LGBTQ's political power?

THE EDITOR: Independent Senator Sophia Chote, SC, wrote interestingly about the LGBTQ members of our society and quoted persons confiding their distress to her about finding acceptance.

I was fortunate to have made friends with several LGBTQ workers, out there in foreign, and the tales did not markedly differ. The fear of parents finding out was the worst. My office decreed all staff must accept fellow LGBTQ workers or you could be fired, forthwith. One religious lady was fired for leaving prayer books on the table of a young LGBTQ girl who she constantly made cry.

Fast forward back to TT which, like Jamaica allegedly remains rabidly homophobic. What I am seeing now in TT is the emergence of an euphoric sense among the local LGBTQ populace that it is time to make political waves. Listen to the rhetoric: We are the government, we put you there.

We can say sack the Prime Minister. We can lead protests that have nothing to do with LGBTQ issues. Stick a pin in it. Social media activist Ms Kia Hosein is giving the LGBTQ the wrong political image. Is she revving up anti LGBTQ sentiments within the religious communities. This is TT not the UK.

It took hundreds of years of emotional and physical suffering in the UK for the LGBTQ community to be openly and widely accepted in all areas of endevour. But read my political lips. This is TT. A small Third World country that is heavily religious. Most religions frown heavily on LGBTQ lifestyles.

Hate is still very much alive. Yes, the LGBTQ people in TT have made unbelievable strides but not enough to throw political weight around demanding a change in government. For the uninformed, the PNM government is to be commended for listening carefully to LGBTQ views. Much is still being worked out. Rome was not built in a day.

Anti government rhetoric is the purview of the sitting opposition. Can it be alleged that the Opposition sent Ms Hosein to demonstrate by the Oval and in Tobago. Were all protesters members of the LGBTQ? Is Ms/Mr Kia Hosein registered and able to vote in TT? Are all well educated LGBTQ TT citizens, some of them members of the thriving business community, in agreement with alleged politically motivated antics?

Lynette Joseph, Diego Martin