Just a few days ago, at the University of the West Indies (UWI), we were discussing the role of leadership in protecting vulnerable populations. Jamaica’s homeless – including this particular group of LGBT youth, as well as mentally and physically disabled Jamaicans and children who roam our streets daily – are arguably the most neglected and marginalized of all. This is an account by CUSO volunteer and fellow blogger Kate Chappell of the pending police raid to evict this group of young men, who live in a gully in New Kingston. Perhaps before the UWI event, the debaters should have paid them a visit. It might have been a good dose of reality, and given a little more edge to their presentations. Homelessness is not a “gay issue” in Jamaica. It is a human rights issue.
April 1 is apparently the deadline for the police, headed by Inspector Murdock, to perform a “raid” and force the young men out of the gully. This is where they live as they are disenfranchised from society and rejected by their families.
A judge recently ruled against an order to have them evicted, as it is a public place, but the police insist that their occupation is a health hazard.
On Saturday night, the final night of high school athletic competition Champs, the police chose this time to warn the guys that they will be forced to leave. (Read another account of this evening here.)
In terms of avoiding the further inflammation of the situation, this could not have been a worse time. I was driving by and witnessed throngs of young men and women walking by, some of them clumped around the gully. I heard several calls of…
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