homophobia (Photo credit: the|G|™)
It’s an old argument. Jamaica is homophobic. No! goes up the cry. Jamaicans are very tolerant of gays! So which is it? The Oxford Dictionary, by the way, defines homophobia as the fear or hatred of gays. (My emphasis).
In 2004, international human rights group Human Rights Watch put out a report titled Hated to Death: Homophobia, Violence and Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic.
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/jamaica1104.pdf
The report’s summary began thus:
“On June 9, 2004, Brian Williamson, Jamaica’s leading gay rights activist, was murdered in his home, his body mutilated by multiple knife wounds. Within an hour after his body was discovered, a Human Rights Watch researcher witnessed a crowd gathered outside the crime scene. A smiling man called out, “Battyman [homosexual] he get killed!”
Many others celebrated Williamson’s murder, laughing and calling out, “let’s get them one at a time,” “that’s what you get for sin,” “let’s kill all of them.” Some sang “boom bye bye,” a line from a popular Jamaican song about killing and burning gay men.
The report went on:
English: Human Rights Watch logo Русский: Логотип Хьюман Райтс Вотч (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Violent acts against men who have sex with men are commonplace in Jamaica. Verbal and physical violence, ranging from beatings to brutal armed attacks to murder, are widespread. For many, there is no sanctuary from such abuse. Men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women reported being driven from their homes and their towns by neighbors who threatened to kill them if they remained, forcing them to abandon their possessions and leaving many homeless.
The testimony of Vincent G., twenty-two, is typical of the accounts documented by Human Rights Watch: “I don’t live anywhere now. . . . Some guys in the area threatened me. ‘Battyman, you have to leave. If you don’t leave, we’ll kill you.’”
Claims that members of the gay community are either at risk or have been victims of violence are often greeted with derision. The reports are often disbelieved. Activists are accused of lying. After all, the argument goes, we all know gays who live among us and nobody troubles them.
The trouble is, we Jamaicans don’t make it easy for ourselves. The condemnatory statements from human rights bodies are not pulled out of thin air. In 2007, Amnesty International, in condemning violence against gays in Jamaica referenced their statement as follows:
“On Sunday 8 April 2007, a crowd allegedly surrounded a church in Mandeville and hurled different objects through a window at the back of the church. The attacks were directed at persons in attendance of the funeral being held there, who the crowd believed to be homosexual.
On 2 April 2007, another crowd reportedly threw stones and bottles at a group of costumed men who were dancing in the carnival procession along Gloucester Avenue in Montego Bay. According to reports, the crowd was angered because the men were supposedly gyrating in a sexually suggestive manner and demanded that they leave the stage. According to eye-witnesses, the men were attacked, chased and beaten by the mob of around 30 or 40 people. At least one of them had to be hospitalized due to injuries.
These two incidents occurred only two months after a group of men were targeted in a similar manner in a pharmacy in Tropical Plaza, Half-Way Tree, in Kingston. A human rights defender told Amnesty International that a mob of at least 200 people had gathered outside the store, calling for the men to be beaten to death because they were homosexual.”
http://www.amnesty-caribbean.org/de/jm/news/AMR300042007.html
Jamaicans argue that these incidents are isolated. But while the incidents of reported mob violence are not frequent, we need to understand how brutish and vicious we appear when images are broadcast of crowds baying for blood outside a building in which gays are holed up.
Just last week, CVM TV broadcast a story in which community members in Jones Town burst into a private dwelling because the occupants were suspected of being homosexuals. The suspicions allegedly confirmed, the crowd started to beat the men, and police had to rescue the occupants, incurring the wrath of the crowd. One man wanted to know why taxpayers’ money was being used to rescue gays.
I cannot find words to describe how backward this story makes us look. Go and try to convince a sceptic now that we are not homophobic!
So let’s acknowledge that violence against gays is real. We are not as uniformly tolerant as we would have the outside world believe. But neither have the gay activists done their cause any good by overstating the extent of the problem. Gay-on-gay violence is also real.
