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Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jamaicans face a high degree of societal opposition, violence, and legal sanctions. Sex between men is illegal and punishable with up to ten years jail.
Some international voices, including the European Parliament, have spoken against what they see as Jamaican homophobia. On April 12, 2006, Time magazine (online) ran an article about Jamaica titled "The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?"The Most Homophobic Place on Earth? Crimes against gays are mounting in Jamaica and across the Caribbean By Tim Padgett. Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Social leaders in Jamaica accuse international groups of meddling in domestic affairs. They defend laws against homosexuality as upholding Christian values. One commentator argued that committing a crime in private should not be tolerated, whether a person is using cocaine or having gay sex.
Human rights groups
According to a survey on sexual orientation and human rights in the Americas published in December 2003, "In the Caribbean, Jamaica is by far the most dangerous place for sexual minorities, with frequent and often fatal attacks against gay men fostered by a popular culture that idolizes reggae and dancehall singers whose lyrics call for burning and killing gay men. Draconian laws against sexual activity between members of the same sex continue to be in force not only in Jamaica, but in most of the English-speaking Caribbean."World Policy Institute, Sexual Orientation and Human Rights in the Americas, Andrew Reding (Senior Fellow, World Policy Institute; Director, Project for Global Democracy and Human Rights). December 2003. Report online. According to Amnesty International, “the gay and lesbian community in Jamaica face extreme prejudice,” and “gay people in Jamaica, or those suspected of being gay, are routinely victims of ill-treatment and harassment by the police, and occasionally of torture.”Amnesty International, Jamaica: Killings and violence by police: How many more victims? (London: Amnesty International, April 2001), AI Index: AMR 38/003/2001, 40.
Criminal Code
Jamaican criminal code prohibits sex between men, as is the case in much of the English-speaking Caribbean. Article 76 of the Offences Against the Person Act prohibits “the abominable crime of buggery” (anal sex), with penalties ranging up to ten years in jail with mandatory hard labor. Article 77 provides for penalties of up to seven years in jail for attempted buggery.
Article 79 forbids “any act of gross indecency” between men, whether in public or in private, with penalties of up to two years in jail with or without hard labor. “Gross indecency” is not defined, but has been interpreted to include male homosexual conduct between consenting adults in private, or even for simply holding hands.Offenses Against the Person Act, 1864, revised 1969, Articles 76, 77, 79
J-FLAG, “Know Your Rights,” online
Political parties
Neither one of the two major political parties in Jamaica have expressed any official support for gay rights. The ruling Peoples National Party views international criticism of its human rights record as meddling, and either claims that homophobia is not a serious problem or that gay rights violate the conservative social values of the Jamaican people.
The Jamaican Labour Party has likewise avoided the issue, although in 2004, the former Jamaican Attorney General and Justice Minister, Dr Oswald Hardider, stated that he felt that Jamaica law should follow the advice of the Wolfden Committee in Britain and decriminalize homosexuality and prostitution when it occurred between consenting adults in private. None of the other minor political parties have endorsed gay rights.
In April 2006, the Sunday Herald ran a front page headline "No homos!" in which opposition leader Bruce Golding vowed that "homosexuals would find no solace in any cabinet formed by him".Sunday Herald, Jamaica, April 8, 2006: No Homos! Opposition to gays in the cabinet. The statement was supported by several clergymen and a trade union leader. During the 2001 elections Golding's party used as its theme song Chi Chi Man by T.O.K.,The Guardian, Troubled Island, by Gary Younge, Thursday April 27, 2006 which celebrates the burning and killing of gay men.Lyrics online.
Violence against homosexuals
According to Human Rights Watch (2004), "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." In addition, "police actively support homophobic violence, fail to investigate complaints of abuse, and arrest and detain men based on their alleged homosexual conduct."Human Rights Watch, Hated to Death: Homophobia, Violence, and Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic, November 2004. Report online. In one gay-hate murder, "several witnesses * that police participated in the abuse that ultimately led to his mob killing, first beating the man with batons and then urging others to beat him because he was homosexual."Ibid.
Amnesty International agrees: "Gay men and lesbian women have been beaten, cut, burned, raped and shot on account of their sexuality";Amnesty International media release: Battybwoys affi dead ("Faggots have to die"): Action against Homophobia in Jamaica, 17 May 04. and gays and lesbians constitute one of the "most marginalized and persecuted communities in Jamaica".Amnesty International, 10 June 2004. (AMR 38/010/2004). Press Release. Jamaica: Amnesty International Mourns Loss of Leading Human Rights Defender. Amnesty give an example of a recent incident reported in a national newspaper, where a father encouraged a mob to beat up his son, who he suspected was gay, while he looked on smiling. No charges were laid.
