Holness sparks man-woman talk

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’s assertion that gender is limited to male and female has sparked both backlash and praise, with critics contending that his remark points to a shifting global attitude towards the LGBTQIA+ community.

“The comment is disappointing and unnecessary,” Glenroy Murray, executive director of Equality for All Foundation, told The Gleaner.

During his contribution to the 2026-2027 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, Holness said Jamaica continues to maintain a strong and strategic foreign policy while holding firm to what he described as core national values, including his position that gender is limited to male and female.

“A man is a man and a woman is a woman,” he declared to desk thumping from colleague parliamentarians.

“There are things that define us as Jamaicans, and we are not going to change on those.”

The prime minister framed his remarks within the context of a rapidly evolving global landscape, pointing to shifts in the balance of power within the multilateral system.

Murray expressed confusion as to why Holness made the comment at that moment and accused the prime minister of seeking a diversion.

“What people have been asking him is how he has handled the tensions that have arisen on the regional and global stage, and I think that should be where his answer is focused,” he said.

“I don’t know that he needed to draw the line in the sand at Jamaica’s attitudes towards the trans community specifically and the LGBTQIA+ community more broadly because the reality is the issues that Jamaica has with its communities are local issues,” Murray added.

Further, he stated that there has been less support globally for LGBT rights, and it was unlikely that there was any any strong global push for Jamaica to state or change its position on transgender rights.

Murray said issues impacting the LGBTQIA+ community have been largely ignored by the Holness administration and urged him to change this position.

“The local community has been pushing for and begging for some attention to the myriad of issues that we’ve been facing for years, including violence and discrimination. While some work has been done over the years, there’s so much more to do, including enacting anti-discrimination legislation that the current administration has never really taken up as an issue,” he said.

MAY HAMPER PROGRESS

There is no legal gender recognition for transgender Jamaicans. Further, three provisions under Jamaica’s 1864 Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA) – Sections 76, 77, and 79 – explicitly make buggery illegal.

Murray also expressed concern that such a statement in Jamaica’s Parliament would only hamper any progress.

“I think those kinds of comments can send a wrong message to different people across the national landscape in terms of doing more work to better protect our community,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Wayne West, president of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society, had only commendations for Holness’s boldness in sharing his opinion publicly.

“Other leaders in the society have said things, but they haven’t really said it in the public square,” he told The Gleaner.

He said Holness’s public comments may be due to the similar stance shared by “our big brother up north”.

“With the Trump administration in place, I think it may have given the prime minister a little sense of security to make such a statement because the Trump administration is adamant there are only two genders, male and female,” he said.

The Trump administration issued an executive order in January last year that dismantled specific protections for transgender people. The order stated that the US government would recognise only two sexes, male and female, that are fixed at birth. It also ordered government agencies to end all reference to and consideration of a person’s gender identity.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com