By Garwin Davis, Assistant New Editor
Canon Ernle Gordon - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
DECLARING THAT the law governing buggery was woefully outdated, researchers, doctors and human rights activists are calling on the Government to consider decriminalising anal sex between consenting adults.
At a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the company's North Street offices, central Kingston, yesterday, they argued that not only does it discriminates against homosexual men considering the law has no bearing on lesbians but is hardly, if ever, enforced when involving heterosexuals.
"The buggery law does not distinguish between homosexuals and heterosexuals," explained Suzanne Goffe, Chairperson for the human rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ).
"Yet we don't find it being enforced if it involves a heterosexual couple. As a society we cannot tolerate anything that removes people from human rights protection." Canon Ernle Gordon said he has made no secret, despite some level of criticism, of his belief that the buggery law should be repealed as it relates to homosexuality. "My views on this subject are well known," he said.
Robert Cork, a member of J-FLAG, a group representing gays and lesbians ,said the pressure has to be kept on Government, noting that lawmakers have to be made to understand that the current law was not only discriminatory but may also be unconstitutional.
LAW MUST BE PROPERLY STRUCTURED
For his part, Cecil Gutzmore, lecturer and researcher at the University of the West Indies, said: "There is an overwhelming case to have the buggery law repealed. The dialogue, however, must be kept on the table it's an issue that affects both homosexuals and heterosexuals alike. People have to take a stance we have to make the Government understand that they will lose nothing politically if they repeal the law. There is no way we can tell the police to behave properly if the law itself is not properly structured."
Under the Offences Against the Persons Act the law which addresses buggery a person who commits the crime "shall be liable to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for a term not exceeding 10 years." And while it has generally been seen as restricted only to homosexuals, buggery also includes anal sex between man and woman and also with animals.
But despite a recommendation from a joint select committee on the Charter of Rights Bill, asking the Government to consider decriminalising the law, the P.J. Patterson-led administration has steadfastly maintained that it has no intention to do so.
COLIN, PATTERSON ADAMANT
Speaking to journalists last year, then Information Minister, Colin Campbell, was emphatic. "It is not an issue," he declared. "We will not be considering the issue of homosexuality. It does not arise." The Prime Minister was equally as firm, declaring from a political platform that under his watch there would be no changes in the law governing homosexuality.
But Dr. Peter Figueroa, despite receiving a lot of flak, would, however, keep the issue alive, albeit for different reasons. He declared that for the Government to seriously address the high incidence of HIV/AIDS cases in the country, major policy decisions such as the decriminalisation of homosexual acts would have to be looked at.
Public Defender Howard Hamilton, noting that a repealing of the law may not be anywhere on the cards, told the Gleaner's Editors' Forum that advocates may be better served trying to create a climate of tolerance where the human rights of the gay community are protected.
