Lesbians seek marriage rights (Flashback)

Bev and her lover, Michelle (not their real names) pose for The Gleaner yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

A LESBIAN couple in Kingston is seeking to formalise their relationship, hoping to give each partner the rights and privileges usually offered to spouses or long term partners in heterosexual relationships.

However, Bert Samuels, an attorney-at-law says that any legal arrangements made by these women may not be recognised under law because homosexuality is illegal in Jamaica. Bert is so wrong on this as it is buggery that is illegal and any other sex act leaning towards the lesser charge of gross indecency in public. Bert should have said that the definition of marriage is deeply entrenched in our constitution and cannot be amended so easily.

Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, the two women, who will be called Michelleand Beverley, said they have been going through all the steps taken by persons making a deep commitment to each other.

The couple, who have been together for two and a half years, is currently looking at wedding rings and said they will be having a formal ceremony -with an ordained minister, but not in a church, to mark their commitment to each other in April.

LEGAL ARRANGEMENTS

They are in the process of making legal arrangements to deem the partners equal share in joint bank accounts, a home they are buying together and in a car and appliance and furniture they have bought.

In addition, they are seeking to have each partner given status similar to that of a husband and wife so that they can care for each other should they be in hospital or in other serious circumstances.

"I don't want that if anything should happen to me, that my relatives will come and take everything and she will be left out in the cold," explained Beverley.

"We have heard of incidents with other gay couples where something happen to one of them and there was nothing in writing and the family come and take everything and they are left out. I think that's sad. I want to ensure that she's secure and I am secure," added Michelle, who assumes the "male" role in the relationship. But Mr. Samuels said local courts would not honour legal arrangements, which make reference to the two women being a couple. "The law recognises only a man and a woman as a couple. You can't enforce a contract which supports an illegality," he said. In addition, there are no spousal rights given to lesbian couples in Jamaica so for example, a hospital cannot be forced to recognise a lesbian partner as a spouse or long term partner.

"The law would recognise an arrangement between the women only if they entered into a partnership agreement where they decide on property splits, similar to that of a business relationship. They cannot make direct reference to their romantic partnership," Mr. Samuels added.

Samuels is right in the last part but the suggestion I would offer is for example for land then have the tenancy as joint tenants if their love is sure in their eyes or at least tenants in common as if there is a split there the sharing is better in terms of a will. Joint tenancy however it is the survivor that gets the assets even if the deceased had a will; that will will not apply.

Peace & tolerance

H

Who Knows it Feels it

Larry Chang

The chorus of response from church, state and constabulary to accusations of state-facilitated violence and abuse of Jamaican GLBTs has been “give us proof.” I am particularly disappointed in the Information Minister’s response to the HRW (Human Rights Watch) report (accusing the Jamaican government of systematic abuse of gay people in Jamaica and how it links to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic). Burchell Whiteman taught me to appreciate the metaphysics of Wordsworth and Blake at York Castle High School; but if anything is “unacceptably insensitive” (Whiteman’s dismissive response to the report), it is his lack of intellectual curiosity. If he is ignorant of systematic homophobic abuse or, worse, if he does have some inkling, his lack of compassion for the oppression and suffering of the GLBT community is appalling. I am also let down by the Tourism Minister and her demand for proof that Jamaica’s gay men are being slaughtered.

Aloun Wood used to tramp through the hills of rural St. Andrew evangelizing as Catholic Charismatics with her close friend, Brian Williamson, who later helped found J-FLAG and was murdered last summer. If she can no longer include him in the ambit of her Christian char-ity, the least she could do is acknowledge his victimization. Have those years of fellowship meant nothing?

But Whiteman is right to the extent that “it is the people who must set our agenda in respect of the legislation which we pass or the repeal of any existing laws.” Why should the government heed any bleeding-heart foreigners who wish to impose their standards on us? Leave aside for a moment that the laws in question are of colonial origin. While majority rule prevails in a democracy, invariably there are minority rights which need to be protected from the tyranny of that majority. The government’s own technocrats and Select Parliamentary Committee have so recommended. Even some Opposition members are beginning to make supportive noises.

But there has been no voice heard from the oppressed. We are the people too, capable of contributing to that agenda. Maybe we have been cowed into submission, silenced by fear. We have no spokesperson, instead hoping for and depending on well-meaning foreigners to speak out for us in the tradition of Wilberforce and the Abolition Society. No Nanny or Sam Sharpe insight.

