Dominica: Government to enforce anti-gay education

BY DANIELA COSTA – The Dominican minister of education is sending a committee into the small Caribbean island’s schools to instruct teachers on how to “better manage” homosexuality and “anti-social behaviour.”

“We must save the young people of Dominica,” says Petter Saint-Jean, education minister.

Saint-Jean says that to tackle these large-scale “problems,” a committee of three or four individuals is needed. “I have instructed that additional people be brought in so that we have a team that can really go out there and face that problem head on.”


The Dominican government announced plans several months ago to create a task force that would crack down on homosexuality and “other deviant behaviour” in the country’s schools.

The government also asked that the task force investigate and identify “the root causes of deviance and the increasing incidents of homosexuality” amongst the student population.

Following the results of the investigation, released Sept 14, Saint-Jean claims that the issues of “deviance, misbehaviour and homosexuality” are “bigger than previously thought” and require extra measures.

This is all part of the government of Dominica’s “Child Friendly Schools Programme.”

Homosexuality is illegal in Dominica. The country still enforces the British colonial anti-sodomy law, which makes sodomy punishable by 10 years of imprisonment and psychiatric treatment.

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Born and raised in Toronto, I graduated from Ryerson University’s journalism undergraduate program (with a minor in politics) in 2013. My relationship with Daily Xtra began as a student internship that then flowed into regular freelance contributions. I’ve written many lengthy feature pieces, as well as plenty of news stories. I’m all about all things LGBT, as you can probably tell from the various topics I have covered.

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