Wednesday, 23 June 2004, 7-9pm
Jamaican High Commission, 1 Prince Consort Road, London SW7

Bring flowers, candles and placards

London - UK

Jamaican gay rights leader, Brian Williamson, was hacked to death in his Kingston home just over a week ago. The multiple wounds and severe mutilation of his body may indicate a frenzied hate crime. As Williamson's body was removed from his house, a crowd gathered to laugh and jeer.

A memorial vigil - organised by the queer rights group OutRage!, but open to all - will take place this Wednesday, 23 June 2004, 7-9pm, outside the Jamaican High Commission, 1 Prince Consort Road, London SW7 (near the Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington tube).

Speakers include Darren Johnson the Green Leader in the London Assembly, Peter Tatchell of OutRage!, Carol Budd of Amnesty International and representatives from the black group Big Up and the Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group. The London Gay Men's Chorus will sing songs of remembrance and defiance.

"We invite all those who want to remember Brian's brave witness for queer human rights to join the vigil", said Brett Lock of OutRage!

"This is also an opportunity to show our solidarity with the embattled lesbian and gay community in Jamaica, and to demand the Jamaican government repeal its harsh anti-gay laws".

Brian Williamson was a founding member and leading public spokesperson for J-Flag, the Jamaican gay rights group.

OutRage! is highly critical of the way the Jamaican police are handling the murder investigation:

"Officers are dismissing Brian Williamson's murder as a robbery gone wrong, on the grounds that some of Brian's possessions were stolen. But this is a typical pattern of most queer-bashing murders. Afterwards, the killers invariably help themselves to the victim's valuables. Robbery is an incidental afterthought. Homo hatred is the motive", said Mr Lock.

"The Jamaican police have consistently failed to tackle homophobic hate attacks. More than 30 gay men have been murdered in Jamaica in recent years: variously clubbed with sticks, shot, matcheted, stoned, burned with petrol, stabbed, and chased into the sea and left to drown.

"Most of the killers have literally got way with murder. The police are themselves accused of beating up lesbians and gay men. Many gay Jamaicans describe the police as 'gay bashers in uniform'".

OutRage! "deplores" the indifferent attitude of Jamaica's political leaders, accusing them of "not caring about the huge volume of homophobic hate crimes on the island".

"The Jamaican Prime Minister, P J Patterson, has said nothing about Williamson's murder", according to OutRage! spokesperson, Peter Tatchell.

"The entire Jamaican political establishment has ignored his horrific killing.

"Jamaica's government is refusing to repeal the country's harsh anti-gay laws, imposed by the British colonial administration, and never repealed when Jamaica won its independence in 1962. These laws punish gay sex with 10 years hard labour.

"A prison sentence in Jamaica can turn into a death sentence. Gay men are murdered in jail. In the mid-1990s, 16 suspected gay inmates were murdered in a single day. The killers were never bought to justice", said Mr Tatchell.