By Nadine Wilson-Harris
Public outrage over a USAID-sponsored advertisement in the colours of the flag used by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community (LGBTQ) has forced the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) to tighten its policy for wraps on its buses.
The multi-coloured design, which was placed on one of the company’s buses for one year, based on the contract with the American funding agency, was emblazoned with the message, “tek pride inna Jamaica.” The design, which was promoted from July 2022 to 2023, bears a striking resemblance to a “tek pride inna Jamaica” mural that was unveiled by gay advocacy group Equality Jamaica in Downtown, Kingston in 2021.
Yanetha Brown-Sinclair, who spoke to the Freedom Come Rain newspaper on behalf of JUTC’s, managing director, Paul Abrahams, confirmed that the advertisement was placed on one of the company’s buses. She said that by the time people started protesting on social media, it had already been removed as the contract period had ended.
Brown-Sinclair noted that the revenue of the company was not affected by the advertisement, as commuters travelled on the bus without any protest for the full year. About July of this year, a picture of the bus started making the rounds on social media, and it appears it was at this time that the company took note. Given the concerns, an investigation was launched, and the policy regarding advertisements was revisited.
“We do have policies to determine what type of ads are placed on the buses. So all artwork must be pre-approved; no skimpily clad, naked, or sexy images or anything that runs counter to good order or contravenes the laws of Jamaica. So it is something that going forward, we will be paying more attention to the ads that we put on the buses,” she said.
Jamaica is one of six countries in the Caribbean that has not repealed the buggery law despite international pressure by funding agencies and gay rights activists for the country to accept homosexuality. These attempts have been stoutly rejected by Jamaican citizens, who have made it clear in local polls that the lifestyle is not accepted and contravenes the biblical perspective of marriage and family.
This pushback has not prevented LGBTQ advocates from sublty promoting their agendas through various means. Their messaging on government-owned transportation is one of the latest efforts, which is also being done in other liberal countries. Transport for London (TFL), for example, wrapped one of their buses and underground train in a multi-coloured design to celebrate LGBTQ pride month earlier this year. The eye-catching design was endorsed by London’s deputy mayor for transport, who is gay.
“Pride buses” were also rolled out this year by public transit companies across different cities in the US, Australia, Canada, and sections of Europe.
Drivers who have protested against driving these buses in the past have been punished. A Christian bus driver from Calgary, Canada, was fired from his job in 2015 after he refused to drive the multi-coloured bus promoting the city’s gay pride event, which he said goes against his religious beliefs. Another bus driver was suspended in Norwich, England in 2019, after refusing to drive a bus where the number was decorated in celebration of gay pride.
Head of the Association of Christian Communicators and Media (ACCM) subcommittee for Gender, Family and Sexuality, Dr. Patience Alonge, finds that LGBTQ advocates have been very deceptive.
“Normally we use the word pride, but the way they mean it is a different way. So when they say take pride in Jamaica, we see it at face value and say ‘oh, we should take pride in our nation’, however, it doesn’t mean that because you see the diabolical agenda in what they are doing. They are saying you should take pride in being a part of their lifestyle. So they are promoting a lifestyle; they are not necessarily promoting a nation,” said the university professor.
The design on the bus funded by USAID did not have any image of the Jamaican flag, as is customary when the country is being promoted. Instead, it bore the multi-colours that are stamped on everything relating to the LGBTQ community. Dr. Alonge, who pointed to the group’s infatuation with these colours, is concerned that they are now being used to brand a lot of things in Jamaica, including our currency, which was changed earlier this year.
“It is a violation of people’s decency and moral standing to put this in our faces every single day; that is a serious violation,” she lamented.
“It is like you are raping the people of their morals; you are just putting things that are an abomination in our faces and there is silence,” said Dr. Alonge, who believes the government has been complicit.
Medical doctor, Brittanie Clacken, is equally concerned. She noted that pride is a code word for the LGBTQ community, which, along with the pride flag, is increasingly finding its way into local advertisements, although homosexuality is illegal.
“It is a way for imperialist power from overseas to force their ideology [and] their way of life on countries who don’t agree,” said Dr. Clacken, who is a member of Christian advocacy group, the Love March Movement.
She explained that this is also a way to desensitise the population so that homosexuality will become more widely accepted.
She urged Jamaicans to take a stand by protesting what she believes are subtle attempts to get persons to accept the lifestyle. She noted that there are persons who are genuinely struggling with homosexual tendencies, but there are those who are pushing a satanic agenda that is intended to destroy families.
“For individuals who struggle, the strategy for dealing with them have to be one of compassion and love. The strategy for dealing with the advocates, the satanists, the persons who spend millions of dollars to paint buses and paint murals, they spend millions of dollars to export the LGBTQ agenda all over the world, in particular, the Caribbean and Latin America; for those people, we need a different strategy for them, they need to be exposed for who and what they are and they need to be condemned,” she said.