While police do not compile statistics on attacks against homosexuals,"Rights-Jamaica: Gays Living in Fear.", by Dionne Jackson Miller. Inter Press Service, 16 June 2004., J-FLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, report that they know of 30 gay men who have been murdered in Jamaica between 1997 and 2004.The Guardian, If You’re Gay in Jamaica, You’re Dead, by Diane Taylor, August 2, 2004. Article online
The violence has prompted hundreds of LGBT Jamaicans to seek asylum in nations such as Great Britain, Canada and the United States,Thompson, Tony, “Jamaican gays flee to save their lives: Homophobia runs so deep in society that asylum can be the only chance of survival,” The Jamaica Observer, 20 October 2002, 25.
See also: and several have been successful.BBC news, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3653140.stm Growing up gay in Jamaica, Wednesday, 15 September, 2004. In 2005, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Jamaica to repeal their sodomy laws and to actively combat widespread homophobia.Amendment 25: Human rights in the world and the EU's policy. "Paragraph 79 calls on the Government of Jamaica to take effective action to stop the extra-judicial killing of people by security forces; also calls on the Government of Jamaica to repeal sections 76, 77 and 79 of the Offences Against the Person Act, which criminalise sex between consenting adult men and are used as justification for unacceptable harassment, notably against HIV/AIDS educators; asks the Government of Jamaica to actively fight widespread homophobia." Report online.
Recent reported incidents of violence include:
- In January 2006, Nokia Cowan, a young Jamaican man, plunged to his death off a pier in Kingston after reportedly being chased through the streets by a mob yelling homophobic epithets.356gay.com, Anti-Gay Violence Claims Another Life In Jamaica, by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff, January 4, 2006.
- In April 2006, students at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies rioted as police attempted to protect a man who had been chased across the campus because another student had claimed the man had propositioned him in a bathroom. The mob demanded that the man be turned over to them. It only dispersed when riot police were called in and one officer fired a shot in the air. If the claim of a sexual advance is substantiated, the chased man could face charges.Jamaica Gleaner, Alleged homosexual attacked at UWI, by Andrew Wildes. Wednesday, April 5, 2006. Article online.
See also: 365gay.com, Jamaican Students Riot, Try To Kill Gay Student, by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff, January 4, 2006.
Political activism
The only LGBT rights organization in Jamaica is the Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG). The organization was created in 1998, and operates underground and anonymously. In June 2004 the founder and public face of J-FLAG and Jamaica's leading gay-rights activist, Brian Williamson, was stabbed to death in his home. Police ruled that the murder was the result of a robbery, but J-FLAG believes his murder was a hate crime.BBC news, Jamaican gay activist murdered, Thursday, 10 June, 2004. Human Rights Watch researcher Rebecca Schleifer had a meeting with Williamson that day, and arrived at his home not long after his body had been discovered:
Human Rights Watch also reports that police helped a suspect evade identification, and consistently refused to consider the possibility of a homophobic motive for the killing, with the senior officer responsible for the investigation claiming “most of the violence against homosexuals is internal. We never have cases of gay men being beaten up heterosexuals.”Letter Urging Jamaican Government to Protect Rights Defenders and Address Violence and Abuse Based on Sexual Orientation and HIV Status, November 30, 2004. Human Rights Watch
A friend of Williamson's, Lenford "Steve" Harvey, who was openly gay and ran Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, was shot to death on the eve of World AIDS Day the following year. Gunmen reportedly burst into his home and demanded money, demanding to know "Are you battymen?" "I think his silence, his refusal to answer that question sealed it," said Yvonne McCalla Sobers, the head of Families Against State Terrorism. "Then they opened his laptop and saw a photograph of him with his partner in some kind of embrace that showed they were together. So they took him out and killed him."Ibid. Four people have been charged with the killing.
Public attitudes toward LGBT people
In 2004, Human Rights Watch issued a report on the status of LGBT people in Jamaica. The report documented widespread homophobia and argued that the high level of intolerance was harming public efforts to combat violence and the AIDS-HIV pandemic. The Caribbean has by far the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the Americas, with heterosexual contact the predominant route of HIV transmission.http://www.avert.org/caribbean.htm
A recent poll showed that 96% of Jamaicans were opposed to any move that would seek to legalise homosexual relations.Reported in Amnesty International media release: Battybwoys affi dead ("Faggots have to die"): Action against Homophobia in Jamaica, 17 May 04.
