LEAVE YOUR SEX TOYS AT HOME!

KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­[email protected]

The Gov­ern­ment is warn­ing Tribe mas­quer­aders to leave their sex toys at home this Car­ni­val, or face pos­si­ble jail time for se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy.

De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge gave the ad­vice yes­ter­day, warn­ing mas­quer­aders the state is ready to make an ex­am­ple of them if they are caught us­ing adult sex toys or de­vices on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day.

Dur­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah yes­ter­day, Sturge said, “I know that one band has pro­vid­ed their mas­quer­ades with some toys. We ask that you leave the toys and the de­vices at home and you can use them in the qui­et of your home. Please do not use them in any pub­lic space. If you are caught, be­cause there is CCTV, there is pri­vate cam­eras from peo­ple’s build­ings, there is an abun­dance of cell­phones, if you are caught, you will be made an ex­am­ple of.”

The min­is­ter al­so warned the pub­lic that they can al­so be charged for oth­er lewd acts.

He added, “If you are caught cop­u­lat­ing in pub­lic, you will al­so be made an ex­am­ple of. There are laws to deal with that. Whether it’s cop­u­lat­ing or en­gag­ing in acts of se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy, you will be taught a very hard les­son. The courts are ready for that.”

Un­der Sec­tion 51 of the Sum­ma­ry Of­fences Act, en­gag­ing in “in­de­cent, lewd, or in­sult­ing” acts in a pub­lic place or any place vis­i­ble to the pub­lic, such as a street, high­way, or beach, can lead to fines of $200 to $1,000 and im­pris­on­ment of up to two months.

Un­der Sec­tion 46 of the Sum­ma­ry Of­fences Act, “ob­scene ex­po­sure of per­son” clas­si­fies an in­di­vid­ual as a “rogue and vagabond.” This has an im­pris­on­ment of up to two months for a first of­fence. Re­peat of­fend­ers can face up to six months or be clas­si­fied as an “in­cor­ri­gi­ble rogue.”

And when it comes to se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy, the law states that if the act is more ex­plic­it and can fall un­der the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act, it has a penal­ty of up to five years’ im­pris­on­ment.

As Sturge cau­tioned cit­i­zens to be­have them­selves, he al­so re­mind­ed them that there are oth­er con­se­quences.

Sturge said, “Keep in mind a box of con­doms is far cheap­er than a box of pam­pers and a box of pam­pers might be the least of your wor­ries be­cause you might have some­thing that might stay with you for life, some­thing de­bil­i­tat­ing.”

Days ago, Arch­bish­op Charles Ja­son Gor­don sound­ed the alarm af­ter mas band Tribe gift­ed their fe­male mas­quer­aders an adult sex toy in their good­ie bags, say­ing the band had “gone too far.”

The mar­ket­ing tac­tic has since re­ceived mixed views, with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar urg­ing mas­quer­aders not to em­bar­rass them­selves by us­ing such de­vices dur­ing the rev­el­ry.

Yes­ter­day, Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments, warn­ing cit­i­zens to be re­spon­si­ble for Car­ni­val.

Ben­jamin said, “I was raised by a rev­erend, my moth­er is a rev­erend pas­tor and every­one has to be re­spon­si­ble for their ac­tions. Giv­en that Tribe would have giv­en that fa­cil­i­ty, that does not mean you have to utilise it… I am the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, I do not par­take in al­co­hol bev­er­ages, and I am out in par­ties every night, so be­cause you have re­ceived some­thing does not mean that you have to use it. We are all re­spon­si­ble adults.”

At­tempts to con­tact Fa­ther Gor­don were fu­tile yes­ter­day.

Al­so con­tact­ed, Fa­ther David Khan al­so urged mas­quer­aders con­duct them­selves prop­er­ly.

“There are cer­tain things that should not be made pub­lic be­cause peo­ple are free to do what they want in their pri­vate lives, in their pri­vate spaces but there are cer­tain things not to, that’s part of pub­lic de­cen­cy. There is a time and place for every­thing,” Fa­ther Khan said.

Guardian Me­dia al­so reached out to Tribe’s man­ag­ing di­rec­tor and co-founder Dean Ackin yes­ter­day but got no re­sponse.

Mean­while, Diego Mar­tin West MP Hans des Vi­gnes be­lieves the use of a sex toy should be a per­son­al choice, crit­i­cis­ing the Gov­ern­ment for be­ing out of touch.

He said, “The fact that the min­is­ter would feel the need to say this fur­ther high­lights how out of touch this Gov­ern­ment is. For years, pro­phy­lac­tics have been in “good­ie bags” and there was no need for things like this to be said. We big and have sense.”

“As MP Im­bert stat­ed, this is a mar­ket­ing ploy by a mas band and yes the church has a role to play in so­ci­ety and up­hold­ing cer­tain prin­ci­ples. How­ev­er, this is a mat­ter of per­son­al choice. Adults are ful­ly ca­pa­ble of de­cid­ing what they ac­cept, what they use, and what they dis­card. We have far more press­ing na­tion­al is­sues de­mand­ing ur­gent at­ten­tion. Let us fo­cus our en­er­gy where it tru­ly be­longs.”