US church demands protection for homosexuals in Jamaica Friday, 15 February 2008 Leaders of the US-based Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) led a demonstration in Miami on Thursday to protest a series of reported anti-gay murders and gay-bashing incidents in Jamaica.

The church also sponsored protests at consulates in New York, Toronto and Philadelphia.

A contingent of religious leaders from the MCC's Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale met with Jamaican Consulate General Richard Allicock and three top staff members for more than an hour in the consulate's office in downtown Miami.

Church leaders said they were not going to stop their protests until gays and lesbians are protected in Jamaica.

They also declared they were "on the verge" of calling for a global boycott of the island.

The church also made several demands including that the Jamaican Government launch an educational campaign to decry anti-gay violence in Jamaica, and that the Jamaican police begin sensitivity training regarding the gay and lesbian community.

The Valentine's Day demonstrations were organised as a response to a reported attack on three gay men in Mandeville on January 29.

Local media reports were that the men were allegedly surrounded by a mob which demanded they leave their home because they were known to be gay.

Several men also reportedly stormed the house and attacked the inhabitants with machetes.

Two of the men were critically injured and one man is reportedly still missing following the incident.

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