Jamaica wants gays dead (Observer Letter)

Dear Editor,

From all indications, it is clear that the Jamaican Parliament wants gays dead.

Recently, the executive director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe, reminded the world that in Jamaica - a country with anti-sodomy laws - there is a 32 per cent HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM) versus 1.6 per cent in the general population.

While in Cuba, Suriname, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, countries without such legislation, the HIV prevalence in MSM ranges from one to eight per cent.

In the face of such damning evidence, this government, with the full complicity of the Opposition, entrenched the nation's anti-sodomy laws through the 2009 Sexual Offences Act which maintained the ban against private consensual adult male sex.

The short-sighted members of parliament who voted in favour of this shameful piece of legislation failed to realise that while they were busy playing word games about what constitutes private consensual adult sex (none of their business), they were simultaneously trampling on the privacy rights of citizens and sowing the seeds of a public health disaster.

Thanks to the anti-sodomy laws present in 11 Caribbean countries, the region now has the world's second highest HIV prevalence rate after sub-Saharan Africa, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic is now rapidly spreading to the heterosexual community, affecting many women and children.

As the saying goes, when you dig a hole for someone, dig two. With the legendary and celebrated promiscuity of some of our male politicians, I suspect it is only a matter of time before we hear that a few of them have been caught by this trap they set to catch gays.

Maurice Tomlinson

maurice_tomlinson@yahoo.com