The fight for LGBT rights in Jamaica starts in a storm drain - article and video

(Cross posting from LGBT Group.)
Please see the info at the end of this post for Dwayne's House.

Fusion
The fight for LGBT rights in Jamaica starts in a storm drain
by America with Jorge Ramos and Mitchell Williams
08/13/2014

In the global battle for LGBT rights, the fight often turns ugly. In Jamaica, that ugliness has manifested in the form of young people, shunned everywhere else, living in a dank storm drain.

“Any kind of injustice bothers me--bothers me deeply,” Yvonne McCalla Sobers said. A small woman with light gray hair, she is a dynamic force. As an LGBT activist in Jamaica, a battlefield country with the sixth highest homicide rate in the world, she faces violent intolerance rooted in national homophobia.

"Gay rights are human rights,” Sobers said, explaining why she joined the struggle.

Sobers chairs Dwayne’s House, an organization that offers care and support to homeless LGBT youth. It’s a daunting mission in a country with anti-gay “buggery” laws and a colonial era mentality where thousands still turn out for homophobic rallies. Sobers’ recent focus has been on the youth forced into the storm drains, or the “gully,” by their families and communities....

The rest of the article and a video at this link: http://fusion.net/justice/story/fight-for-lgbt-rights-jamaica-starts-in-storm-drain-944893

For more information about Dwayne's House or to make a contribution, please visit http://www.dwayneshouse.info/
Dwayne’s House is working to meet the needs of homeless LGBTI youth for shelter, medical care, counseling, education, & social reintegration. We are named in memory of Dwayne Jones, who was brutally murdered at the age of 16 by a mob in July 2013.