Those capable of articulating our cause are dead, have fled or are lapping their tails in the safety of their closets. In their daily struggle for survival, the “downtown sports,” wielders of the ice pick and brok balk [Jamaican patois for “broken bottle”], misdirect their anger at each other instead of at the society which persecutes them for loving inappropriately. No champions there. But I shouldn’t talk; I ran. Whiteman is technically right, if abhorrently wrong. The wheel is not squeaking, so there’s nothing to fix. While they may have been working in the background, J-FLAG has been conspicuously silent. The apparent overseas initiative has not been lost on the commentators who rush to paint the EC, Peter Tatchell and OutRage!, and now HRW, in imperialist and racist colours. How would they know about expatriate Jamaicans’ involvement? We cry interference and imposition of foreign culture but puff up ourselves about leading the charge against apartheid and injustice in Haiti and elsewhere, setting examples for benighted nations to follow. When it suits us, it’s “One Love, One World,” but not when the finger points at us. Then we play the race card or the sovereignty card.

But sovereignty does not mean much when the country is in hock to the hilt and expected earnings from tourism and entertainment are based on the oppression and exclusion of sexual minorities. Brand Jamaica has a defect, and soon no one will buy. An Observer editorial grudgingly admits “a high degree of homophobia in Jamaica, which may, at times, lead to violence against homosexual men” but tries to mitigate the severity by claiming that reports are exaggerated and contextualizing it against the overall high crime rate. This perspective does not lessen the injustice, the outright denial of basic human rights, the untold physical and psychological torture that many Jamaican gays undergo. Life is hard for many Jamaicans, but it becomes for GLBT citizens unnecessarily so with government complicity. Instead of paying heed to the message, the authorities have berated the messenger for coming from abroad to interfere. Inspector Ionie Ramsay has been the only one to say she’ll look into the complaints. In my estimation, the HRW report is balanced, fair and objective, echoing my own experience and confirming reports I have received. 

It points the way forward for Jamaica to join the ranks of civilized nations with tolerant, open societies. The alternative is to degenerate further into a narrow fundamentalism hostile to difference and diversity where deejay values, vigilante justice and community enforcers ensure conformity. In this climate, the prospect of GLBT citizens’ being accorded basic human rights and the fundamental liberties enshrined in the Jamaican Constitution seems a long way off. Before we can even get there, it seems we have to deal with the monsters of nervous nationalism, religious bigotry and heterosexist insecurity.

That’s not going to happen anytime soon.

In the meanwhile, we’ll do what we’ve always done: dissemble and survive. like the good descendants of slaves that we are. We’ll continue to be the preferably hidden, unspoken part of Jamaican life, not protesting or raising our voices but playing our not-inconsiderable role in government, business, academia, the church, the arts, services and professions.

Too bad for those who are visible by being transgender; living in the wrong place or having the temerity to stand up and be counted.

POLICE THWARTS MOB ATTACK ON GAY COUPLE

A gay couple living in a rural district just outside of Port Maria, St. Mary missed a fatal end by the skin of their teeth. On Sunday

March 6, the two heard a disturbing uproar outside their quaint home and upon peering through a window, they saw what most gay men in Jamaica dread most. There was a contingent of about 10 men heavily armed with cutlasses, sticks, rock stones and other weapons. The mob had apparently come to beat and run them out of the community because they were homosexuals.

D. Waite, a 32-year-old man and one of the victims, said that the group of men were shouting out his name, calling him a ‘battybwoy’ and saying that they were going to beat the hell out of his and his ‘battyman fren raas’ that morning.

According to Waite, the sight of the men with their weapons was a frightening ordeal for himself and his partner, 35- year-old N. Fisher. Waite called the police using his cellular telephone and two jeep-loads of police arrived just in time to prevent any physical harm to both men, who remained inside their home. By this, there was a massive crowd of onlookers in the small community, since a scandal of this magnitude would have alerted anyone in the vicinity. Waite told The JO that several men were saying “ah battyman dem; dem fi dead” (they are gay men; they should be killed) even in the presence of the police. The police was able to successfully disperse the crowd and thwart the plot of the mobsters to harm another two gay men in Jamaica.

