Jamaican Gays Flee to Save Their Lives (Flashback)

Homophobia runs so deep in Jamaican society that asylum can be the only chance of survival. Every one of David's scars tells a terrifying story. There is the one where his throat was slashed by a mob that chased him through the streets of downtown...

Every one of David's scars tells a terrifying story. There is the one where his throat was slashed by a mob that chased him through the streets of downtown Kingston, the incident in which his arm was broken in two places, the horrific ordeal during which his right hand was almost severed at the wrist by a blow from a machete. Then there are the marks on his feet where he was beaten with sticks, the eardrum perforated by a blow from a baton and the emotional scars of the time he was forced to run into the sea close to Norman Manley airport and swim against the tide for four exhausting hours to escape certain death. All the attacks occurred for the same reason - David is gay. Last week, it was revealed that David, 26, had been granted asylum in the UK on the basis that homophobia in Jamaica is so severe it represents a serious threat to his personal safety.

The fate of gays reveals a deep strain of homophobia in Jamaican society. In Jamaica, homosexual intercourse is a crime. Buggery is punishable by 10 years imprisonment with hard labour, and any two men caught in a compromising position - the definition of which is left up to individual police officers and in the past has involved nothing more than holding hands - can be charged with gross indecency and sent to prison. More than 30 gay men have been murdered in Jamaica in the past five years. Last year, one was shot dead as he sought refuge in a churchyard. A few weeks later, a group of university students were almost beaten to death. The issue of gay rights is one to which few Jamaicans have any sympathy. Homophobia is all but sanctioned by society - often at the highest levels.

The slang phrases 'batty boy' or 'chi chi man' are in common usage. Antoinette Haughton, one of the country's most influential radio talkshow hosts recently attacked gay culture, telling her listeners: 'They want to corrupt our children and tell them it's OK to live immoral and nasty lives.' Last year Jamaica's head of state sanctioned the exclusion of gays from the Boy Scouts: 'These are not the type of persons we wish to be part of the Scout movement,' he said. Jamaican music often celebrates the beating and killing of gays. In the early 90s, Buju Banton scored with 'Boom Bye Bye', which included the lyric: 'Batty boy get up and run ah gunshot in ah head man'. More recently the band TOK topped the charts with 'Chi Chi Man' - in which the chorus advocates burning gay men. For many Jamaican men, an allegation of homosexuality is the ultimate slur. Such claims were made against heads of both political parties during the recent election campaign.

In 1997, when prison authorities attempted to distribute condoms to inmates at Kingston's main prison, it led to riots in which 16 allegedly gay men were murdered and 40 more injured. Jamaica's Prime Minister, PJ Patterson, vowed last year that he would make no changes to anti-homosexual legislation, despite the fact that the law is in breach of human rights regulations. Speaking from his central Kingston home, Fitzroy, a 28-year-old musician, explains the harsh realities of life as a gay man in Jamaica. 'It's terrible. I can't have peace and freedom like everyone else. If I walk down the road, all I hear is "batty man, him hafi dead, shoot him, slit him". 'I can't find work - I had to leave my last job when my boss found out - and I can't find a home. It doesn't matter how much you try to hide it. If you are seen in certain places or with certain people, you get branded as gay.

Once the torment starts, it never stops. 'I was going downtown with two friends. Suddenly I saw a group of men coming towards us with big sticks. We ran to the police station and told them what was happening. But then the policeman took up a big stick and ran us out of the station. When we got to the steps, the mob was waiting for us. So we had the policeman behind us with his stick and the men in front of us with sticks. Luckily a cab with some girls we knew went past. We ran to it and managed to get away. If that had not happened, the three of us would have been dead that night.' David's experiences are equally terrifying. 'I was walking one night down a road where a lot of gay men go cruising. I was attacked by two men and stabbed. The knife went right through my back and came out my stomach.

Two taxi drivers refused to take me to hospital. They told me: "You are a faggot, you cannot come with us or people will think we are gay too." I had to walk a mile to hospital, bleeding all the way. When I got there I had to lie and say I had been robbed otherwise I would not have got any treatment.' On another occasion David was arrested and charged with buggery. At the door to a holding cell with 15 other prisoners, the policeman said: 'There you go batty boy' and pushed him inside. Within seconds David had been beaten senseless, losing hearing in one ear. 'It is hell being gay in Jamaica.'

Published: 10/20/2002

Guardian Unlimited