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Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
In flowery billboards and endearing television ads, the Jamaicans look so incredibly friendly. On the website www.jamaicans.com, the slogan is "home away from home." In another ad campaign, the residents plead with benign smiles, "Come Back to Jamaica." But it turns out that Jamaica is not home if you're a homo, and you might come back from Jamaica in a body bag. For whatever reason, the locals have gone loco and gay bashing has replaced Jamaican bobsledding as the national sport.
An article in last week's Time Magazine calls Jamaica the "most homophobic place on earth." It points out that recently two of the island's leading gay rights advocates, Brian Williamson and Steve Harvey, had been ruthlessly slain. If that was not enough, a crowd essentially danced on Williamson's grave by celebrating over his mutilated body.
In 2004, a father learned his son was gay and went to his school to invite a group of peers to lynch his son. Now that's family values!
Not too long after this sickening episode, witnesses claim police egged on a mob that stabbed and stoned a gay man to death in Montego Bay. Earlier this year, a Kingston man, Nokia Cowan, drowned after a crowd shouting "batty boy" (a Jamaican slur for queer) chased him off a dock.
"Jamaica is the worst any of us has ever seen," Rebecca Schleifer of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch explained to Time.
Despite this record, Americans continue to subsidize this slaughter by boarding ships destined for Jamaica to cruise and booze. This is unconscionable and you can bet there would be a much greater uproar if this abuse were happening to any other minority.
Sadly, Jamaica's curious anti-gay fixation is spreading to other parts of the Caribbean. In St. Maarten, two producers for CBS News were gay bashed by thugs weilding tire irons. The attack occured outside the nightclub Bamboo Bernie's, where Richard Jefferson, 51, and Ryan Smith, 25, were first harrassesed for being gay earlier in the evening by the assailants. The victims were airlifted for medical treatment to Miami. Jefferson, who has been released, said Smith was being treated for brain damage.
Additionally, Jefferson told the Associated Press that local authorities had not spoken to witnesses the night of the crime, nor had they pursued leads. Instead of St. Maarten's CSI, the police were MIA.
"The people who harmed us are well-known punks," Jefferson told reporters last week, according to the AP. "People in the community know who these guys are. They are not talking to the police. The entire island is watching something bad happening."
Two men were finally arrested this week, (one was already released) but their cowardly actions seemed to win the approval of a local newspaper, Today, that derisively referred to gay people as "faggots" and "homos." According to the unfathomable April 11, editorial:
"During and after World War II, it was considered common sport for military guys to let themselves be picked up by a faggot in a bar in Los Angeles or San Francisco. The one who was picked up would pretend to go along for the ride, only to turn around and beat up or rob the homo who picked him up, leaving him without wallet and sometimes teeth.
"All that has changed, of course, largely due to American laws that are being spread around the world. Gay bashing is now a no-no. Slurs against homos, a no-no. And beating a person over the head for flagrant public behavior that once was considered criminal misconduct is a no-no."
In a comparatively minor, but no less telling cultural barometer, the Bahamas banned Brokeback Mountain. It seems Nassau must decide if it is an island chain open to the world or a palm tree-lined prison where its pristine waters are merely a mote to drown tolerance and diversity.
Unlike other homophobic hotbeds in the Middle East, our community can exercise considerable leverage over these human rights abusers. While few Americans are going to spend a holiday in Jeddah or Tehran, we are frequently visiting the Caribbean. Many of our allies would gladly vacation elsewhere if they were aware that their gay friends and family members were being brutally attacked.
It is time for Americans to reassess their relationship with islands such as Jamaica, St. Maarten and the Bahamas. Either they welcome all of us, or none of us. But these "paradises" can no longer be playgrounds for heterosexuals and hunting grounds for homosexuals.
Here is a message that Jamaica might understand: "Aloha, Mon, friend of batty boy going to Hawaii."
18 Comments:
I went to the Caribbean a couple of times many years a go when it was friendlier to gays. However, just last year, my partner went to Jamaica. He had a great time, but I'm not certain that he was aware of Jamaican homophobia at the time. I frankly have no intention of setting foot in Jamaica, nor in countries like Saudia Arabia. Give me Scandinavia any day!
posted by Anonymous, at
4/22/2006 7:14 AM
Rasta Man dont apologise to no batty bwoy.
http://www.freemuse.org/sw8022.asp
posted by Anonymous, at
4/27/2006 7:40 AM
More sensationalist reporting than anything else. The report would make one want to think that its hunting season on gays - but that's not true.
The incidences are true - but not the norm. Ask any recent visitor to Jamaica if this was the impression they laft with....
posted by Anonymous, at
4/28/2006 5:15 PM
Wayne,
Your work is so incredibly important. I learn something every time I read your column and the quality of your research (you do your homework!) helps me to see through the smoke and mirrors of those who are not really exhibiting the integrity they pretend (like Mary Cheney) or being intellectually dishonest and spiritually abusive (anti-gay conservative Christian organizations - that's almost universally redundant, I know, though there are exceptions).
