Pastor Joseph Buckland and his wife Sonia had signed up for the Ministry of Justice’s restorative justice programme in 2018 because they wanted to contribute to the reduction of crime and violence in Jamaica. However, it wasn’t long after that they opted out, as some of the lessons were against biblical principles.
After a few months of training to be a facilitator, the couple was directed to PowerPoint presentations they should study for their first exam. What they found in the documents was disturbing. According to a document on clientele diversity prepared by the Restorative Justice (RJ) unit at the MOJ, homophobia was described as an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people. It was stated that the justification for anti-homosexual beliefs is usually related to religious teachings.
“Attitudes and beliefs about homosexuals are in general very negative in Jamaica, although there are signs that these are ‘softening’ slowly in particular among females, younger and more educated persons,” the restorative justice unit stated.
Another portion of the document went on to state that two of the things that made these groups [homosexuals] vulnerable were the denial of the right to love and sexual expression as well as the lack of protection under the Constitution (including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms) and by law enforcers.
“Advocacy of tolerance is a key precursor to creating an environment for the protection of the human rights of persons with different gender identities and sexual orientation,” the prospective facilitators were informed.
Pastor Buckland subscribes to the biblical teaching that homosexuality is against God’s design for mankind.
He believes religion is seen as the greatest hindrance to the acceptance of homosexuality; hence, it was highlighted in the RJ unit document. He said he was informed about the project by his wife, a guidance counsellor who was attending the Jamaica Theological Seminary at the time. The programme was advertised at the institution.
“We had a genuine desire to see if we could be of help to people in communities that had conflicts—conflicts with each other and conflicts with the law. We knew nothing about what was happening behind the scenes,” he said.
From the very first day, however, he noticed that there were attempts to get the participants to change their views of long-held social norms. He recalled being given a pink bag after his team won a competition with the motto, “Real men wear pink.”
“What I looked at was not the colour itself, but the idea behind it. We are living in a society in which traditionally blue is identified with boys and pink is identified with girls,” he said, before adding, “They were subtly introducing gender identity and transgender ideas without coming right out and say it.”