Happy PRIDE Week

Ambassador Brewster to Retire

United States ambassador James (Wally) Brewster has announced that he will submit his resignation on 20 January 2017 and leave the country with his husband Bob Satawake in search of "new adventures.” That is the day that President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States.

Speaking at a Thanksgiving luncheon at the American Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, 23 November 2016, the ambassador said "this is probably been the greatest experience that I have had in my life.”

In his closing remarks ambassador Brewster said that he would always fight for the welfare of the two countries and expressed his appreciation for the attention he and his husband had received in the past three years.

In his Thanksgivings Day luncheon, he advocated for the passing of a bill to guarantee equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. He estimated that 10% of Dominicans are gay.

He said the US Embassy organized 32 Dominican commercial missions to the United States with 1,700 Dominican business people. He said that trade with the Dominican Republic has increased and is now at around US$12 billion. He said the USAID has helped 600 farmers to get their organic certifications.

He said the creating of a LGBT Chamber of Commerce gives the DR access to a billionaire global market.http://www.cdn.com.do/noticias/nacio...nara-el-cargo/
http://eldia.com.do/james-brewster-p...-gays-por-ley/
http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2016/11/2...-20-enero-2017

Pride in Jamaica!

Pride Jamaica is the first week of August and appears to be bigger, better, bolder! It's high time to support the LGBT community in Jamaica as they struggle to break out. Hey, the influence of tourist dollars has brought many changes in other destinations.
Read about PrideJa HERE.

Out Caribe

Out Caribe has all things Pride, including events, lodging and news. It is a new feature in this blogs links section.

A Good Read

Writing in Hoy today, Friday 18 March 2016, journalist Millizen Uribe shares her opinion on the local Roman Catholic Church's latest position on sexuality. The Catholic Church has taken a strong stance against US ambassador James Brewster, a gay rights activist.

In the past, the church has also campaigned to influence government positions against abortion, forcing Congress to eliminate the option from the Constitution and legislation. Only the late Jesuit priest father Jose Luis Aleman was a dissident, calling abortion a public health issue in which the Church should not intervene.

Writing in Hoy, Uribe points out that the Church has also used its influence positively, as it did when it withdrew its support from the Trujillo regime, despite the privileges granted to the Roman Catholic Church by the dictator.

She continues by describing, however, how damaging the influence of the church can be, especially when it used its influence to destabilize the democratically elected government of Professor Juan Bosch.

Bringing matters to the present she comments that there is great inequality in income distribution and in guaranteeing rights in the DR. She says that life here is affected by poverty, corruption, violence, unemployment, health crises, judicial crises, etc. "But few of those topics call the attention of the Church as much as the sexuality of the population, in which case the Church uses its power overwhelmingly," she writes.

She reminds readers: "When the decriminalization of abortion in the Constitution was discussed, the Church called on its faithful to not vote for legislators who would vote in favor."

"And now it has come forth against the homosexuality of the ambassador of the United States James Wally Brewster," she comments, and then asks:

"How many times have they protested when corrupt politicians have visited schools?"

"How many signatures did the protectors of traditional Dominican values collect for the country to submit to justice or expel the violator of rights of minors, nuncio Jozef Wesolowski?"

"Why did the Church not use its influence, with equal interest and insistence, to instruct the faithful to punish corrupt government officials, businesspeople and politicians in the polls, instead of its hierarchy socializing with them and legitimizing them in baptisms and weddings?"

"Why does the homosexuality of the ambassador bother them but not the US interventionist policies in economic and political matters?"

She concludes: "An individual's sexuality is personal and intimate. The Church does not have to intervene and the state only needs to guarantee rights."
http://hoy.com.do/homosexualidad-inmoralidad-y-corrupcion/autor/m-uribe/

OUTFEST

The Cinemateca Dominicana in Plaza de la Cultura in Santo Domingo is hosting the 6th International GLBT Santo Domingo Film Festival, Outfest. The festival began on 26 November and continues until 6 December 2015.

See the schedule at https://www.facebook.com/sdqoutfest/

 

DR To Be Cleaned In 2 Days

In two days about a quarter of a million people will be made stateless. They will have no homes, no passports, and no civil rights. There are several reasons for this, but the primary reason is racism.

At issue is a ruling by the Constitutional Court in the Dominican Republic to strip away the citizenship of several generations of Dominicans.

According to the decision, Dominicans born after 1929 to parents who are not of Dominican ancestry are to have their citizenship revoked. The ruling affects an estimated 250,000 Dominican people of Haitian descent, including many who have had no personal connection with Haiti for several generations.

What we are witnessing is one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere, except this one is completely by choice.

As a recent Peace Corps volunteer in the DR, stationed near the border of Haiti, I have a very personal perspective on this issue.
This may be hard to believe for most Americans, but racism in the DR is much worse than racism here in the United States. The idea of being black in the DR is wrapped up with being Haitian, and then takes on a xenophobic quality.
The thing is, 90% of Dominicans would be considered 'black' by American standards. So there is a huge difference between being considered moreno (brown) and negro (black). The Policia Nacional Dominicana are so underpaid and openly corrupt that being mistaken for being Haitian means having to bribe officers (which I've personally witnessed) or be arrested and possibly beaten. Being mistaken for being Haitian means being denied job opportunities, public education, bank accounts, and health care.
In other words, being black in the DR means being a second-class citizen with no legal protections. And now it means being stateless.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/14/1393198/-Dominican-Republic-to-be-Socially-Cleaned-in-two-days

What the Dominican Republic is doing is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple. It's shocking that we haven't heard anything in US media about it. Also, Haiti, being the Western Hemispphere's poorest country, has problems of its own. What would happen if Haiti refused to take these people in?