However, at the end of the ordeal, the police apprehended no one. Checks with the Port Maria police station, the station that dealt with the incident according to the victim, further proved that no arrests were actually carried out by said station. The victims decided not to pursue the issue for fears of retaliation from other men in and around the area. Waite further expressed concern for his elderly mother who still resides in the area. 

Both Waite and Fisher have since relocated from the district, leaving most of their possessions in the place they once called their home. Waite further expressed his disappointment that even after reporting the matter to a local organisation that normally assists gay men, no one has since contacted him to see if he and his partner were safe. He, however, said he was grateful that the police had come in time to save both his life and that of his partner. He said the officers were very helpful in preventing any harm to them but was disappointed that they failed to apprehend any of the perpetrators. Word coming from his former district indicates that the men are still adamant about finding them to physically harm them.

Waite finally said that he was very worried for his and his partner’s safety especially since they have to leave their current place of safety to earn their living.

Jamaica's Queer Obsession Is it all that's holding the country together?

Drag diva and community influential kept from mob in Half Way Tree at Monarch Pharmacy, Gareth was still inside as cops kept the crowd at bay

now to the original article by Kelly Cogswell 

Google the words "gay" or "homosexual" at the daily national Jamaica Observer and you'll find articles like "Help! my man is bi-sexual" or "Emergency! My girlfriend/wife is a lesbian." Letters to the editor regularly claim in graphic, overwrought terms that homosexuals are destroying Jamaica. Even when the concerns of LGBT people are reported, activists are often lampooned.

The relentlessly hostile media reinforces the homophobia on the street, where queers face everything from taunts to machetes. Several gay men and transgender people die each year in Jamaica at the hands of mobs that beat, stone, and stab them. Lesbians face verbal harassment and rape, and sometimes death. And those are just the known cases.

Even more potent is the gay-hating trend in Jamaican popular music, a central element of the island's culture. The musicians Elephant Man, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, TOK, and Capleton have variously encouraged their audiences to shoot, burn, rape, stone and drown lesbians and gay men. In a huge January 2004 concert in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, almost every single song denounced gay men.

Roots of Hate
Some of the biggest foreign critics of Jamaica's homophobic dancehall music have come from Britain, the former colonial power in Jamaica, and home to a large community of Jamaicans and their descendants. Demonstrations have been held in London, musicians successfully boycotted, and recording contracts cancelled.

In January, Britain's The Guardian published a story by Decca Aitkenhead in which she chastised the British left for the outcry against Jamaica's violent homophobia, and, erasing the support of Jamaican activists for the protests, declared the British should keep their mouths shut. It was all their fault, from the colonial-era sodomy law, to poverty and the emasculating legacy of slavery. Debt relief, fair trade, and investment would take care of it.

She also brushed aside the role of fundamentalist religions, both Christian and non-Western, which play a huge role in the homophobic violence and is another essential component of Jamaican culture. The macho, homophobic, fundamentalist Rastafarian sect Bobo Dread, known by critics as the Jamaican Taliban, is a direct influence on Rastafarian musicians like Capleton, who sings, "Blood out ah chi chi/ Bun out ah sissy." Kill the fags, burn the sissies. He has reportedly been part of anti-gay mobs. Fellow Rastafarian singer Buju Banton allegedly took part in a gay-bashing last June.

Christians are equally bloody. In April 2000, an attack actually occurred inside a Baptist church hall in Kingston. A mob accused a man of being gay, cornered him in the hall, then shot him several times while he begged for his life; his boyfriend had to flee the neighborhood. Christian preachers are the first to fill the letters to the editor sections with exhortations against LGBT people as the demonic architects of Jamaica's downfall.

British colonialism is old news and Jamaica's elite is off the hook when you can blame queers for the country's corruption, police brutality, crime, and violence.

Homophobic Nationalism
That is the crux of the problem: that the homophobia which suffuses the music, religion, society and government has combined into a peculiar nationalism, rallying around queers as the source of all of Jamaica's problems. For people that believe this, gay-bashing has become a kind of patriotism, an act in defense of the nation, and an integral part of the Jamaican identity. Like anti-Semitism for Hitler's Germans, this pathological hatred of queers is the tie that binds.

Last year I saw it at work uniting some Jamaican immigrants in New York City. Nurses from the island were attending a gay, African American friend of mine as he lay dying in a nursing home here. All he heard were endless terrifying exhortations about queers and how God wanted them to be killed -- by fire or the machete or whatever. It was the first time in thirty years the tough Bronx Viet Nam vet stayed in the closet. The bloodthirsty, proto-Christian rants seemed to affirm the nurses' cultural identity. Twenty-four seven it was hellfire and death to queers. He was afraid and humiliated on his deathbed.