Wayne - this is what *I* need your thoughts one- what I'd like you to write about - for me, and for our movement - the passivity of our movement (some of which is clearly because of the homophobia/ heterosexism and real risks of getting involved, some of which is because of the diversity of people in our movement who don't all agree on the same issues or see the same stakes in them, some of which is due to ignorance about our history as well as not knowing what we can do to make a difference, some of which is due to laziness or apathy, and some of which is due to other reasons I've not listed here.
Wayne, help us think more clearly about our movement for social justice. What can activists, for example, do to make it more likely that more of us (glbt folks and allies) will get involved in the struggle for social justice? What will inspire people who are lazy or apathetic (but who are "out") do to their part? What do you think our national GLBT organizations can do to be *more* effective? What can we do on a local level that that will be more effective?
Thank you for the weekly insight and inspiration, Wayne. You work has truly infused my own activism and you are literally saving lives with your work. I hope you know this profoundly.
Jamaican people are just EXTREMELY HATEFUL. Their religion is evil that is why they are so hateful. I was hated on and they tried to destroy me completely after I married and brought one of their indigent men to the greatest country in the world. PURE EVIL. I will never go back. That places gives me nightmares 10 years later. I have been trying to get Oprah and Dr. Phil to do a program on the subject but I guess the tourist industry won't let them touch it.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/15/2006 2:57 AM
Black Americans are being conned into marriages that should be classified as hate crimes. Instead of showing us outright hositility they are conning us to marry them to get to U.S. and before their feet hit the ground good they start abusing us mentally and physically. They steal every cent they can from us to send to their people and are destroying MANY lives. The department of immigration does nothing about it when you let them know the marriage you made is a fraud. They won't even let you annul it and you have to go through a full divorce. They abandon their children by american women because they weren't born in Jamaica. The people are uncivilized hatemongers. I have written a book about it called, "A Marriage made in Hell." It should be out in the Fall and will be sold at www.publishamerica.com. I want to get it into as many hands as possible. People need to be warned.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/18/2006 11:49 PM
THE BELOW ARTICLE EXPLAINS WHY LAURYN HILL AND SO MANY OTHER AMERICANS WHO GET INVOLVED WITH VOODOO PRACTITIONERS END UP WITH SEVERE MENTAL AND NERVOUS PROBLEMS. In the United States, certain Afro-Caribbean and Latin American traditions, including Santeria, Palo, voodoo, and Espiritismo, incorporate the use of elemental mercury in folk medicine and religious practice. Mercury is sold in most botanicas—stores specializing in herbal remedies and religious items used in these traditions (1,2). Its use in small, enclosed spaces and the long residence time of elemental mercury create the potential for very high direct exposures to individuals.
Use of elemental mercury in certain cultural and religious practices can cause high exposures to mercury vapor. Uses include sprinkling mercury on the floor of a home or car, burning it in a candle, and mixing it with perfume. The most common method of use reported by botanica personnel was to carry mercury on the person in a sealed pouch (49%) or in a pocket (32%) as an amulet; sprinkling mercury in the home was mentioned by 29%.
Metallic mercury is available at almost all of the 15 botanicas visited in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but botanica personnel often deny having mercury for sale when approached by outsiders to these religious and cultural traditions. Actions by public health authorities have driven the mercury trade underground in some locations. Interviews indicate that mercury users are aware that mercury is hazardous.
Impacts. As a result of these practices, living spaces may become contaminated with mercury. Removal of elemental mercury from floorboards and carpets is difficult, if not completely impractical (17). These mercury practices can be a direct source of contamination not only in the users, but also in their families, people living in adjacent apartments, and any future residents of the premises.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/26/2006 1:59 PM
As one of Brian Williamson's nieces, I am offended by the comment that Jamaicans are "hateful". They certainly are not - as a group, most Jamaicans I know are tolerant, warm, and welcoming people. There is a problem with homophobia in Jamaica: no one knows that more than Brian's family and friends, who lost him so violently. But it is unfair, and untrue, to say that Jamaicans are more hateful than any other people. Unfortunately, hate is alive and well all over the world.
(Exactly which religion practiced in Jamaica is deemed to be evil? To the best of my knowledge, all Jamaicans do not practice the same religion...)
posted by Anonymous, at
12/12/2006 12:18 AM
These people are violent by nature and always have been throughout history. Just look at most parts of Africa: Rwanda, Somalia, all the people killing each other there. For that matter, look at inner city LA, Detroit, or New Orleans before Katrina. Savage is as savage does. I wonder if there are resorts off limits to these types, where Americans and Europeans can enjoy the pristine scenery without contact with the natives.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/23/2007 2:02 AM
Apparently you did little or no research when writing this piece, you bias has tainted the entire story. I am Jamaican and I have nothing against gays provided that you not all up in my face with it. Likewise i’m sure that gays wouldn’t want me constantly shouting that i’m a heterosexual. I kindly request that in the future u do more research.
posted by Anonymous, at
4/12/2007 5:39 AM
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