Brewster Comes For Mejia

The United States ambassador in the country, James W Brewster, has confronted former President Hipolito Mejia over his recent comments in New York on homosexuality and gay marriage, which he described as derogatory. "I am particularly shocked and disheartened at your recent disrespect and insensitive comments about people who have a different sexual orientation than yours, because we have been together in our respective homes," he said in a letter sent to the former President. He said that the term "little queer" used by Mejia is pejorative and perpetuates bullying, discrimination against minorities and promotes abuse at all levels of society. He says that although Mejia's words were not intended as an insult, they had that effect. 

"As the former President of the Dominican Republic and a public figure, your comments reflect a negative image of your nation's dignity. Many Dominicans here and overseas are fighting for equality between everyone created by God, a struggle that I hope you appreciate and lead," he stated. Brewster said that his husband, Bob Satawake, was willing to meet with Mejia to discuss the issue. He said that the former President's arguments against gay marriage, concerning procreation, as well as discriminating against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, also insult the significant number of people who are unable to have children or who choose not to procreate. 

http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2015/04/24/i1115191_embajador-enfrenta-hiplito-por-discriminar-los-gay.html

Marching Pride

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual (GLBT) organizations in the country have invited Dominicans to join them in their 7th Gay Pride March that will take place on Sunday 13 July 2014 from Avenida del Puerto in Santo Domingo starting at 3pm. 

Friends-Always-Friends Volunteer Network (REVASA) coordinator Deivis Ventura said that everyone who believed in democracy, human rights and freedom could come together and celebrate diversity. 

Marianela Carvajal, representing lesbians in the country, said that this year's theme would be "If you love... respect." She went on to say that they wanted to call the authorities' attention to the social exclusion suffered by thousands of GLBT men and women in the country who experience discrimination just because they love someone of the same sex. 

Read more in Spanish: http://hoy.com.do/homosexuales-dominicanos-invitan-a-creyentes-en-democracia-y-derechos-humanos-a-caravana-del-orgullo-gay/ 

Ambassador To DR Weds Partner

On Friday, 22 November, at 7pm on the same day as Texas-born James "Wally" Brewster was sworn in by US Vice President Joe Biden as the US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, he married his long-time partner, Bob J. Satawake. Brewster is the senior managing partner for SB&K Global, and Satawake is a managing partner at Sotheby's International Realty's Chicago Luxury Group. They were living in Chicago prior to taking on this new challenge. Brewster is a National LGBT Co-Chair for the Democratic National Committee and is on the Board of the Human Rights Campaign fund. The wedding and reception took place at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C. overlooking the South Lawn of the White House. 

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/wally-brewsters-really-big-day-sworn-in-as-a-us-ambassador-marries-bob-satawake/politics/2013/11/22/79170#.UpMr4xZ6VUQ

Is Everything Irie?

I could not believe this video clip when I first saw it. The guys dancing here are awesome. Oh, to be young and energetic! What really struck me is that they are dancing TOGETHER...in JAMAICA. It all appears to be innocent fun, but given the social dynamics of the country and the awareness that the smallest indication of same-sex attraction may lead to torture, these two had better be careful. They are cute though!

Jamaica Celebrates!

I first visted Jamaica when they were celebrating 25 years of independence. It was my initial venture out of the U.S. and it is where I first fell in love with all things caribbean. I was just getting out of school and had traveled there to tour the country with a community theater group. We performed in Ocho Rios, where we visited the great open-air market and Dunns River Falls. We then spent several days in Kingston visiting the Bustamante Children's Hospital, the University of The West Indies and being received by local sponsors and the Governor General.

The Jamaica I remember was welcoming and kind, unlike the homophobic terror it is portrayed as today. We were instructed then not to venture into parts of the city of Kingston due to high levels of crime in general, as opposed to today where having a perceived lack of a certain swagger might cause suspicion of homosexuailty, therefore bringing threats of beatings or death.

I haven't fully jumped on the bandwagon of the Boycott Jamaica movement, though I realize the human rights violations are severe and numerous. I can't seem to ignore the many anonymous gay faces who work in the tourist industry, who study at the universities to make a better life and a better Jamaica, who toil in the bauxite mines alongside unsuspecting coworkers while dreaming of a different way of life.

Each time I wrap my leftovers in aluminum foil I count my blessings that I have more than enough and I remember that I am providing work for that anonymous face in the bauxite mines and I pray that his Jamaica becomes the one that is welcoming and kind for ALL people.

Jamaicans Seek Asylum

AP:
For weeks, Nathaniel Cunningham and his boyfriend secretly lived together in rural Jamaica. They showed no affection in public and rarely spoke to their neighbors.

Then one morning, Cunningham picked up a local newspaper with a front-page story under the headline, "Homosexual Prostitutes Move into Residential Neighborhood." His address was listed.

For days afterward, Cunningham said an angry mob gathered on his lawn hurling rocks and bricks and calling them "batty boys"- a Jamaican slang term for gay. Eventually, the pair grabbed what they could and fled on foot. Cunningham said neither he nor his boyfriend were prostitutes-the slur was an example of the abuse gay men face in Jamaica.

The story was one of many that Cunningham recently shared with a federal immigration judge in his successful bid to win asylum in the US. And it's similar to other stories cited by asylum seekers who are using US immigration courts to argue that their sexual orientation makes it too dangerous to return home.

Until recently, those grounds have been rarely used. But now immigrant and gay activists say more asylum seekers from Latin America and the caribbean are citing sexual orientation as reasons for seeking asylum.