T&T’s LGBTI NGO’s Pledge to work with Rowley Government For Justice And Diversity

Non-governmental groups who took to the airwaves during the recently concluded election to raise key policy and legislative concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) members of the national community today congratulate our new Prime Minister Keith Rowley, Attorney General Faris Al Rawi and the People’s National Movement on their election victory.

Allies for Justice & Diversity pledges to join the new government in resuming the work of building a nation we all must share, now that the divisive election campaign has concluded. We thank Dr. Rowley for his election-night reminder that he is the Prime Minister of all of us, and his commitment of his party as “a rally for all the people of Trinidad and Tobago coming together fighting for the common good”.

We are already in that fight. We accept his challenge “If we accept that we are all in this together…all of us will come out of our difficulty together” and we hope that under the watch of Attorney General Al Rawi “nobody in this country will go hungry” for rights “while others go overweight”.

Allies for Justice and Diversity made election-season pledges to work with Government and other national decision makers on 12 initiatives to advance justice and uphold sexual and gender diversity in Trinidad & Tobago. The initiatives included Senate appointments, HDC stock as transitional housing for homeless youth, protection of intersex neonates from genital mutilation, bullying prevention and tolerance-teaching in schools, outlawing discrimination, equal protection of young people in sexual offences, and police and criminal justice sensitization. The allies include the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO), Friends for Life, I Am One, and the Silver Lining Foundation. The pledges and the decision makers they target can be found at: http://wp.me/p6ARgU-N.