By Maurice Tomlinson

Maurice Tomlinson is a Jamaican lawyer, gay rights activist, and educator. He is a senior policy analyst with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network where he acts as counsel and/or claimant in cases challenging anti-gay laws before the most senior tribunals in the Caribbean

June marked the 50th anniversary of Pride, which started as a protest against state-sanctioned abuse of LGBT people. Last month also saw unprecedented global protests against anti-back racism and for me these two events highlight the significant intersectionality between being a black and gay man.

“A continuous export of homophobic rhetoric by representatives of extremist Christian groups from the Global North have helped to sustain and even worsen the archaic and harmful statutes. ”

Black filmmaker Marlon Riggs once said that Black men loving Black men is THE revolutionary act. He reminisced that while going to school black and white students alike called him a “punk,” a “faggot,” and “Uncle Tom.” He felt isolated from everyone at the school: “I was caught between these two worlds where the whites hated me, and the blacks disparaged me. It was so painful.” For many black and gay persons around the world this remains the case today.

But it was not always like this.

It is a historical fact that in the cradle of human civilization, Africa, homosexuality existed from time immemorial and famous rulers such as King Mwanga II of Uganda had male lovers. However, European colonizers in their self-righteous zeal to “civilize the natives” criminalized same-gender love with laws that imposed barbaric punishments. Read more via 76 Crimes