The state in Jamaica is a pillar of this homophobic nationalism. Cops instigate the violence themselves, ignore it, or cover it up. The government laughs at the mobs and refuses to discipline the cops, overturn the British-era sodomy law, or even consider the idea that homophobia is compounding the growing problem of AIDS in Jamaica.

Risking Action
In this context, taking action can be both dangerous and demoralizing. In February, I spoke with Gareth, a young gay activist on a US tour sponsored by Amnesty International. He is only twenty-seven, but already a seven year veteran of J-FLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays.

I wondered how he managed to keep working so long. One of J-FLAG's members was murdered last June. The police investigation was a mockery. Gareth himself was physically abused by a police officer in 2002, and has witnessed a gay-bashing so bad that the victim later died. The more visible J-FLAG is, the more threats they all receive, both in the press, and in letters and emails.

Gareth told me that he was able to remain an activist because the members all stuck together and supported each other with phone calls and visits, and tried to make educational meetings fun.

When the damning Human Rights Watch report, "Hated to Death: Homophobia, Violence, and Jamaica's HIV/AIDS Epidemic," was distributed last November, unleashing a tremendous backlash on the island, they just kept reminding each other that it was all part of the process. "You just have to work through it and let it go," he said, his eyes downcast.

Finding Support
With such a virulent, pervasive strain of homophobia in Jamaica, Gareth is lucky that he has his grandmother on his side. She doesn't accept his homosexuality -- when she discovered him as a kid messing around with another guy she beat the crap out of him -- but she doesn't let his male cousins or brothers say anything at all against him, much less touch him. Thankfully, they are all afraid of her.

Male family members often rely on violence to enforce gender roles and sexual identities, even when people try their best to stay in the closet. In one documented account last February, a father encouraged a group of students to attack his own son after he went through the boy's backpack and discovered a picture of a nude man.

Gareth's aunt knows, too, though they never talk about it. The only person he's really out to is his sister. She learned by accident. Once, when she was staying with him in Kingston, some of his friends assumed she knew he was gay and talked openly around her. She was shocked at first, then accepting. She sometimes goes with him to gay parties and isn't afraid to dance with girls. She even vets his boyfriends. "It's wonderful to have her know," he told me.

The Jamaican closet is more confining than most. Gareth lamented how hard it was even for gay men to get to know each other. Meeting in public is risky. The internet has its own problems. Homophobes sometimes use chat rooms to lure gay men into real world places where they can be assaulted. No one can date normally. It's like being in a war zone.

Why Bother?
I knew it was a mistake when I asked Gareth about how homophobia fit into the overall picture of poverty, police corruption, and the breakdown of law, along with Jamaica's fundamentalist religions and violent culture. He looked like he wanted to throw up. Even thinking about how it all conspired against queers was an overwhelming challenge for an embattled activist.

Gareth told me he and the other at J-FLAG kept their eyes on a more modest prize. "Our priority right now is processing stories of abuse, and working closely with other groups to provide safe spaces. We are also working to get attention. We appreciate support from anyone." They offer hotlines and educational meetings, and are also working to repeal the sodomy law.

One big accomplishment was a regional meeting they had last December in Kingston for activists working on queer issues, human rights, and HIV/AIDS. Nineteen activists came from all over the Caribbean and J-FLAG gave workshops on how to build advocacy organizations. J-FLAG is the oldest queer rights group in the area and they have a wealth of experience to share. That means a lot in a place where existence itself is a victory.

Amnesty International Rally, Friday, April 15, 2005, 3 - 4 p.m. at the Jamaican Consulate in New York City (47th St. and 3rd Ave.) to protest homophobic violence and call on the government to abolish the sodomy statute.

GAY IN KINGSTON’S INNER CITIES

Jason Simmonds

The now-notorious lifestyle of the inner cities of Kingston came to fame in the early ’60s when reggae music found a new niche market. By the end of the 1980s, the sounds of reggae soon gave way to a more vibrant genre called dancehall, which was to transform the perceptions and lifestyle of many who inhabit some of Kingston’s seemingly borderless ghetto areas. The gay youth in the ghetto became a prime target for dancehall lyrics and social ostracism. This is the story of one “ghetto yute” who also happens to be gay. At first glance, the look of despair and chronic fear on John’s (not his real name) face seems to tell the whole story.

