A group of concerned citizens gathered in front of the main campus gate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in support of sacked Professor Brendan Bain.
On Tuesday, the university signalled that it had lost confidence in Bain as director of the Regional Co-ordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network amidst howls of protest from gay lobby groups against a professional opinion he gave in a Belize Court on the risks associated with men who have sex with men.
The handful of protesters wore pieces of masking tape over their mouths with the words ‘freedom of speech’ and carried placards with the message ‘speaking truth is not homophobia’. They decried the move by the university, saying that it was a blow to intellectual freedom.
“We are here to mourn the death of freedom of speech on the UWI campus. This affects the scientific community and researchers. We must now reduce the effects of the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender) community on our religion and take a stand. We want Professor Bain to get back his job,” said Daniel Thomas, president of the Youth Christian Organisation for Purity and the Family.
Bain’s colleague, Professor Shirley Richards, said that the university’s action was testimony to the fact that the LGBT community was intolerant of anyone who does not agree with their lifestyle.
“This is an agenda that is intolerant of dissent. This is a moment when Jamaicans must take a stand,” Richards said.
President of the Jamaica House of Prayer, Harry Walcott, warned that yesterday’s protest was just the tip of the iceberg.
“We have to do something. It’s the principle behind it. What they are doing is stifling freedom of speech. We are not going to stop until it is resolved in Dr Bain’s favour,” he said.
The Carolyn Gomes-headed Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition yesterday admitted that, while men who have sex with men are the most vulnerable group to contract HIV/AIDS, Bain should have been more responsible.
“In open societies, people may and do disapprove of homosexuality. Yet people who choose to take leadership positions in the response to HIV should not expect to express views in direct opposition to accepted science and best practice and continue to retain the confidence of the communities they are meant to benefit and of regional actors in the response to HIV. This is a conflict of interest,” the group said in a release to the media.
The group also claimed that the research Bain cited in his witness statement was produced by various scientists and then published in the respected scientific journal, The Lancet, in 2012 and was not his own work.
“Professor Bain has no published research on the issue,” the group claimed.
The Jamaica Forum of Lesbians All Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) denied Richards’ claim that the organisation had embarked upon an agenda that had no room for dissenting views, but supported Bain’s dismissal.
The claws of Babylon and their deviant agendas have really gotten hold of Jamaica. No place, no one is immune from the Empire.
RIP Jamaica
RIP Black Men
Dis is ah sorry state fi Jamaica find demself inna :sorry Ah hope di people dem stan up tuh dis corruption an nuh back dung.
UWI’s board of directors got this wrong and they should be fired The professor only spoke truth to power – yes, if you are gay and engaging in homosexual sex with other men having sex with men you have an increased risk of contracting HIV. Now, I know its not PC to say any about gays that does not affirm them and their lifestyle but when did commonsense leave the building? Wasn’t this professor through his research trying to save the lives of homosexual men among others. SMH
most a di professor dem pan di border line so that is why dem go dat far
That is a Shame the professor was just doing his job.
Back in the day when people caught Aids automatically people would think your an Iv drug user or Homosexual because those were the people getting it the most.Then it started spreading through the drugs,Bisexual sex men going to jail living double life having Gay sex then comeout on the road having sex with women.The professor spoke the truth He is just repeating what has always been known!
People need to really standup against this Gay propoganda let those suckers know there will always be indifference(They just forcing people to change their mind in what they believe in)Like they want to convince us God is not real and we HAVE TO BELIEVE!
Live your lives like you want to and allow others to live how they want you hypocrites.
You guys fought for your Rights to Marry and look at the high number of divorce rate among the Gay community now. LIVE YOUR LIFE AND QUIT FORCING YOURSELVES ON PEOPLE..SHIT!
If you can’t speak your mind within the realm of academia, then where else will you be permitted to? This is a travesty of epic proportions–though surprised, I should not be. Look at what they did to Walter Rodney…
He/she who speaks the truth is a pariah and that is very unfortunate…
While I do know that the gay/bi/tran/all-sexual community is targeted for abuse and ridicule frequently, they need to know which battles to fight, or they will lose credibility. Not everything is a personal attack. Now, the professor came to give expert opinion in a court case in another country, they cannot expect him to lie in open court. If there is a proven heightened risk of men who have sex with men unprotected being more predisposed to contracting hiv, he must state that as required by the court. Why, they took it up on their heads now to seek his termination? Just because I say I don’t understand how people become gay, or transgendered doesn’t make me a hater of gays and trans folks, it just means I don’t understand it! This should not have gone to the level of the prof. being terminated.
I will always support people’s right to live freely in the state of their choosing as long as it does not hurt anybody else, but going on witch hunts to have people lose their income and professional respect is just as bad as those who set upon gay people for no reason.
More and more I am coming into the belief that they are the devil’s spawn.
Yuh better know…
Abuse & ridicule , seriously? Should we not despise and burn out corruption? Abuse is the wrong choice of word and they should be ridiculed into correction [if possible]; they are the ones who are abusing us with their dirty lifestyle…
the thing is that these gays are having so much more rights than any other community i kno! and its crazy because they not knocking on doors for respect and acceptance they are kicking down doors and demanding that we the ppl thats against their lifestyle to be ok with it! god soon come because if this reach ah Jamaica and ppl being reprehended for freedom of speech i dont know what eles to think of this to rass but god soon come..