Recently, the Jamaica Forum for Lesians Allsexuals and Gays (JFLAG) publicly condemned the killing of gay men. In a statement (re-tweeted by Amnesty Caribbean), they said:
“Members of the LGBT community have reported to J-FLAG that eight gay men have been murdered within the last three months bringing to the fore the reality that despite progress towards greater tolerance, the LGBT community continues to be at great risk of violence. Among the most recent attacks against the gay community was the savage killing of two young men.
“The men were apparently brutally murdered with blunt instruments in the vicinity of the intersection of Trafalgar Road and Lady Musgrave Road. Persons who are homeless frequented this area; among them are young gay men who have been made homeless because of the continued intolerance of homosexuality in Jamaica.”
In an interview with me on my radio programme Beyond the Headlines a few days later, JFLAG spokesman Dane Lewis admitted that the organisation had jumped the gun, and that his later information was that the two men in question had been killed by members of the gay community. He said he withdrew that part of the statement and promised a corrected version. I haven’t seen that yet.
So which is it? Are we homophobic or are we tolerant of the gay lifestyle?
I submit that we are both. However, the incidents of violence and public hatred against gays are so embarrassing and so horrifying that nothing else matters. There is no room for any other depiction of our attitudes when the images seared into people’s minds are those of police having to be deployed to protect men from a bloodthirsty crowd. Given those graphic realities, our reputation as an extremely homophobic country will continue to dog us, protest as we might.
So when Prime Minister Simpson Miller courageously declared that sexual orientation would not affect how she chose her Cabinet, and that she would initiate a review of the buggery law, she should understand that outside Jamaica, gay activists saw her statement as a beacon of hope in a country of darkness, or near darkness. That was one of the reasons for her inclusion on that Time 100 List, misrepresented as her position was.
The outside world sees us as homophobic and violent. We don’t see ourselves that way.
As always, the truth lies obscured, somewhere in the middle.
Really don’t know if it’s in the middle Dionne. It’s always been pretty clear to me that the country is homophobic. Saying that one is “tolerant of the gay lifestyle” is homophobic in itself. Tolerant meaning that there is obvious disagreement with others’ orientation
Yes, but tolerant means being able to disagree while accepting the other person’s right to hold that position, tolerance does not signify agreement, and many Jamaicans are tolerant.
Right but we seem to have a rigid interpretation of homophobia. agreeing to disagree and not engaging in violence doesn’t make us much less backward in my view. We have a long way to go. I know many people who’ve never attacked anyone and claim to be tolerant, but our “dem can do what dem want as long as it not in my face” attitude is still not helping our image
Thanks for summing up this crazy, contentious state of affairs. Jamaicans want to eat their cake and have it too it seems. Bun fire on homosexuality at every opportunity yet oh no how dare you call them homophobic?! What’s amazing is that prominent academics are heard vehemently carrying this line. So one can’t even hope that education might help the situation. The last thing needed was a Ghanaian bishop fueling the insanity. Hopefully the zealous international gay activists will now realize that this vicious problem originates in the pulpit and not in the dancehall.
@jadrianwwjadrianww – Being in disagreement with homosexuality doesn’t take away from one’s ability to display an acceptable level of tolerance towards members of the LGBT community. We need to be careful that in the attempt to create a more “tolerant” society we do not infringe on people’s fundamental right to believe what they want to. There is nothing wrong with someone (whether because of religious background or otherwise) being of the belief that homosexuality is wrong. What would be wrong is if that person tries to impose his/her beliefs on others, or use it as reason to discriminate, inflict violence or otherwise negatively affect the lives of people in the gay community.
As to whether the Jamaican society is homophobic or not, only people with their heads in the sand would think it isn’t. There is much discrimination against people who are gay or believed to be gay. There is also much violence against them. We need to remember that not all beatings and other incidents of violence make it to the nightly news. If we want to gain a true understanding of the level of homophobia here then there needs to be open discourse with members of the LGBT community. Without that, our conclusions would be based on nothing but empty assumptions.
