Map of Haiti (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Tris Reid-Smith | Gay Star News | July 31, 2013
Dozens of gay men were beaten by gangs with knives, machetes, cement blocks, sticks and iron bars in Haiti, GSN can reveal.
Human rights campaigners in the Caribbean nation say they know of 47 assaults in just one week (17 to 24 July), though attacks have slowed in recent days following government intervention.
Some have had their lives threatened or had their houses have been burned down or looted.
The Haitian National Palace (Presidential Palace), located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, heavily damaged after the earthquake of January 12, 2010. Note: this was originally a two-story structure; the second story completely collapsed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cathy Kristofferson | Oblogdeeoblogda | July 19, 2013
Thony Belizaire / AFP/Getty Images
Wednesday we posted about religious groups, under the umbrella of the Haitian Coalition of Religious and Moral Organizations, planning to march against homosexuality. Today over 1,000 people took part in that Port-au-Prince demonstration.
The protesters, urging lawmakers not to pass equal marriage legislation, marched carrying anti-gay signs while chanting songs. One song threatened to burn down the Haitian Parliament if its members make gay marriage legal.
“I believe in God, and God condemns homosexuality,” said protester Eddy Jean-Pierre, a self-described Protestant. “Haiti is not going to accept this, and God will punish us further if we allow this law to pass.”
Cathy Kristofferson | Oblogdeeoblogda | July 17, 2013
Just as marriage equality’ is being celebrated in England and Wales, religious leaders in Haiti become the latest to use the threat of similar marriage legislation coming to that island as an excuse to march against homosexuality. That, of course means, it is a march for hate and homophobia since inevitably one begets the other.
The Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), a public interest law office, sent out a press release today denouncing the march planned for Friday.
In Haiti, same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults – 18 and older – in private has been legal since 1986. The strong presence of the Catholic Church combined with years of political unrest, though, does not make life easy for LGBT community members. There are minority rights in the country’s constitution but they do not explicitly call out LGBTI as a protected minority. There is no legislation, existing or proposed, to prohibit discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and no political party has ever even endorsed LGBT rights.
JAMES DAO and ANDREW W. LEHREN | New York Times | May 15, 2013
After Specialist Freddy Hook, a medic with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, killed himself in 2010, the trail of possible causes seemed long.
He had used illegal drugs: Was it the demons of addiction? His rocky relationship with his fiancée? A wrenching deployment to earthquake-ravaged Haiti or the prospect of an impending tour in Afghanistan?
As with most of suicides plaguing the military today, no one will know for sure.
“There are so many factors,” said his mother, Theresa Taylor, of Lafayette, La. “Everything that was important to him was having problems.”
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