A
alexk
Guest
The T&T LGBTQI community held its first Pride Parade yesterday from Nelson Mandela Park, Port-of-Spain.
In anticipation of a possible backlash, members of the community were told not to retaliate if there were any disturbances, although there was also a police presence.
But the event was well attended, incident free and hailed a success, although there was one religious group which publicly highlighted its discontent with the event.
Speaking during the event, Rudolph Hanamji, chairman of the T&T Pride Arts Festival, which hosted the parade, said: “On the heels of the Jason Jones case, the LGBTQI community, especially those who are leaders or who are privileged, realise that it is finally time for the community to publicly highlight the positive contributions that it makes to T&T.”
It is also time, he added, “to underscore the need for the policy makers to protect our human rights, because in this very park almost a year ago Sasha Fierce (Keon Allister Patterson) was murdered. Today there is no justice for her, so we found that this was the right time and the right place.”
Asked if it took a level of bravery in a conservative country like T&T to stage such an event, Hanamji said, interestingly enough many LGBTQI people or “allies” supported members of the group and “loved them, including their friends, families, persons they did business with and even the people in leadership.”
Hanamji said seeing their strength and the fact that those in the community can be visible and have the ability to represent for the more vulnerable was also an inspiration for them to stage the event.
He said during the festival, young people said that if they knew all this existed they would not have harmed themselves in their younger ages, adding that they felt badly about their lives previously but are now seeing the breakthrough.
Hanamji said they were feeling more support for the LGBTQI community from the public in a way that had led and given them the courage to come out.
He said in the face of religious leaders’ obstinance to the refusal to include and provide safety for their congregations, which were made up of members of the LGBTQI community, they had come forward and said they loved and supported them.
When asked what message he had for lawmakers right now, Hanamji said they needed to represent the fact that the LGBTQI community makes positive contributions to society and acknowledge that human rights were everybody’s rights and they had to speak and represent for all facets of T&T.