An extremely complex problem Dionne which is not budging even with the accommodation embedded in PM PSM’s comment as the highest expression of ‘tolerance’ to date. I for one agree that Jamaicans are indeed tolerant, and simultaneously backward on the issue. I have advocated elsewhere that the country needs a ‘truth and reconciliation’ process for sex and sexuality. Not only is the issue of homosexuality a problem, so too is sex in general.
Dionne, I posit that Jamaicans have become more tolerant of gays and their lifestyle. I remember growing up in the 80′s and travelling all over the island. I was never exposed to the now common PDA that is obvious on the nation’s streets – especially in the capital city of Kingston. I have seen more men holding hands and carrying on in a highly suspicious manner than what I used to see in the 80′s. In fact – I never saw it in the 80′s. It simply means gays feel more comfortable in Jamaica than they did before. They feel more comfortable because they are not being attacked as much in the past. We love “run off we mouth” but not many straight people are going to take it up on themselves and attack a gay man or a gay couple unprovoked. So those mob situations you described? Well, the people were “provoked”. I say this tongue-in-cheek but provocation comes in all forms and we feel provoked if a “bwoy a gwaan the most way” – straight or gay. For heterosexuals in a community which may be in a depressed area – these are proud people and a gay man who flaunts his lifestyle will get a “before him keep himself quiet him a walk & a wine like girl” warning. This is enough to provoke a community.
I am in the streets and know people who know the street level runnings. The majority of killings of gays are carried out by gays. One does not need to do a survey. The manner in which the homicides take place is personal. Mutilation of genitals, multiple stabs, wrapped in sheets, etc… An angry heterosexual does not kill a homosexual with this level of closeness (for want of a better phrase).
So while the reports of killings are true, the country on a whole is more tolerant and increasingly so. I am a heterosexual male. I have no problem with gays as long as them don’t bring it to me or my children. I don’t go around flaunting my heterosexuality though. As much as I love women and happy in their company, I don’t walk around showing off my prowess as some of these gay people seem to do. The gay people dem fi easy dem self!
There is also a dangerous subtext to this which says that a man who sexually abuses a female child is frowned upon, whereas a man who sexually abuses a male child is chopped to pieces by an angry mob. The homophobes ignorantly equate pedophiles & serial child molesters (chomos) with being homosexual, which provides justification for their extreme and toxic bigotry. The intolerance informs both public debate and policy; recall a presentation in parliament some time ago where Hyacinth Bennett debated the meaning of rape and the definition of female. Let’s not even consider transgender issues, that’s way too complex for small minds.
There are still a great many who are intolerant. I look at it simply as… If a Jamaican can claim refugee status in the US or Canada because of their sexual orientation, then the society is homophobic. There are those who would be tolerant behind closed doors but this does not help the mindset in the public sphere. Until Jamaicans publicly strive for tolerance, the society will continue to be viewed as homophobic.
I’ve been lucky to witness homosexuals going about normal lives, unfettered by the potential of being beaten and ridiculed. I’ve been unlucky in witnessing homosexuals avoiding particular areas or having their social lives confined to house parties and small, private booths in tiny bars.
The diagnosis of homophobia comes from the extreme and generally passionate behaviours of Jamaican people. Acts of homophobia come from people who misunderstand that the dynamics of the world are changing/have changed. Some are homophobic and others are not. There is a middle, a balance that only an attentive Jamaican can see.
I’m always fascinated by this idea of what is considered private and public. Informer carries a line so many Jamaicans carry which is that they are tolerant as long as someone does not flaunt their sexuality in their face. but what constitutes flaunting? it doesn’t seem to be that the Jones Town incident demonstrates flaunting since conceivably they were in a house. I submit that “provocation” in this instance is simply that they exist.
I submit also that there is an underlying level of homophobia in the reports of gay on gay killings which I agree Dionne that JFLAG in some instances exaggerates for its cause. I can never recall a man killing his wife being pitched as “look at those violent heterosexuals”.
Violence is after all violence. But somehow there is homosexual and heterosexual violence. Seems to me Annie is right we Jamaicans want to have our cakes and eat it.
