"Sexual preferences may have to be addressed in conformity with the prevailing global environment in which we live," said former prime minister of Jamaica PJ Patterson last week.Dead right. And the global environment has changed big time. In the western hemisphere, 11 English-speaking Caribbean countries still criminalise gay sex. Otherwise, it's Sodom and Gomorrah, from Chile right up to Canada.
Jamaican church groups are in a tizzy because the University of the West Indies has ended a short-term contract with Prof Brendan Bain, who was running their Caribbean HIV/Aids Regional Training Programme (Chart).Prof Bain gave evidence to a Belize court on behalf of a church group defending Belize's buggery law against a human rights challenge. The law is not much used, but some Belizean churches think it has great ornamental qualities, and they're keen to keep it.
Cut down to size, these were some of the Prof's points:
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