MoBay Pride lawsuit discontinued

THE ST James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) has revealed that the court case in which it was embroiled with gay-rights lobby Montego Bay Pride, after the corporation refused to allow the group to use the Montego Bay Cultural Centre for a series of events last September, has been discontinued.

While acknowledging that the StJMC was awaiting official documentation from the Supreme Court to affirm the case’s discontinuation, Secretary-Manager Gerald Lee told Thursday’s monthly meeting of the corporation that Montego Bay Pride had requested for the matter to come to an end.

“The matter has been discontinued in the court based on the request of the plaintiff (Montego Bay Pride), and so, I think, the matter would be at its end,” Lee told the meeting. His update was done at the request of Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis, the defendant.

During a meeting of the StJMC last September,

Davis had staunchly refused to grant permission for Montego Bay Pride to host events at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre, saying that to do so would disturb the “sacredness” of the facility.

Government Senator Charles Sinclair, councillor for the Montego Bay North East division, said that allowing pro-gay events would breach the municipal corporation’s mandate to uphold Jamaica’s Constitution, which only recognises marriage between a man and a woman.

Anal sex is prohibited in Jamaica, but advocacy for gay rights, though frowned on in ultra-orthodox religious circles, is not illegal.

Montego Bay Pride founder Maurice Tomlinson subsequently filed a lawsuit against the StJMC on the grounds that Davis’ denial of permission was unconstitutional and discriminatory. The Supreme Court later granted an interim injunction for the gayrights group to hold meetings at the cultural centre, but that ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

The Montego Bay Cultural Centre, which is sited on the premises of the old courthouse, is a heritage building.