Executive director of human rights lobby group Jamaicans for Justice, JFJ, Mickel Jackson, says the country’s buggery law inadvertently criminalizes male victims of sexual assault.
Ms. Jackson outlined this as a side effect of maintaining colonial-era legislation.
She was speaking during the inaugural airing of JFJ’s new radio show, Let’s Talk Justice, on Nationwide 90FM.
Ms. Jackson is supporting calls from South East St. Ann member of parliament, Lisa Hanna, to have both the legal definition of rape in Jamaica redefined to be gender neutral, and also to have the buggery law repealed and replaced.
Ms. Jackson says a poll conducted by JFJ last year shows broad support for the redefinition of rape. However, the same poll shows a majority of Jamaicans still reject the repeal of the buggery law.
Mickel Jackson, executive director of Jamaicans for Justice.
Meanwhile, project manager for Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, Patrick Lalor, sought to assure Jamaicans that repealing the buggery law would in no way permit gay marriage in the country.
He’s reacting to the long-held fear that the removal of the legislation is a gateway to same-sex unions.
Patrick Lalor, Project Manager for Jamaica AIDS Support for Life.
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