Yvonne?Ba­boolal

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has promised to end dis­crim­i­na­tion against the les­bian,?gay, bi­sex­u­al and trans­gen­der (LGBT) com­mu­ni­ty in the pro­posed na­tion­al gen­der pol­i­cy.

She?said so in a pri­vate let­ter, dat­ed Au­gust 14, 2012, to Lance Price, which was ob­tained by the T&T?Guardian.

Price is ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the Kalei­do­scope Trust, an NGO based in the UK which cam­paigns glob­al­ly for gay/LGBT rights and di­ver­si­ty. He served as me­dia ad­vis­er to for­mer British prime min­is­ter?Tony Blair and has al­so worked as a BBC?cor­re­spon­dent.

The PM's let­ter to Price was in re­sponse to one he wrote to her com­plain­ing about T&T's im­mi­gra­tion law and the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act, which he said dis­crim­i­nat­ed against ho­mo­sex­u­als.

Price met Per­sad-Bisses­sar when he vis­it­ed T&T for an In­ter­na­tion­al Press In­sti­tute (IPI) con­fer­ence in June, at which the PM spoke. He wrote to her in Ju­ly ex­press­ing con­cern about the stig­ma­ti­sa­tion of ho­mo­sex­u­al­i­ty in T&T.

Sec­tion 8 of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act bars en­try to ho­mo­sex­u­als, de­scrib­ing them as a "pro­hib­it­ed class."

Ear­li­er this month, Aids-Free World, an ad­vo­ca­cy NGO, chal­lenged the con­tro­ver­sial im­mi­gra­tion law in court.

Mau­rice Tom­lin­son, a gay Ja­maican lawyer, the group's le­gal ad­vis­er for mar­gin­alised groups, car­ried the chal­lenge for­ward. He re­ceived an in­vi­ta­tion from the UNF­PA to par­tic­i­pate in an HIV work­shop in T&T on De­cem­ber 3 and 4.

Con­tact­ed by the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, via tele­phone in Lon­don, Price said: "I did re­ceive the let­ter from the Prime Min­is­ter but it was nev­er made pub­lic. It was a per­son­al let­ter from her to me and I can't dis­cuss the con­tents with you.

"I found it very en­cour­ag­ing and thought it showed great un­der­stand­ing and lead­er­ship on the is­sue."

Col­in Robin­son, head of Coali­tion Ad­vo­cat­ing for the In­clu­sion of Sex­u­al Ori­en­ta­tion, want­ed to hear what the PM had to say on the mat­ter in her own words. "I am look­ing for­ward to her tak­ing lead­er­ship and mak­ing pub­lic state­ments on the mat­ter," he said.

Robin­son added that the PM's words in her let­ter to Price showed brave lead­er­ship. He said: "The kind of lead­er­ship we have been yearn­ing for from Caribbean politi­cians... this is the kind of lead­er­ship that would make her a lega­cy."

Robin­son said he did not think a male politi­cian could have done that be­cause of mas­culin­i­ty and oth­er is­sues. "It's some­thing about a woman that makes it pos­si­ble, her ma­ter­nal in­stinct, her style of lead­er­ship,"

Told bring­ing gay-rights leg­is­la­tion might cause op­po­si­tion to Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Robin­son said: "I don't know when ad­vo­cat­ing hu­man rights has marred the lead­er­ship of his­toric lead­ers. I hope she will be re­mem­bered as a brave Caribbean prime min­is­ter who act­ed for jus­tice."

Ja­son Jones, of the group I Am One, has been lob­by­ing for full equal rights for the LBGT com­mu­ni­ty.

He said: "We are aware the gen­der pol­i­cy is about to be rat­i­fied by Cab­i­net and it's a great thing the PM is seek­ing to end dis­crim­i­na­tion against this group.

"T&T?is deemed ho­mo­pho­bic and, in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, this is not look­ing very good. The Prime Min­is­ter has our full ap­proval and sup­port."

The T&T?Guardian con­tact­ed Mar­lene Coudray, Min­is­ter of Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment, but her sec­re­tary re­ferred us to the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Unit, which promised to re­spond.

Lisa Ghany of the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions De­part­ment at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter al­so promised to re­turn our calls.

What the PM?said: "With re­spect to the con­cerns raised in your let­ter re­gard­ing as­pects of T&T's Sex­u­al Of­fences Act and the Im­mi­gra­tion Act which may tar­get per­sons who iden­ti­fy as les­bian, gay, bi­sex­u­al or trans­gen­der (LGBT), I wish to as­sure you that due con­sid­er­a­tion is be­ing giv­en to these is­sues by my Gov­ern­ment.

"I do not sup­port dis­crim­i­na­tion in any form against any in­di­vid­ual, re­gard­less of their gen­der iden­ti­ty or sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion.

"I share your view that the stig­ma­ti­sa­tion of ho­mo­sex­u­al­i­ty in T&T is a mat­ter which must be ad­dressed on the grounds of hu­man rights and dig­ni­ty to which every in­di­vid­ual is en­ti­tled un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law.

"As such I am pleased to in­form you that I have man­dat­ed my Min­is­ter of Gen­der, Youth and Child De­vel­op­ment, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Mar­lene Coudray to pre­pare and present a na­tion­al gen­der pol­i­cy to Cab­i­net over the com­ing months.

"It is ex­pect­ed that once adopt­ed, this pol­i­cy will forge the way for­ward for T&T as my Gov­ern­ment seeks to put an end to all dis­crim­i­na­tion based on gen­der or sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion."

Thank­ing Price for writ­ing to her and ex­press­ing his con­cerns, she added: "Please rest as­sured that my Gov­ern­ment is do­ing its ut­most to up­hold the hu­man rights of all cit­i­zens and res­i­dents of T&T as we re­main com­mit­ted to a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic, peo­ple-cen­tred ap­proach to gov­er­nance and de­vel­op­ment."