BY VERNON DAVIDSON Executive editor — publications davidsonv@jamaicaobserver.com Sunday, May 18, 2014
A coalition of gay advocacy and civil rights groups is pressuring the University of the West Indies (UWI) to fire Professor Brendan Bain as head of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Initiative, claiming that his expert testimony in a case in Belize represents a conflict of interest and has destroyed their trust in him.
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BAIN… the risk of contracting HIV is significantly higher among MSMs |
The 33 lobby groups, from a number of Caribbean islands, are also demanding that Professor Bain be removed from all positions of representation of the UWI on HIV and AIDS issues. They are, as well, insisting that the university drafts and implements a "policy which protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex staff and students from discrimination".
However, the groups and the UWI administration, which appears to wilting under the pressure, are on a collision course with the church as the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals has expressed support for Professor Bain and has asked the UWI to resist the demand to sack him.
The first move against Bain was made in September 2013 when the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) wrote to Ambassador Eric Goosby at the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) expressing concerns about Bain's expert testimony in the constitutional challenge brought by Belizean gay man Caleb Orozco against Section 53 of Belize's criminal code in September 2010.
The code states that "every person who has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal shall be liable to imprisonment for 10 years".
Orozco, who stated in his affidavit that he is president of United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM), argued that the code violates his right to the recognition of human dignity, to personal privacy and the privacy of the home guaranteed by the Belize constitution. more
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