LGBT Rights in Jamaica - Public Attitudes Toward LGBT People

Public Attitudes Toward LGBT People

In late July 2008, a poll was conducted amongst various Jamaicans that read "Whether or not you agree with their "lifestyle," do you think homosexuals are entitled to the same basic rights and privileges as other people in Jamaica?" Of the respondents, only 26% said "yes," with 70% saying "no" and 4% undecided.

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.

A recent poll showed that 96% of Jamaicans were opposed to any move that would seek to legalise homosexual relations. Many Jamaicans are devoutly Christian and claim that their anti-gay stance is based on religious grounds. 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 decriminalizing buggery which although not a gay specific crime, is most often used against gay men.

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.

There are some homohpobic attitudes in the Rastafari movement, according to a Rasta elder:

The real reason why the average 'Jah D' in Jamaica has this extreme, rational aversion to male homosexuality is not... because of 'fear of the other', it is not because of Biblical injunction; it is not because of its supposed 'un-Africanness' nor the fact that Jamaica is nominally a 'Christian country'. It is simply that he cannot condone the abandonment of the clean 'nip and tuck' of normal heterosexual relations for the unhygienic foray amid waste matter, unfriendly bacteria and toxic germs... 'Jah D' cannot see how it can be considered normal to forgo the natural, preordained creative union of male and female; to disdain the mix of complimentary fluids whether premarital, marital or extramarital and willingly embrace a process which leads to rooting amongst waste which anal penetration necessarily involves.

However this intolerant attitude cannot be seen as representative of the entire Rastafarian movement; a number of prominent Rastafarians have spoken out in favour of gay rights including the Reggae artist Mista Mahaj P who released an album called Tolerance which addressed several gay rights issues.

In Jamaica the focus remains heavily on homosexuality as representing anal intercourse, above virtually all other aspects associated with gay culture in society. Linked to this is Jamaica's pre-eminence as a country with male-dominant social values. Consequently, adultery and fornication are praised as signs of male virility in the lyrics of popular songs, particularly in Jamaican Dancehall. Homosexuality (i.e. buggery) in this context is seen as a potential affront to the male 'ideal'.

The Western perception of Jamaica as a carefree “island” society is in sharp contrast with its widespread social conservatism and high incidence of violence. There is a strong Christian attitude in Jamaica that condemns homosexual acts as abominations. Heightened masculinity is also seen as an important, definitive aspect of being a man. An accusation of homosexuality is seen as the worst insult someone could give a man. Anthropologist Kingsley Stewart of the University of the West Indies said, “Homophobia influences almost every aspect of life. It has even come to shape the everyday language of ghetto youth”. Masculinity in Jamaica is defined in opposition of homosexuality. This is similar to the narrative offered by Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks, where the author asserts that blackness can only be understood in its comparison to whiteness. Traditional masculinity in Jamaica is defined as the antithesis of homosexuality. It is impossible to understand masculinity outside of its guarded relationship to homosexuality. This heightens the seriousness to which an accusation of homosexuality affects a man’s reputation and the drastic measures he will go to avoid being indicted.

Prevailing understandings of homosexuality limit public discussions to recycled misinformation and prejudices, which make it difficult for LGBT Jamaicans to come to terms with their sexualities. The organization Gay Jamaicans United, which seeks to provide a web-resource for LGBTQ Jamaicans who have questions about sexuality and gender identity, was launched in April 2010.