, including the 2004 murder of Victor Jarrett, who was stabbed and stoned to death in Montego Bay because he was gay, according to media reports.

The MCC’s Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale runs a roving ministry in Jamaica.

The Valentine’s Day demonstrations were organized as a response to the brutal attack on three gay men in Mandeville, Jamaica, on Jan 29. The men were surrounded by a mob of people who demanded they leave their home because they were known to be gay, according to media reports. Several men stormed the house and attacked the inhabitants with machetes. Two of men were critically injured and one man is still missing and presumed to be dead. MCC’s Rev. Mona West came to Miami from Sarasota with a group of nine protesters. She said the group was inspired to speak out against homophobia worldwide.

“We came here in solidarity with our friends and brothers and sisters in Jamaica,” West said. “We’re here to name and call out the violence.”

Church leaders said they were not going to stop their protests until gays and lesbians are protected in Jamaica.

The church also made several demands including that the Jamaican Government launch an educational campaign to decry anti-gay violence in Jamaica, and that the Jamaican police begin sensitivity training regarding the gay and lesbian community.

A Jamaican newspaper, the Gleaner, quoted two Jamaican ministers who insisted that pressure from human rights groups will not prompt them to change the intolerant messages that they preach from their pulpits.

The Rev Dr Lloyd Maxwell, of the AGAPE Christian Fellowship in Portmore, said that Scripture takes a very clear stance on the matter of homosexuality and, as such, the Church would not sanction nor encourage the lifestyle.

Rev Maxwell said the idea of conducting a public awareness campaign to sensitise Jamaicans on the issue is ludicrous.

The Rev Dr Merrick 'Al' Miller, pastor of the Fellowship Tabernacle in St Andrew, said that Jamaicans generally deem homosexuality wrong.  He claimed that gay activists are "attempting to force their beliefs on society" and insisted that the activists' message of tolerance will "in no way influence Jamaicans to change their views."

"Homosexuality is wrong from every possible angle," said Miller. "It's immoral from a physical, social and spiritual standpoint."

Miller demonstrated one of the sources of anti-gay violence in Jamaica when he told the newspaper, "I have no problem in supporting and helping someone who sees that he is going the wrong way and wants help in changing his life, but where I draw the line is when you say that it is OK and want to force others to accept your abnormal behaviour."

Full article: MCC leads protests at Jamaican consulates in four cities | Washington Blade
US church demands protection for homosexuals in Jamaica | Radio Jamaica
Gay lobby rebuked - Church says won't accept homosexual lifestyle ... | Jamaica Gleaner