Montego Bay Pride says it’s no longer interested in cultural centre

Following a dramatic 150 per cent increase in the rental rate for the Montego Bay Cultural Centre, the Montego Bay Pride Planning Committee has decided to look elsewhere to host its future events.

At the hearing Thursday of the case challenging the mayor’s ban of Montego Bay Pride’s use of the venue in October 2019, the organization also advised the court that it will be discontinuing the matter as there is now little point in proceeding.

Last October Montego Bay Pride was banned from using the Centre after Mayor Homer Davis objected on the grounds that the group’s activities would violate the “sacredness” of the space.

Former mayor and current councillor, Senator Charles Sinclair also claimed that one of the group’s activities, a public forum on whether Jamaica is ready for same-sex marriage, would go against the Constitutional bar to the recognition of any form of same-sex unions.

Montego Bay Pride through its founder and development coordinator, Maurice Tomlinson, sued the mayor for breaches of, inter alia, constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The Supreme Court granted an interim injunction on October 14 allowing Montego Bay Pride to use the venue pending the full trial, but this was overturned two days later by the Court of Appeal citing a technicality that no municipal permit was issued for our events.

On November 27 at a case management conference in preparation for Thursday’s hearing, the judge suggested that a simple way to resolve the matter was for Montego Bay Pride to reapply to use the Cultural Centre and at that time Mayor Davis and Councilor Sinclair should recuse themselves from the decision about the permit, since they had already expressed their objections to Montego Bay Pride using the venue. The judge also stated that the constitutional rights of all Jamaicans should be respected.

Montego Bay Pride therefore wrote to the Cultural Centre and identified a possible date for its public forum in February 2020, but was advised that the rental rate for the venue had skyrocketed from $50,000 to $150,000 as on January 1, 2020.

“As Montego Bay Pride is a small grassroots festival this rate is beyond our budget, especially for a two-hour public forum meant to accommodate no more than 50 persons.  We will therefore be looking at other options to have this critical discussion,” the group said.

“We also discontinued our action against the mayor as we feel that we have made our point, as noted by the judge at the case management conference: All Jamaicans must be granted equal access to public spaces.  This is regardless of sexual orientation or other factors.”