Perinchief wants human rights protection for gays

5/17/2007 7:44:00 PM
http://www.bermudasun.bm/main.asp?SectionID=24&SubSectionID=270&ArticleID=33747&TM=77750.74

THURSDAY, MAY 17: Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Wayne Perinchief said he backs changes to the Human Rights Act to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination.

Mr. Perinchief confirmed he would be making a recommendation along those lines to Cabinet as part of an overall revamping of the Human Rights Act.

But he stressed that the ultimate decision is not his to make. It's up to the whole Cabinet, he told the Bermuda Sun yesterday.

Mr. Perinchief, a former assistant police commissioner, said he was among those who believed the current Human Rights Act already protected gays and lesbians from discrimination, but Venous Memari, a lawyer and chairman of the Human Rights Commission, had informed him that was not the case.

He said there are a lot of omissions in the act, which is why it is now being reviewed. He said the whole review process could take several months.

He said: "I support my Human Rights Commission in their investigations and findings as to wanting to change the legislation to include gay and lesbian people as a group of persons who are protected under the act.

"I believed they were protected under the general act, but under investigation I found out there was an omission. In order to encourage inclusion, I would make a recommendation to Cabinet and it would be up for Cabinet to decide.

"That's my mandate, as the Minister in charge of human rights issues, that everyone be protected."

Calls for changes to the act to include gays and lesbians has pitted born-again Christians against politicians, who feel they will be made to pay at election time if they back changes to the law.

When MP Renee Webb brought a private member's bill to Parliament last year to change laws to protect gays, all but two MPs, Ms Webb and Nelson Bascome, ran for cover, refusing to even debate it, and it died in committee.

Ms Webb told the Sun that she didn't think any changes would be made to the current law until after the next election.

"It's all about politics right now," she said.

Trinis too hypocritical, says Lucky

Anna Ramdass


Saturday, May 19th 2007
http://www.trinidad express.com/ index.pl/ article_news? id=161149192



'BRAVE ENOUGH': Gillian Lucky

Pointe-a-Pierre MP Gillian Lucky has said that the Equal Opportunities Bill is being used as a "political football" in its flawed state as it does not address discrimination with respect to political affiliation or sexual orientation.

"What concerns me most in the Equal Opportunities Bill is that, in the 2007 bill, many of the issues raised by the Court of Appeal which pointed out deficiencies in the 2000 Act were not addressed," said Lucky, who was the guest speaker on Thursday at a luncheon hosted by the Central Port of Spain Rotary Club at Singho Restaurant, Long Circular Mall.

She suggested there was not a racial divide in the country, but a political one, as predominantly people of Afro-Trinidadian ethnicity supported the PNM and Indo-Trinidadians supported both Opposition parties.

"There was no protection for persons being treated differently for their political affiliation, the most important thing that divides us is not reflected in the bill," said Lucky.

She said the bill did not also provide protection for people's sexual orientation.

"That is an issue that people don't want to talk about in Trinidad and Tobago. They prefer to talk about Sir Elton John, whether he should come or not and many who suggested that he should not come not only attended the Jazz Festival in Plymouth, but I'm sure listened to his music and danced to it. That is the hypocrisy of Trinbagonians, " she said.

Lucky said this was an issue that people wanted to sweep under the carpet, but she said she would be "brave enough to deal with it".

Lucky said the bill did not also provide protection for those infected with HIV, rehabilitative convicts, the elderly or the disabled.

Lucky said she recommended that the bill be sent to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament.

The bill is currently before the House of Representatives.

‘Why I wear a tie’
By SUZANNE SHEPPARD Sunday, May 20 2007

http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,57415.html

Pointe-a-Pierre MP Gillian Lucky, dressed in her national tie, making a contribution in Parliament....OPPOSITION Parliamentarian Gillian Lucky, who recently added a tie to her distinctive wardrobe of dark tailored pant suits and buttoned-down shirts, yesterday revealed to Sunday Newsday that she is making a strong statement with the addition to her attire.

“I am wearing this tie to send the message that I am Trinbagonian before I am anything else. Trinidad and Tobago must come first,” she explained.

Lucky wears the striking tie, in the national colours of red, white and black, in her official capacity as a Member of Parliament. It is a way, she said, of expressing her pride in TT and her determination to put country above everything else, including political affiliations.

The outspoken Pointe-a-Pierre MP, a member of the Congress of the People (COP), said the tie is also a way of demonstrating her objection to a long-held practice by top officials of the People’s National Movement (PNM) of wearing ties with the party’s symbol, the balisier, at government functions.

Lucky feels so strongly about the message conveyed by her national tie, she acquired a dozen of them and shared them among her colleagues on the Opposition back benches in Parliament. She also gave a tie to a PNM MP — she didn’t give his name — after he asked her for one.

Reinforcing her stance on the tie, Lucky declared: “I put country first... this is who I am. I am of mixed Indian culture. I plan to learn to play the pan.”

According to the MP, putting TT first is one of the ways of dealing with the problem of discrimination, an issue she addressed recently when she was the keynote speaker at a luncheon hosted by the Rotary Club of Central Port-of-Spain.

Speaking in the context of the Equal Opportunities legislation now being debated in Parliament, Lucky noted that discrimination in TT takes the form of “a political divide that manifests in the racial divide” — most supporters of the ruling PNM are Afro-Trinidadian and the opposition parties get most of their support from Indo-Trinidadians. Recent cases of discrimination taken before the courts were “not racial... more political”, said Lucky who pointed out that one of the major failings of the Equal Opportunities Bill is its failure to deal with the concept of political affiliations.

“It is a political football,” she said. “Any party that will not support it runs the risk of upsetting its supporters. That is because the Equal Opportunities Bill is being held out as a panacea for discrimination in this country.”

The MP said the legislation alone will not solve the problem of discrimination. In fact, it is flawed since it fails to deal with discrimination against people on the basis of political affiliation, sexual orientation, HIV status. Also overlooked are rehabilitated convicts and the elderly.

“When you leave out certain groups of people, you are sending a subliminal message that it is okay to discriminate against them,” said Lucky, who offers a series of solutions to the problem, including a revision of TT’s national holidays.

Forget about Indian Arrival, Emancipation Day and other national celebrations that focus on only one ethnic group, she advises. Instead, introduce TT Day as an occasion when all ethnic groups can have their celebrations and displays.

She added: “We have disregarded our national instrument, the steelpan. Make it mandatory to play it in school. This is the only musical instrument invented in the 20th century and it is something that is distinctly TT.”