Caribbean Matters: Celebrate Spirit Day with LGBTQ activists on the islands ... and beyond

The third Thursday in October is Spirit Day. The celebration was created in 2010 by a Canadian teenager, to raise awareness about the bullying and harassment faced by LBGTQ youth and community, before it spread to the U.S. With Spirit Day 22 falling on Thursday, Oct. 20, it’s a perfect time to explore challenges faced and victories won for LGBTQ Caribbeans, both in the Caribbean and among the diaspora in the United States.

Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day (NCOD), both here and in the United Kingdom. Many Caribbean folks took part and shared their coming out stories, reminding us that the history of struggle for acceptance and legal recognition of LGBTQ rights in the Caribbean are not uniform. Those rights, recognition, and acceptance vary, depending on the many harsh and punitive laws that were put in place by original colonizing entities—which went hand in hand with negative cultural attitudes engendered by multiple religious belief systems. Some of those laws are still in place, while others have been changed thanks to the activism of the Caribbean LGBTQ community and its allies.

With that in mind, let’s explore the current status of LGBTQ rights and identify and support the organizations who continue to fight the good fight.    

Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.