Unfortunately very accurate, the only part of this that is hard to believe is that there are Jamaicans who actually believe homophobia isn’t here
How can there be any doubt that Jamaica is a deeply and violently homophobic society? How can we really claim to be a tolerant society? What is true is that Jamaicans always frown on criticisms even in the face of overwhelming evidence. For example, Jamaicans always object to being called one of the most murderous nations in the world yet the statistics tend to support that assertion. Similarly, they object to being called homophobic. However, how many gay men and women can public declare their sexual orientation without dire consequences? How many times do they interview a gay person on television and show their identity? That fact alone, that they always have to remain anonymous or camouflaged, points to the strong homophobia in the society. Then this issue of tolerance is also questionable. Is it right to say that we are tolerant because gay persons keep to themselves and remain circumspect in all their activities and therefore do not “throw it (their homosexuality) in others’ faces?” is that really tolerance? Somebody mentioned that the crowd was provoked because one of the gay persons was perhaps acting too effeminate or was behaving in a manner that was not considered the societal norm. So tolerance, it seems, comes with a prescribed mode of behavior…stay out of sight, stay quiet, act manly and we will allow you to live in peace. Is that tolerance?
Then there is always the assertion that most of the violence among gay persons is gay on gay crime, the so called crimes of passion where it is alleged that it is a love affair gone awry which prompts the aggressor to attack the victim. First of all, where is the evidence to support this? How many of these crimes have been properly investigated and solved? How many persons have been arrested and charged and convicted of these dastardly murders? It seems that once the police ascertain that it was a gay man that was killed and once they see what looks like a sexual link then it is dismissed as a gay on gay crime and then no further investigation is carried out. Undoubtedly, this will fuel further gay on gay crimes or straight on gay crimes because the perpetrators know that not much will come of it. They know that there will be no meaningful investigation and the cased will be summarily dismissed on the premise that it’s just one gay man killing another. Let them kill each other is the subliminal (and sometimes explicitly stated) message.
Jamaica is homophobic!
Look at it both ways. Where is the evidence to disprove that some of these could very well have been gay on gay crimes? Can it not be that a gay person can kill another. No? So people are wrong to even assume that this might be possible? In other words, every time a gay person is found dead, it must be at the hand of the brutish, intolerant heterosexual? Surely, this isn’t balanced thinking.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!
I do not think we are homophobic. Much of the violence towards homosexuals is done by other homosexuals. Many well known homosexuals have risen to prominence in society: think captains of industry and academia. One of the biggest folk heroes in Jamaica is Shebada. I agree that there has been a lot of verbal posturing against gays in the recent past in dance hall lyrics, and it is still considered taboo to come out openly as gay, as it is in may parts of the world, including many communities in the great USA. This does not make Jamaica “homophobic”.
good summing up of this ongoing issue.Everyone has the right to life and should be free to express themselves
The problem with words like ‘homophobic’ and ‘tolerant’ is that both are best used to describe absolute states. Clearly in a society as complex as Jamaica, using either of those words will lead to unnecessarily extended debates about how truthful the label is.
That said, I do think as an absolute that Jamaica has come a long way relative to, say, my childhood. Therefore, I think its fair to to assess us collectively as being *more* tolerant relative to the 80′s. Back then if a man wore an ear ring, this was conclusive evidence in the court of public opinion that he was DEFINITELY gay.
If we can accept that is is a journey and that we are in fact making progress towards greater equality and tolerance then it makes it easier to have meaningful conversations. The challenge is: accepting this fact doesn’t aid the cause of either side.
It doesn’t help the J-Flags of our society who are best served by the propaganda that Jamaica is a totally hostile place where most gays are killed by heterosexual Jamaicans OR that some of those who are killed may have been killed for reasons outside of their sexuality. After-all, it is this extreme message that best captures the attention of the international community. Notice they have *forgotten* to publish that the killing in New Kingston recently may have been committed within the gay community?
On the other hand, accepting the fact of an increased tolerance certainly doesn’t help the actual homophobes among us either. I suspect that they are having a hard time accepting that nowadays most Jamaicans actually don’t really care that much. That moment when you realise that you have moved from the majority to a merely vocal minority is a helluva hit to the ego.
