This was the first article I wrote for the World of Women magazine in the Trinidad Guardian in August 2015. I remember being so nervous when I went to the event and was telling people I work for the Guardian. I was wondering if I’d get the right information, something I still wonder about when … Continue reading
Filed under Advocacy …
US judge: Gay rights are human rights (June 22, 2015)
Trinidad-born, US-based Judge G Helen Whitener says the rights of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex) people are human rights and they are asking for respect and the right to be themselves without being persecuted. Judge Whitener, who is openly gay, sits on the Pierce County Superior Court, the highest trial court in … Continue reading
Visibility is power
I’m not here for people who are against Caitlyn Jenner’s transition and coming out, for whatever reason. I am here for the people who care that the publicity surrounding her have drawn attention to trans* people, locally and internationally. For those who don’t know, Caitlyn announced her transition and new name in an interview with Diane … Continue reading
Diary of a mothering worker. March 3, 2015.
Originally posted on grrlscene:
Post 182. At one primary school, the friendly teacher interviewing Ziya looked up from reading her form when, under religion, I listed ‘none’. ‘None?’ she clarified incredulously, examining me anew, like I was a zaboca that beguiled with firm, green potential, only to appear blackened when cut open. Inside I chuckled,…
boxing day 2014. guyana
Originally posted on freedombyanymeans:
“Whore!” was a frequent and common insult slung at her. Whore. He was fucking her whenever he pleased, had brought her to his house for that purpose, as well as to cook and clean. She had been working at the rice mill and looking after his mother who was sick and…
The facts of life
Originally posted on Feminist Conversations on Caribbean Life:
Men in high places across the region have advice for schoolgirls. Trinidad & Tobago’s Attorney General is reported as stating that date rape is a fact of life and girls should therefore be responsible especially at Christmas time. Barbados men’s rights group MESA were reported as stating…
Why Kamla and I agree
Originally posted on One nation…many bodies…boundless faith:
Last week I called my Prime Minister a political coward who’d embarrassed the nation internationally. I wasn’t alone. Joining the bobolee-thumping were the Guardian editors, several letter-to-the editor-writers, columnists in every paper, Family Planning president Gerry Brooks and Archbishop Harris. Fielding a question about our laws (we have four now, only one colonial) criminalising gay and anal sex…
Getting It Wrong On Rape Or No Sperm, No Rape, Or Why a Two-Year-Old Girl Does Not Need to be Taught Modesty
Originally posted on Feminist Conversations on Caribbean Life:
After an Indigenous Guyanese woman reported that she was drugged and gang-raped at the hotel where she worked and police had no intention of investigating the rape, women took to the streets in protest and solidarity. One local newspaper alleges that police are not investigating the rape…
Gut Feeling
Originally posted on Eponymous Fliponymous:
Today I was working at an event to benefit the local transgender community – a community that intersects with all the other letters of the awkward initialism by which we identify ourselves. We had received a substantial in-kind donation from a person whose transgender child had passed on. When I…