Over the weekend activists and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community began celebrating an apparent victory: Minister Ramona Ramdial predicted in a newspaper interview that the long-awaited draft gender policy would be approved by Cabinet soon, and it would include provisions for the protection of LGBT rights.
The celebration was short-lived. Within a day of the Guardian report trumpeting the headline, "Gays to have rights in gov't gender policy," Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development Marlene Coudray issued a terse statement to the media indicating that the person who had promised that those rights would be protected had no authority to make that statement because there was no position of junior minister in the ministry.
In fact, Ramona Ramdial was appointed Minister in the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development in 2011 and was subsequently made Minister of State in the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, according to the Parliament Web site, on June 23, the same time that former Minister of Gender et al Verna St Rose-Greaves was fired from that job.
I get the feeling there is more in the mortar than the pestle here. And it all comes down to the contentious gender policy.
The gender policy has had a long and rocky history. What should ostensibly be a set of guidelines to ensure gender equity in government budgeting, planning and project implementation, as well as a tool for reshaping gender norms in the public and private sectors, has become embattled over two issues, LGBT rights being one of them.
Yet, inasmuch as this country is signatory to international treaties and conventions on human rights, it is a travesty that we continue to uphold laws that contravene the human rights of LGBT people. I believe it is inevitable that these laws will be changed.
When, I can't say, but it is inconceivable to me that a country that wishes to hold itself up as a model for the Caribbean should maintain the position that the private sexual and social lives of its adult citizens and residents should be subject to the scrutiny and persecution afforded by these laws.
This country is not a theocracy; while many consider LGBT people and their lifestyles sinful, that is a matter for God to judge, and should not affect the human rights of these individuals. What is sinful, in my opinion, is to allow thousands of ordinary T&T people to live in fear of being outed as LGBT. The repercussions for them could be mild, or they could be dire. Mild repercussions might be social ostracism, or verbal attacks.
Dire repercussions could be as drastic as murder. Somewhere in the middle of the spectrum might be loss of a job, being evicted from a home, being bullied at school or being physically attacked. Knowingly leaving any of our people vulnerable to such consequences is morally wrong and the Government should recognise this and work towards ensuring they are protected.
Instead, the Government makes terse statements like the one issued by Ms Coudray. She said Cabinet "has the sole jurisdiction in determining the final contents of any government policy." (A point nobody had ever disputed, I might add.) The existing laws against LGBT sexual acts and people form part of a framework of systems that oppress people.
Whether or not those laws are enforced right now is not the issue; they remain on the books and may be enforced at any time. This is indeed a moral issue from the perspective that a government should not collude in the oppression of its citizens and residents.
Yesterday was Human Rights Day, set aside by the UN as "an opportunity, every year, to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone everywhere," according to the UN Web page about the observance of the day.
"This year, the spotlight is on the rights of all people–women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalised–to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making."
Cabinet should take note of this while it exercises its legal right to decide on the fate of the gender policy, and remember that Article One of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights begins: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." All human beings, even LGBT ones.