A violent mob in Haiti interrupted a gay couple’s engagement ceremony with rocks and molotov cocktails on Saturday as homophobic violence continues to escalate in the beleaguered island-nation.
Symptomatic of a country in which anti-gay crimes are fairly rampant, this recent attack left several people injured and two cars destroyed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince. Luckily, police arrived in time to prevent any fatalities.
“This is a criminal act and homophobic,” Charlot Jeudy, an activist from Haitian gay rights group Kouraj (Courage), told AFP. “There is no justification for this kind of attack on people in a private residence.”
The victims, one of whom is a British Red Cross member named Max, have refused to speak of the attack publicly for fear of incurring further violence against them.
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This rash of violence against the Haitian LGBT community was possibly catalyzed by a march by the Haitian Coalition of Religious and Moral Organizations that incorrectly claimed a gay marriage bill was heading to parliament. Following the march, 47 anti-gay attacks took place in the span of one week, with mobs wielding blades, cement blocks, sticks, and iron bars.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has condemned the increasing violence, saying, “It is imperative that Haiti [adopts] effective measures to prevent the repetition of these types of acts of violence and discrimination in the future.”
Unfortunately, at this moment we do not know how much weight this condemnation carries.
QJ201
Haitians and Jamaicans….fighting it out for the most homophobic and dangerous place for gays in the Caribbean.
n900mixalot
These aid workers are amazing. They stubbornly decide to help in places that condone violence and barbarianism in hopes that they will reach the generations that are more tolerant than their ignorant elders.
I couldn’t do it.
Scribe38
I feel sorry for gays who live there and Russia. I don’t understand gay people who visit or willingly work within its borders.
Scribe38
I also wouldn’t work/visit in most middle eastern countries, China, a bunch of states in the south. The safety of myself and partner just isn’t worth it.
Polaro
@QJ201: Indeed…both countries are hell holes to avoid.
Kieran
Ever notice how the most impoverished, uneducated, backward shitholes in the world are invariably hotbeds of homophobia? From Alabama to Zimbabwe, wherever the homophobes rule things turn to shit.
deprimanyc
So happy I never donated to earthquake relief!
2eo
@Kieran: There is a direct correlation between religious fervour and lack of education. Wherever education is good religion recedes into the dark recesses.
Information and reality are religions greatest enemy, and they will continue to commit genocide to stop the march of reality.
DonW
@deprimanyc: I worked in Haiti, a complicated country of both horrific violence and lovely and brave people, after the earthquake. I find your comment absurd and offensive. Did you remark “I’m glad I never helped out after 9/11” or “those Hurricane Sandy victims got what they deserved” because of the homophobic attacks in NYC?
Recently a commentator here wished famine upon Ethiopia because of some shenanigans by religious idiots there. When I suggested that expressing naked hatred toward innocent people who have suffered a disaster might not be the most effective strategy toward securing our human rights, he labeled me a “concern troll.”
So be it. I’m concerned.
ouragannyc
@DonW: Thank you DonW. Deprimanyc’s comment was REALLY not smart.
ouragannyc
I read in another article that the protestant churches in Haiti have been preaching that the earthquake happened because too many Haitians were becoming gay.
DonW
@ouragannyc: Wouldn’t surprise me at all. We have Pat Robertson, they have their own nutcases. Unfortunately, American evangelicals have been all too successul in their export strategy.