Why Jamaicans are homophobic (Observer Letter)

Dear Editor,

I note that the recent International Reggae Conference at UWI, Mona, saw it fit to address the issue of homophobia and its impact on Jamaica's music industry. I recently conducted a very unscientific survey which sought to answer why Jamaicans are homophobic. Say what you want about Jamaicans, we are not hypocrites. We tell it like it is. Therefore, while most of the responses were hyper-critical of the gay lifestyle, they nevertheless confirmed to me that we support decency, fairness and tolerance. We also have an overwhelming (if not always demonstrated) concern for our young.

Therefore, unlike the president of the Islamic Council of Jamaica, Mustafa Muhammed, I was not surprised to find that none of the respondents advocated death for gays, not even the fundamentalist Christians, who felt Jamaica's acceptance of homosexuality would unleash the wrath of God on a magnitude of the recent Haitian disaster. This belief echoes Roman Emperor Justinian over 2000 years ago who blamed earthquakes on the practice of homosexuality. Some beliefs are hard to shake, it appears. Most survey respondents based their contempt of the gay lifestyle on what they perceived to be the (unsubstantiated) threat of its negative impact on our nation's youth. In sum, normalising the gay lifestyle would hurt children, even though there is no evidence of this from other countries which have decriminalised buggery. Meanwhile, the private sex act of consenting adult males, though universally condemned as unnatural, was nonetheless felt to be nobody's business.

The message from this unscientific survey appears to be that Jamaicans view private same-sex intimacy as no longer an issue for legal regulation, and politicians therefore stand to lose very few votes for supporting the decriminalisation of buggery.

Maurice Tomlinson

maurice_tomlinson@yahoo.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/Jamai_7455533