INTERNATIONAL ACTION ALERT
from Metropolitan Community Churches
 
An Important Message
from The Rev. Nancy L. Wilson
MCC Moderator

Your Help Is Urgently Needed Now
To Protect The Lives of LGBT Jamaicans!
Join International E-Mail Campaign, Public Actions
on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2008!

Dear Friend: Only two minutes of your time can help save the lives of LGBT people in Jamiaca. Let me explain...

For many years, LGBT people in Jamaica have faced a horrific campaign of harassment, intimidation, violence, ostracism, hate crimes and even death. Time Magazine described Jamaica as "the most homophobic country in the Western Hemisphere."
 
Now the situation has taken still another deadly turn -- and we must band together and bring international pressure to stop the violence.

On Tuesday night, January 29, 2008, an anti-gay mob invaded a private home in Greenvale, Manchester (Jamaica). The mob attacked three gay men inside, beating them and hacking them with machetes. Two of the men have been hospitalized with serious injuries; one had his ear cut off. One man remains unaccounted for and is feared dead.

This is only the latest in a long series of hate-filled crimes against LGBT Jamaicans that too often go unprosecuted by civil authorities and under-reported by the Jamaican press.

Will you speak out for our brothers and sisters in Jamaica? 

Here's WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW to bring international pressure on the Jamaican government to protect the rights of all their citizens:

Send an E-mail
...to The Honorable Dr. Kenneth O. Baugh, Deputy Prime Minister of Jamaica, at hmfaftja@cwjamaica.com. Call him to accountability for the well-being of all Jamaican citizens, both as an elected leader and a person of faith. Tell him that the eyes of the world are watching what is happening. Demand an investigation at the highest levels of the Jamaican government into this latest round of violence against LGBT people, including the delay in police arrival and the failure to yet again hold anyone in the mob accountable. Demand that the government of Jamaica take all necessary steps to protect LGBT people from this ongoing pattern of harassment, violence, and murder.

Won't you take two minutes right now to click the e-mail link and send your message? It is so important that Jamaica's government hear from as many people as possible around the world.

Get further involved in ending the campaign of violence and hatred against Jamaica's LGBT population.  Here are three additional steps you can take:

• Help get the word out! Forward this message to your e-mail lists. Post it on listserves and message boards and websites. Include it in your blogs. Print it and post it on bulletin boards at libraries, colleges and universities, community centers, and LGBT-friendly houses of faith.
  
• Attend a CALL FOR LOVE campaign event on Valentines Day, February 14, 2008.
  Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) is partnering with community groups and faith groups to hold public CALL FOR LOVE events at Jamaican embassies, high commissions and consulates around the world on Valentine's Day.  Show up to demonstrate your solidarity with the LGBT community of Jamaica -- and to tell the world that it's time for the government of Jamaica to protect the rights of all its citizens.  Together, let's use this day devoted to love as an opportunity to end hatred.  To locate an MCC congregation near you, click here.
  
• Organize a CALL FOR LOVE event on Valentines Day, February 14, 2008. 
  If no CALL FOR LOVE event is scheduled for your area, organize one!  If no Jamaican embassy or consulate is near you, find a public space to hold a rally.  Invite community groups and faith organizations to join in sponsoring the event.  If you need more information, write to GlobalJustice@MCCchurch.net.  We'll send you a list of steps to organize an event in your area, along with a sample press release you can use to announce your event through the press and media.

"One Love One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right"

Jamaican songster Bob Marley wrote those lyrics because he wanted the violence and hatred between peoples to end.  I want that, too, with all my heart and I believe the day can come when we can live together as one human family.  It is because I believe that so strongly and because of the urgency of this moment in history, that I am asking all people of goodwill globally to join me in these actions.

Together, let's take Valentine's Day 2008, a day devoted to love, as our opportunity to work for an end to hatred.

"As it was in the beginning (One Love)
So shall it be in the end (One Heart)"
                                           -- Bob Marley

May our actions, voices and prayers on February 14th make it so.
 
+Nancy

Rev. Nancy L. Wilson
Moderator
Metropolitan Community Churches

P.S. Remember, if you schedule a CALL FOR LOVE Valentine's Day event for your area, or if you have further questions, please write to GlobalJustice@MCCchurch.net Be sure to let us know when you schedule your event -- we'll promptly send you some basic steps to organizing your event along with a sample press release that you can use to promote your event to the media in your area.

P.P.S. Below is a partial list of Jamaican embassies, high commissions, and consulates to assist with your planning.

________________________________________

J A M A I C A
________________________________________

EMBASSIES AND HIGH COMMISSIONS

NOTE: "High Commission" indicates the embassy of a British Commonwealth nation that is located within another British Commonwealth nation.

AUSTRALIA
High Commission of Jamaica
8 Leonora St, Earlwood
Sydney, New South Wales 2206

CANADA
High Commission of Jamaica
Standard Life Building
275 Slater Street
Suite 800, Ottawa, Ontario
KIP 5H9

Consulate of Jamaica
303 Eglinton Avenue East
Toronto, Ontario M4P 1L3

DENMARK
Consulate of Jamaica
Tagesmindevej 8
Gentofte, Denmark 2820

ENGLAND
High Commission of Jamaica
1-2 Prince Consort Road
London SW7 2BZ

GERMANY
Embassy of Jamaica
Schmargendorfer Strabe 32
Berlin, Germany  12159

Consulate of Jamaica
Ballindamm 1
Hamburg, Germany 2000

PHILIPPINES
Embassy of Jamaica
Tesoro Building, 5th Floor
1325 A. Mabini Street, Ermita
Manila, Philippines  1000

SOUTH AFRICA
High Commission of Jamaica
Pretoria, South Africa
Telephone: 27 12 362 6667 or 27 12 366 8500
(Call for street address.)

UNITED STATES

Embassy of Jamaica
1520 New Hampshire Avenue N W
Washington DC 20036

Consulates

ATLANTA (area)
Consulate of Jamaica
1823 Chedworth Lane
Stone Mountain, Georgia

BOSTON
Consulate of Jamaica
351 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

CHICAGO
Consulate of Jamaica
4655 South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Suite 201
Chicago, Illinois 60653

DALLAS
Consulate of Jamaica
3068 Forrest Lane
Dallas, Texas 75234

HOUSTON
Consulate of Jamaica
7737 Southwest Freeway, Suite 580
Houston, Texas 77074

LOS ANGELES
Consulate of Jamaica
8703 Venice Boulevard, Vienna Medical Clinic
Los Angeles, California 90034

MIAMI
Consulate of Jamaica
842 Ingraham Building
25 South East Second Avenue
Miami, Florida 33131

NEW YORK CITY
Consulate of Jamaica
767 Third Avenue, 2nd & 3rd Floors
New York, NY 10017
Telephone: 212-935-9000

PHILADELPHIA
Consulate of Jamaica
PO Box 24174
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19139
Phone: 215-313-9508
(Call to locate physical address,)

RICHMOND
Consulate of Jamaica
PO Box 15101
Richmond, Virginia  USA
Phone: 804-2624453
(Call to locate physical address)

SAN FRANCISCO
Consulate of Jamaica
San Francisco General Hospital
Dept. of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
1001 Potrero Avenue, 1N1
San Francisco, California  94110

The statement prepared in conjunction with MCC's Global Justice Team, Rev. Pat Bumgardner, Chair. GlobalJustice@MCCchurch.net

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