On March 13th 2017, we attended a parallel event for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) titled Lesbian, Bi and Trans: Stop Leaving Us Behind. Parallel events are events that are hosted outside of the official United Nations but are still linked to CSW. This panel was organized by OutRight Action which is an international humans rights group for the LGBTQ community. While this panel was very one sided, the majority of the discussion presented focused on policy making and data analysis.
The panel discussed several issues, primarily focused on tactics to effect law and policy changes. However, Kenita Placide, Executive Director of United and Strong and the Eastern Caribbean Coordinator of Caribbean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities, moved away from the policy discussion to discuss the relationship between the LGBT community and religion in the Caribbean. Proclaiming herself a Christian, she moved to undermine Christianity and the place it still holds in many Caribbean countries. Religion, she said, created homophobia through its teachings regarding homosexual behavior and contributes to the Caribbean view of such behavior as unnatural. She seemed to lament the reality that most Caribbean countries still are deeply religious, since she believes research and religion to be in conflict of one another. How can she still consider herself a Christian and hold such beliefs concerning religion? Placida stated that she fully supports freedom of religion, however, it appears she does not support such freedom if it does not support her choice of lifestyle.
The LGBT community fails to realize that they are behaving in the exact same way they claim to be treated. They seem to just want to be accepted and respected yet, they are quick to judge those who disagree with their agenda and demand others change. Respect works both ways and if they want to be respected they need to learn to respect those who disagree including the Christians and the Catholics. There is a difference between demanding that individuals are respected for their differences and demanding that people of faith abandon their theology to conform to another set of beliefs–in this case abandon Christian principles of sexuality and replace them with the LGBT perspective that all sexual behavior is equal and moral.
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