We are homophobic, just not collectively and certainly not as much as we used to be.
thanks for this
This was well balanced
Of course we are a homophobic society. All you have to do is listen to any talk show if the subject is homosexuality. We also like to deny what is patently obvious about ourselves and our society…
My undestanding of the word “phobia” is to have a fear. Jamaicans aren’t fearful of gays and lesbians. (What in our records show gays being a threat to society or individuals?) I think to say that Jamaicans are homophobic is the euphemism of the millenium. I think those people who leave their homes and all the other things that they have going on in their lives to go and break down a man’s door to see who he is having sex with, that’s not “Homophobia” that’s careless, illiterate, nosy and just plain stupid. Jamaicans aren’t Homophobic, we are just backward and uneducated. For the record, I am not gay, but my eyes are opened to accept every human being as their own choice makers.
The Oxford dictionary defines homophobia as a “fear or hatred of homosexuals” so with respect, many Jamaicans are indeed, by that definition, homophobic.
Without doing any research on this debate, I’m positing that there are several issues at play. First generally we are uncomfortable with our sexuality as well as “the other,” not to mention our violent streak. But the matter of how violently homophobic we are has been overstated by the gay community and by extension groups such as Amnesty International. Fact is most killings of gay people are done by their lovers or people within the gay community, including the ones that are frequently cited. I do agree with you though that images of a crowd surrounding a house with gay people calling for blood “is not a good look.” How we treat with groups or individuals considered different, ie the other and our penchant for solving every issue with violence are issues which urgently need a fix, but no we are not as homophobic as is being portrayed.
I do not understand this argument that the measure of homophobia is only to be found in body counts. Many Caribbean countries are obviously homophobic without managing to slot murder victims into the columns “gay people”, “straight people”. What about bullying? What about community and home evictions? What about mob chasings and beatings? What about the fact that an ex law enforcement officer would even think to go out on a limb to say that people should check their gender expression so as not to inspire violence in others? Oh please!
Excellent point!
I totally disagree with the last comment. If Jamaica is not homophobic, then why do gays in Jamaica have to change their identities frequently and are afraid to show their faces on television? I have personally witnessed a gang of men armed with machetes etc leave their building site to go and beat up some gay men who had just been evicted from a house and were out on the street. The men were rescued just in time, but the men vented their rage by smashing up all their belongings that were on the sidewalk. So maybe you need to see it for yourself to believe it? Please also give me proof of the old argument that gays are “mostly” killed by their lovers. It is certainly not a “fact.” Besides which, such an argument does NOT prove that Jamaicans are not homophobic. That’s illogical. But as someone commented above, Jamaica is in denial about a lot of things – this is just another of them. We are a sick society.
But Dionne, this is a good summing up. The question is, where does Jamaica go from here? Keep its blinkers on?
Thanks – where do we go? Well, it will be interesting to see how if at all, Parliament’s review of the buggery law advances the debate. No I don’t expect the law to be repealed, but dare I hope we can get an intelligent debate going?
A very healthy discussion indeed which I’d love to see replicated via a more accessible medium. TVJ perhaps? Perhaps a week when radio and television are bith dedicated to debating this topic in Jamaica? Are we ready for ‘truth and reconciliation’ about sex and sexuality as a nation? – is the real question. One off debates won’t do it. There is need for sustained action and a visible process. I’m ready.
What is meant by ” ‘truth and reconciliation’ about sex and sexuality”, please?