Dressed in slacks, he settles down to take me on a journey into his world: his life in the ghetto. At his current age, John has lived all his life in a south-side ghetto community of Kingston. The vivid images of dilapidated houses made of zinc without proper roofing are nothing if not consistent in his mind. After completing his secondary-school education, John was able to hold only temporary odd jobs to make ends meet. His choices were limited to the welding skills he had gained while in secondary school.

This, however, was not enough to provide him with the opportunity to leave the ghetto. It was not enough to afford him the standard of living that would take him from the hardship he endures within the heart of the dancehall culture. According to John, after his brothers found out about his sexual orientation, they did everything they could to make him feel isolated. His mother disowned him, saying she didn’t want a battyman son (a son who is gay).

John confided that he always knew he was gay. He felt strong attraction to people of the same gender. For him, the experience was frightening. He was petrified that he was “one a dem too” (a homosexual as well). He related his experiences of seeing guys in his community beat up other men who are perceived to be gay. The violent treatment and persistent attacks against other gay men that he witnessed led him to suppress his own sexuality and inherently took on the heavy-hat persona (behave as though he was attracted to women and not men). Not wishing to have a baby-mother or even a girlfriend,he was soon labeled within his community as a funny man.

Though he said he was never harmed physically by anyone in his community, he suffered internally as a result of the perceptions attributed to gay men within the ghetto communities. A sense of inferiority took charge of his own outlook on life, making him

feel that he was a misrepresentation of what masculinity should be as dictated by the donmanship presence in the ghettos. For most of his early 20s, John said that he felt devastated as a human being and that thoughts of committing suicide often crept into his head. Salvation for John came in the form of interaction with other members of Jamaica’s GLBT community. After meeting other gay people, he realized he was not alone. He found comfort among other gay people and felt he was able to live his life in acceptance of he is. A happy ending, right?

Not exactly.

Since his coming around to full self-acceptance, John has experienced several setbacks in his personal life. One major factor has been the inability to hold a stable job. He sadly states that he has lost several jobs because co-workers suspected he was gay. His most recent experience of discrimination in the workplace involved a job that he described as a very good job. This translated into the ability for him to rent a place to live that was located in a more uptown community, where he would not have been subjected to a potentially harmful environment. He was employed by a company, which is located in Kingston, as a sideman on a truck. His sexual orientation became an issue for some coworkers, and inevitably, the bashing began.

This, of course, is usually possible since it is almost a “cultural” tendency for co-workers to be overtly curious about the sexual orientation of co-workers. And with this came many verbal assaults from fellow male workers. He was also violently attacked by a male co-worker who hit him with a bottle without provocation. Co-workers even tried to set up accidents to hurt him. The cranes that were used for the job became a hazard for him.

Following many complaints to the manager, John felt he was getting nowhere. Unable to resist the overwhelming pressures in that workplace, he decided it was best for him to walk away from the job for his own safety. Since then, John has managed to secure a janitorial job that does not pay as much but offers the opportunity to make ends meet. At his current workplace, John said he has to maintain a hyper-heterosexual male image.

He does this by making a habit of complimenting the female staff members, trying to touch their breasts or even going as far as asking them for sexual intercourse. For him, life has been a winding road from one level of destitution to another. He further spoke of an incident in which his nose was broken during a brutal attack in New Kingston by three men. Even though the police came to his aid and transported him to Kingston Public Hospital, on the nway, the uniformed lawmen addressed him as “faggot” and “battybwoy”’, seemingly supporting the attacks.

To further add insult to injury, the perpetrators were never caught. When asked for his views on the current gay debate in Jamaica, he pointed out that hypocrisy is the biggest problem in Jamaica: from men who bash gay people while they themselves are having sexual relations with men. He also articulated that Jamaica’s GLBT community is very divided and that this lack of unity is to the detriment of the community as a collective body.

For the next generation of gay ghetto youths, he hopes there will be more support available to prevent them from falling into the paths that feed the current cycle of self-destruction and hopelessness. For now, though, John continues to live from day to day, still clinging to his dreams of leaving the ghetto, where his constant fear of being attacked has become a permanent condition. His message to the Jamaican gay community: Stop tearing up one another. 

Unite and help one another