Insensitive parents & Displaced MSM

Many Jamaican adolescent gay men are the victims of displacement and or ostracism by family members and others when they are found to be gay. A most recent case that came to my attention is that of a 23 year old male who frequents his family home and stops in to supervise his other siblings. According to him in a recent conversation his mother demanded he leave the home as she told him she found out about his lifestyle after years of rumours and suspicions of his orientation. She told him that she doesn't intend to share even utensils with him thus he cannot stay in the home.

Suprisingly his father is much more understanding in this case as usually fathers are much more angered by their son's homosexual lifestyle. The difficulty with stories like this one is that many of the displaced males are usually in their teens and who find themselves in difficult situations to eek out an existence for themselves, they are taken advantage of by other gay men who prey on their weakened positions and often use them for sexual favours.

It is an admission that many in the GLBT community don't really want to discuss directly and sad to say there are very little social intervention strategies that can capture these young men and women who fall through the cracks. Lesbians tend to fear off better as there support systems are usually emotionally connected and they tend to be nurturing thus outcomes yield more positive results. Another reason also could be that lesbianism is tolerated much more than male homosexuality so the girls can "survive".

Other accounts speak of parents checking emails of teens while they may have left the computer, browsing text messages of cell phones without the victims knowledge, scrutinizing phone calls and listening in on conversations. There was an incident several years ago where a father allegedly handed his gay son to students at his school to be beaten but was rescued by compassionate ancillary staff who took several blows to shield him and called for police intervention.

Jamaica Observer article 19/02/04: Father encourages students to maul 'gay' son

"According to students and teachers at the school, the boy's father apparently found pictures of nude men in the boy's school bag.
Infuriated, he turned up at the school yesterday with the pictures and encouraged the mob to turn on his son. As students began to maul his son, the man is reported to have driven away."

In notoriously homophobic Jamaica gay men can hardly expect protection even from their parents - as was made very clear yesterday.
A father, concerned that his son might be gay, turned up at the Dunoon Park Technical High School in east Kingston and apparently encouraged other students to beat the boy, an eleventh grader.

"Them bruck up desk and bench and beat him up badly," one Dunoon student told the Observer. "Him get nuff lick, box, kick and thump from boy and girl."
The boy's name was withheld by school officials and the extent of his injuries was not immediately known. But whatever they were, it would have been worse were it not for the intervention of ancillary staff.
According to students and teachers at the school, the boy's father apparently found pictures of nude men in the boy's school bag.

Infuriated, he turned up at the school yesterday with the pictures and encouraged the mob to turn on his son. As students began to maul his son, the man is reported to have driven away.
In the frenzy, students hurled stones at police who were called to the school to restore order, in the process damaging police cars and motorbikes. The police eventually were able to rescue the youngster from the other students, most of whom wore uniforms, and whisked him off the campus.
According to a teacher at the school, people from outside the school joined in the fracas.

"They were intent on killing him," this teacher said. "They were like a pack of wild animals who had smelled blood and if it wasn't for a staff member who jumped on top of him, you would be reporting on a mob killing."
The teacher described the behaviour of the student's father as "careless".
"A me save him," an ancillary staff member told the Observer. "Me have to jump on him and shield him cause them was going to kill him. Me get a whole heap of licks, but me push him in the office and lock him in."
School authorities were forced to call the Elletson Road police to escort the boy off the compound when the angry mob became uncontrollable.

But the cops were also attacked, leaving some with minor injuries. After calm was restored, at least a dozen Dunoon students were taken to the Elletson Road police station where they were given a stern warning by officers from the station's Criminal Investigation Bureau before being released.
"We went to the school to calm down a situation and protect the students and they turn around and fling stones on us," an Elletson Road police office complained. "What has the society come to?"
The parent who has been accused of ordering the students to maul his son, reportedly drove away from the school as soon as the fracas started.

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I don't know where to begin as to how to address this issue, why cant we just be tolerant and try to understand the issue of homosexuality before cursing it?

Peace and tolerance

H