this entry is dedicated to leeron,jamohl, ivor, toussaint, solo, aunty coleen and uncle quaison, rawle, marino and all my other fellow caribbean people who have unfortuantely been ensnared in the shackles that the caribbean mindset has created as it relates to homosexuality.

in the past month, i have had to defend my views on homosexuality one too many times. i am very passionate about my beliefs and can get very aggressive about it when i encounter what i see as close-mindedness. to that end i would like to apologise to ryan (solo). i expected him to respect my views without respecting his.

so what exactly are my views? well, to start with, i don't think that homosexuality is the type of "concious choice" as people make it out to be. for one, why would they make a "choice" that would mean they would live a life where they were persectued almost everyday, made fun of, could be beat up and even killed at any given time on any given day? secondly, how come heterosexuals don't think they made a "choice" to chase after the oppposite sex? why is it that you think that all you are doing is following a natural urge while you make it sound like homosexuals sat down and decided "well you know i could be straight but i rather sleep with men/women (whichever is applicable)".why can't it be possible that at the same age that we( and by we i mean heteros) discovered how attractive the opposite sex was, they discovered how attractive the same sex was?
don't answer that. i know what you will say- "because the bible says so". and i will get to that in a minute.

what i want to discuss next is something that is a little closer to my heart. frankly, i am disappointed that the one group of people that should be most sympathetic to the plight of gay people everywhere, are their harshest critics. who am i talking about,you ask? BLACK PEOPLE. why am i so disappointed? because of two very important reasons.one, you would think that as a people that were the object of intense persecution for centuries we would be a little more understanding of the LGBTQ (lesbian gay bisexual transgendered queer) community's fight to be entilted to the same rights as everyone else. indeed, we (and this time i mean black people) should be their most ardent supporters (followed closely by jews and muslims). my second reason is that the argument justifying the fight to demonize homosexuality is essentially baseless. the bible is quoted as the core of the fight. "the bible says..." it is so flipping ironic that black people are the ones who say this the most. why? because if you had asked slave owners all those years ago to justify their cruelty towards black slaves their sentences would have begun with those very same words, "the bible says...". ever heard of the white man's burden? okay then, enough said.

i had an argument a couple of weeks ago with my friend sean. our argument was based on the following quote (N.B.- it's not verbatim but it is pretty close) - "the persecution of people because of their sexual orientation is just as unjust as apartheid- archbishop desmond tutu".
sean's argument was that the persecution of homosexuals is nowhere near the horrific scale of atrocities that people faced during apartheid. i agreed. i still agree.however, i felt (and he disagreed) that he was missing the point. the point of that statement wasn't that the LGBTQ community is facing the same magnitude of persecution ( in fact, i would argue that the magnitude is greater. they don't have one group of people on their asses -pardon me if that seemed like a pun- they have all groups on their asses) or that the type of persecution is the same( here i would agree. apartheid and slavery consisted of significantly different horrors). the point is the motivation or underlying reason for the persecution, that is- our inherent differences- is unjust. what the good bishop was saying is that persectuing someone because of their sexual orientation is just as bad as persecuting someone because their skin is a different colour.

other arguments from the anti-gay camp are infnitely more ridiculous. the first one i heard uttered from the mouth of a supposedly well-educated adult woman ( i apologise in advance if she ever reads this and feels insulted by the previous sentence but i am still in shock that these words passed her lips). she said "how do you think AIDS started? if it weren't for gay people we wouldn't have it." at that point in time, i was pissed beyond reason. yes, the virus was first noticed and most prominent in homsexuals. but to imply that somehow anal sex created the virus is absolute bullshit. heteros have anal sex everyday. if it were true that anal sex created the virus, shouldn't heteros share some of the blame? futhermore,that statement is almost as ridiculous as saying that because cancer affects and has manifested itself more aggressively in black people it is our fault that the world is faced with it. this woman also suggested that homosexuality is a mental disease brought on by a traumatic experience and can be cured by some time on a couch and meds, much like depression. all i have to say to that is if psychologists the world over thought that was true then hmosexuality would still be found in the pages of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the holy book of psychology.

another argument is that homosexuals are more prone to be paedophelia. would you like to know the description of the average paedophile/ sexual offender according to police statistics? a middle-aged, white STRAIGHT male. once again, enough said.

i was asked if i would be comfortable having my children, especially my male children around a gay person. my answer? yes. i would trust a gay,male friend around my son just as much as i would trust a straight, male friend around my young daughter.

well there you have it. the ranting of a passionate ally. the views of a caribbean anomaly. take from this what you will. but tkae something. i know most of you reading this will secretly think " she must be an in-the-closet gay or bisexual to be writing this". well to that i say, think what you will. all i ask is that you think.