Also reported in: The Guardian 26 June 2004. Gary Younge. "Chilling Call to Murder as Music Attacks Gays." Many Jamaicans are devoutly Christian and claim that their anti-gay stance is based on religious grounds.Wockner, Rex, “Bishops denounce gay sex,” International News #400, 24 December 2001 In February 2006, a coalition of church leaders and members of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship declared their opposition to the privacy provisions of a proposed Charter of Rights that would form the basis of an amended Jamaican Constitution. Chief among the concerns was that homosexuality could be made legal, although the Justice Minister AJ Nicholson and the Leader of the Opposition Bruce Golding have denied this; both oppose legalizing homosexuality.RadioJamaica.com, Wed Feb 15, 2006. [http://www.radiojamaica.com/news/story.php?category=2&story=23074 Homosexuality won’t be legalised, says Justice Minister
Local LGBT-rights group J-FLAG acknowledges that anti-LGBT sentiment is influenced by certain passages from the Bible, but counters that "the appropriation by legislatures of the Christian condemnation of homosexuals is a purely arbitrary process, guided largely by individual biases and collective prejudices. In the case of adultery, of which much more mention is made in Biblical text, Jamaica has no law pertaining to its condemnation or prosecution. The same applies to the act of fornication."J-FLAG, “Parliamentary Submission: The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) with regard To ‘An Act to Amend the Constitution of Jamaica to Provide for a Charter of Rights and for Connected Matters’,” 2001. Submission online. 22 June 2006. Moreover, adultery and fornication are praised as signs of male virility in the lyrics of popular songs, particularly in Jamaican Dancehall.
Portrayal of LGBT people in popular music
Jamaican reggae and dancehall singers, such as Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Vybz Kartel, Elephant Man, Sizzla, Capleton, T.O.K. and Shabba Ranks, write and perform songs that advocate attacking or killing gays and lesbians. Buju Banton, one of Jamaica's most popular singers, wrote the hit song "Boom Bye Bye" threatens gay men with a "gunshot in ah head", and suggests pouring acid over them and setting them on fire. Banton and two other men were charged in September 2005 in relation to an attack on six gay men in Kingston in 2004. Police alleged that he was one of about a dozen armed men who forced their way into a house and beat up the occupants while shouting homophobic insults. Banton was reportedly identified by several witnesses, but he was not arrested until 15 months after the warrant was issued, and was acquitted in January 2006. There are reports that the investigation and prosecution were poorly conducted.http://www.petertatchell.net/international/bujubanton.htmOne of Beenie Man's songs contains the lyrics: "I'm a dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays."http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/09/092705reggae.htm Lyrics from Sizzla’s songs include: “Shot batty boy, my big gun boom” (Shoot queers, my big gun goes boom).http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/08/083005reggae.htm "A Nuh Fi Wi Fault" by Elephant Man boasts: "Battyman fi dead!/Please mark we word/Gimme tha tech-nine/Shoot dem like bird".http://www.365gay.com/NewsContent/091703tatchellRap.htm
Shabba Ranks's reputation was badly damaged by his explicitly homophobic views and lyrics. This was evidenced by a notorious incident on the Channel 4 programme 'The Word' where he appeared to advocate the crucifixion of homosexuals. This view was also aired, for example, on his track "No Mama Man", where the following lyrics can be heard: "If Jamaica would a legalize gun / to kill battyboy would be the greatest fun".
An international campaign against homophobia by reggae singers has been launched by Outrage!, UK-based gay human rights group.http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/09/092705reggae.htm, the UK-based Stop Murder Music Coalition (SMM) and others. An agreement to stop anti-gay lyrics during live performances and not to produce any new anti-gay material or re-release offending songs was reached in February 2005 between dancehall record labels and organizations opposed to anti-gay murder lyrics.http://www.fradical.com/Homophobia_bad_sexism_good1.htm
The Canadian High Commission in Jamaica is also requiring performers who wish to tour in Canada to sign an Entertainer Declaration that states that they have read and fully understand excerpts from the Canadian Criminal Code, Charter of Rights and Human Rights Act and "will not engage in or advocate hatred against persons because of their… sexual orientation."Ibid.
References
External links
- J-FLAG - The Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays
- TIME.com: The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?
- Gay in JA - BBC radio documentary (RealPlayer format).
- 2004 Jamaica update from UNHCR.
- collection of news reports from local and international media, 1999-2002
"LGBT rights in Jamaica"