Jamaica’s colonial-era Offences Against The Persons Act denies LGBT+ people’s basic humanity.
Norman McKenzie is an independent LGBT+ activist based in Jamaica and Britain
“Them fe dead long time.”
When a gay man or transgender woman is killed in Jamaica, a police officer or other law official will utter those words in patois. The phase translates as, “Someone should’ve killed them a long time ago.”
As a gay Jamaican and an LGBT+ activist, I’ve seen at close range how Jamaica’s homophobic and transphobic culture destroys lives. Since 2005, I’ve assisted hundreds of gay and trans individuals who had been forced into the streets, often by their own families.
Human rights advocate Sister Dianna Ortiz dies after brief illness
Feb 20, 2021 catholic news service
Sister Dianna Ortiz, a member of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount St. Joseph, who was Pax Christi USA s deputy director, is seen in this 2012 photo. Sister Ortiz died Feb. 19, 2021, in Washington at age 62. (Credit: CNS screen grab/Ursuline Sisters of Mount St. Joseph.)
Sister Dianna Ortiz became a human rights advocate and peacemaker, starting an organization for torture survivors and becoming a visible presence of nonviolence at vigils and marches in the nation s capital.
CLEVELAND Ursuline Sister Dianna Ortiz was teaching indigenous children as a missionary in Guatemala in 1989 when her ministry was torn apart in the midst of the country’s brutal civil war.