The Tabloid mess continues …… Gay men scared says Observer Chat

The Jamaica Observer Chat an imprint of the mainstream Jamaica Observer paper sold on weekends with no online support at this time (scanned logoed above) has joined the sensationalism on gay issues in earnest these days not that they haven’t published stuff like this before but I am concerned about the detailed inside information they seem to have been able to gain on this particular occasion. This is worrying, are there gays who are playing a dual role in helping to what amounts to stigmatization of us, the GLBTQ community and promoting self hate? After all why should a funeral service of a gay man and its attendees become front page gossip?

By the letter of it there seems to have been knowledge of the Funeral service and the first person account is worrying, this is not the first time we have seen what amounts to reporters infiltrating private gay events such as parties and then reporting on them in detail.

The headline read …. Gay Men Scared … Friends death from AIDS leaves many fretting at funeral.

It’s just beyond me that a newspaper seeks to reinforce the old stereotype that HIV/AIDS is intrinsically a gay disease and they found it necessary to report even of the presence of a reputable HIV/AIDS organization at the service, I guess they don’t care about the safety of the staff there who have to brave all kinds of stuff to engage our marginalized community they are no different from the trashy Xnews or previous Enquirer publications. Efforts to contact a member of the management team of said organization at the time of this post were futile as calls went to voicemail.

The Story published on December 18, 2009 went on to suggest that the deceased a 22 year old gay man died of AIDS (so much for proper description of the cause of death as persons don’t die from AIDS directly they die from associated complications) and that his friends didn’t know he was positive and are now fearing their own demise because of his refusal to disclose.

Other stereotypes reinforced are the “bleached skin” phenomenon that pervades our society where it is believed men who lighten their skin tone are gay. (soooo wrong) The author seemed preoccupied with the effeminacy of the men and their metro sexual activities such as facial powdering and mode of dress.

The captioned cartoon also is of concern to me as I am not aware of any homophobic incidents in Frazer’s Content recently. The Images suggest that a man asked another man for sex and was beaten by residents in the area. My efforts to find information on any possible case in that area were fruitless as either JFLAG or others in and near the area were not aware of any such case. Investigations continue. Is this mischief on the Chat’s part?
Anyone having any information on any case in this area and can help, please do. We need to counter these subtle suggestions and innuendo sometimes and not let them just slip and stay.

Tabloids and even the major newspapers are guilty of pushing this hard-line biased homophobic sensationalist rhetoric to sell papers playing on the public’s sentiments from time to time, whenever the semblance of tolerance or fairness seems to be reached or when any steady news on JFLAG reaches mainstream media then watch out for a hit from left field that turns up to maintain the negative momentum. As indicated above the Observer Chat and as Xnews have no website support so stories like this appear in hard copy (print) format only for now. The Xnews website has been off and on these days and hardly publish the recent articles on gay issues there, is this deliberate on their part? Who knows?

Watch, be vigilant speak up too.

Peace and tolerance
H