it is evident to the blind that jamaica is a very VERY homophobic society and that the blatant lie that gays are killed by gays is nothing more than as i stated a LIE. how can one make a statement filled with such ignorance and lack of facts. if one can make a foolish statement that gays are killing gays due to jealousy are we to then say that every time a woman is found dead we jump up and say oh yes she was obviously killed by another woman because of jealousy.. does that sound plausible?? no it does not because it is untrue and illogical that just because someone is gay that means that they are just more jealous than everybody else and that they cannot contain their jealousy, rage and passion so the just vent by murdering each other so all the men will be left to them…. i have witnessed the great degree of venom and bile launched at gay jamaican males evn by the police, i have seen it clear as day and exposed by the sun, they didn’t even have the shame to do it secluded oh no they attacked the poor young man due to his sexuality and when police were contacted to escort the young man, the police themselves walked at a distance from the boy hoping they would resume beating him and when they did not due to fear of being locked up the police said they were foolish for not attacking him after they were given an opening…. jamaicans need to look within themselves and truly self search because if all the virtiol is based on religion (i dont buy that for a second) then what about the other things the bible speaks about like fornication and adultry, which are detrimentally rampant in society or that the country is plagued by pedophilia, why aren’t we speaking about these dons who force families to send their young daughters to have sex with grown men why are we not talking about that. why are we not talking about the fact that the government and a wide populous of jamaica hailed a known murderer and drug lord and defended him when he was to be extradited?
We did talk about the don and his undertakings. The country indeed spent a great deal of time talking about this. In fact, we discuss all the things you’ve stated. But why do we end up talking about any thing that has to do with homosexuality so long, and so frequently, especially in more recent years?? Because the gay advocates have made it the agenda.
Surely, they know that without talks, no changes can come. They have made it an issue of high importance. If you can recall, it was them who even asked to be heard within the first 100 days of the PNP’s stint as government. I would imagine that maybe there would have been more pressing matters of national importance on the prime minister’s hand, but who cares? They want to be heard now.
For the record, the debate on the buggery law could have been held within the first 100 days though, there was nothing more important being done, Parliament was doing absolutely nothing and was ending at 3 o clock. And we actually don’t talk about homosexuality any more than we talk about politics, crime, and many other issues, it has become one issue of many in society that we talk about. because like it or not, it IS an issue. The thing is, people notice those discussions in a way they don’t pay attention to others.
Laws against homosexual activities in Jamaica have led to harassment, discrimination, vigilante justice and high levels of HIV infection in the homosexual community, according to a report from the University of the West Indies Faculty of Law in Barbados.
For reasons of love, respect, and compassion this law against buggery should be ended even for the sake of only one innocent person who won’t get infected.
Without abandoning church doctrines opposed to homosexuality.
Let’s push the message of ‘test and treat’ rather than stigma and discrimination.
Let God judge sin not the police.
you know what? change will never shine light on the darkness clouding the “religious” phenomenon that is Jamaica. people are too concerned with using the bible and religion as a shield for their bigotry and hatred towards gay men in particular. its so sad when a nation can be united on a position so backwards that it is socially acceptable for someone to attack a man because he is gay, or force him to leave his home due to the perception of him being gay. i think the real problem ppl have is that they feel threatened by two men’s expression of love because they feel it diminishes their own masculinity. i dont even know what to say anymore, because change will never happen and Jamaican people will never listen, they only see and hear what they want to. can you imagine a child growing up in a country where he/she is afraid to be who they are? afraid to speak of who they are because the majority finds it wrong? a country where a prime minister who is put in office to lead every citizen without bias or favor, openly declare that homosexuals cannot serve in his cabinet? that by virtue of them being gay they are of no worth to their country’s political contribution. how can we sit comfortably and quote scriptures? are we that cruel? where a mother’s son can be killed because he was gay and she says she feels no remorse because he was gay and deserved it? wow i just don’t know, its sad….. and for the record, just because sheebadah is feminine does not mean he is gay, and if you people have not realized he is portraying a character.
Thanks for taking the time to comment so passionately. I need to say though that it would NOT be correct to say the nation is united
“on a position so backwards that it is socially acceptable for someone to attack a man because he is gay, or force him to leave his home due to the perception of him being gay.” That is not true at all. Many people, passionately opposed to homosexuality sincerely decry any form of violence against gays.
I just broke off my relationship with my Jamaican boyfriend because of his severe homophobia and bigotry against gays and catholics. I am catholic. We just could not overcome the issue. Mainly, because although you may not agree with my views and beliefs, you WILL respect them. After many arguments and badgering throughout the relationship, I finally threw in the towel. Main Reason being: Any bigotry of any kind in any form will goes against everything I stand for. (I am Puerto Rican)