Kingston, Jamaica. Tues. Aug. 17, 2021– A group of Jamaican protesters are demanding that the US Embassy remove an LGBTQ flag that it hoisted this month on its premises in Kingston, Jamaica. The group is claiming that the flag violates many articles in the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and is a form of cultural imperialism.

Section 3 of Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations states, “The premises of the mission must not be used in any manner incompatible with the functions of the mission as laid down in the present Convention or by other rules of general international law or by any special agreements in force between the sending and the receiving State.”

According to the protesters, the raising of the LGBTQ flag in Jamaica, where homosexual acts are still outlawed, is an imposition of the United States’ culture, values, and norms on the native Jamaican culture.

The protesters have made a number of efforts to contact the US Consulate, but those efforts were futile, as the flag remained raised throughout Jamaica’s week of Independence/Emancipation celebrations in the first week of August.

A letter to the editor in the Jamaican Gleaner states, in reference to the US Embassy’s hoisting of the LGBTQ flag, “It is an insult to our laws, sovereignty, culture, and flaunts diplomatic protocols. It is hypocritical, being that they have not raised such flags in Muslim countries where they also have embassies.”