The referred article is in orange:
THE EDITOR, Sir:
This letter is in response to Jaevion Nelson's article 'Jamaica not as homophobic as portrayed' (Gleaner, July 3, 2014).
Two senior journalists - Gary Spaulding of The Gleaner and Karyl Walker of the Jamaica Observer - made some salient points at the press conference which was held last month by the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition about the portrayal of Jamaica as a rabidly homophobic place.
We supposedly come from and live in "the most homophobic place on earth". However, while there are scales to measure the people's negative attitudes towards non-heterosexuals, there is no real or accepted way - as far as I know - to determine if or how homophobic a country is.
What makes a country the most homophobic? Is it the murder of LGBT people (in one of the most murderous countries worldwide)? The impunity perpetrators enjoy (which is not uncommon to any one incident)? Is it the number of LGBT people who have had to seek refuge abroad? Is it the stories they tell (this is really what Karyl was getting at)? Is it the existence of an antiquated legislation that peers into the bedroom of consenting adults or the strident activism of an anti-gay movement that seeks to limit the rights and dignity of LGBT Jamaicans?
Unfortunately, what many people know about Jamaica is violence and that is often limited to homophobia. In 2012, I met a young man in York, England, who was terminally ill and had not been out of his house much in the last few years. He felt empowered to apprise me of how, in Jamaica, there is nothing but machete-wielding mobs lynching gay men. I tried desperately to convince him that there is another reality - not for everyone - but I was seemingly inept at doing so. Apparently, I didn't know what I was talking about. I've met so many others like this young man man who believe being LGBT in Jamaica is a death sentence.
DIFFERENT REALITY
I am not denying that many Jamaicans who are or perceived as LGBT are not subject to hostility on a daily basis. I'm not denying that many have had to seek refuge abroad or that a great many living in Jamaica aren't dying for an opportunity to escape. Many LGBT Jamaicans I know are imprisoned with fear and extremely anxious about being a victim of anti-gay hostility or violence. However, there are many who do not identify with the horrific stories that are told every day. I wish foreigners could hear this reality, too.
It doesn't help that we have been inundated with news reports and documentaries of people who have been harassed, beaten, displaced, made homeless, and murdered, among other things, over the last 10 years or so. There is a large community of LGBT people living in the gully in New Kingston. Almost a year ago, a homeless young man, Dwayne Jones, was murdered for not dressing as a biological male. This year, Tiana Miller, who is transgender, was denied entry into a soca party because the security said, "No cross-dressers are allowed".
However, in the middle of the hoopla, there is growing resistance - a fascinating resilience that shows Jamaicans are committed to working towards engendering the kind of society we want to live in and enjoy as human beings with dignity and with rights.
Many people have been enlisting themselves in a protest; are actively engaged in a movement that sees everyone as equal - that says sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression does not determine how we treat each other.
There is progress and we must acknowledge it. We must promote this as a sort of passive resistance to the stereotype about Jamaica. There is value in ensuring that LGBT people, especially those who are young, are not victims of our insatiable appetite for the most horrific of gay experiences. And I am not saying there is no value in sharing these stories, but they can be inimical to our efforts, in that they can further imprison people and keep them in the shadows. I am not suggesting homo-negativity is a thing of the past in Jamaica, but proffering that there is a complexity; a multifaceted process that requires our appreciation to move forward with dignity and right.
We supposedly come from and live in "the most homophobic place on earth". However, while there are scales to measure the people's negative attitudes towards non-heterosexuals, there is no real or accepted way - as far as I know - to determine if or how homophobic a country is.
What makes a country the most homophobic? Is it the murder of LGBT people (in one of the most murderous countries worldwide)? The impunity perpetrators enjoy (which is not uncommon to any one incident)? Is it the number of LGBT people who have had to seek refuge abroad? Is it the stories they tell (this is really what Karyl was getting at)? Is it the existence of an antiquated legislation that peers into the bedroom of consenting adults or the strident activism of an anti-gay movement that seeks to limit the rights and dignity of LGBT Jamaicans?
Unfortunately, what many people know about Jamaica is violence and that is often limited to homophobia. In 2012, I met a young man in York, England, who was terminally ill and had not been out of his house much in the last few years. He felt empowered to apprise me of how, in Jamaica, there is nothing but machete-wielding mobs lynching gay men. I tried desperately to convince him that there is another reality - not for everyone - but I was seemingly inept at doing so. Apparently, I didn't know what I was talking about. I've met so many others like this young man man who believe being LGBT in Jamaica is a death sentence.
DIFFERENT REALITY
I am not denying that many Jamaicans who are or perceived as LGBT are not subject to hostility on a daily basis. I'm not denying that many have had to seek refuge abroad or that a great many living in Jamaica aren't dying for an opportunity to escape. Many LGBT Jamaicans I know are imprisoned with fear and extremely anxious about being a victim of anti-gay hostility or violence. However, there are many who do not identify with the horrific stories that are told every day. I wish foreigners could hear this reality, too.
It doesn't help that we have been inundated with news reports and documentaries of people who have been harassed, beaten, displaced, made homeless, and murdered, among other things, over the last 10 years or so. There is a large community of LGBT people living in the gully in New Kingston. Almost a year ago, a homeless young man, Dwayne Jones, was murdered for not dressing as a biological male. This year, Tiana Miller, who is transgender, was denied entry into a soca party because the security said, "No cross-dressers are allowed".
However, in the middle of the hoopla, there is growing resistance - a fascinating resilience that shows Jamaicans are committed to working towards engendering the kind of society we want to live in and enjoy as human beings with dignity and with rights.
Many people have been enlisting themselves in a protest; are actively engaged in a movement that sees everyone as equal - that says sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression does not determine how we treat each other.
There is progress and we must acknowledge it. We must promote this as a sort of passive resistance to the stereotype about Jamaica. There is value in ensuring that LGBT people, especially those who are young, are not victims of our insatiable appetite for the most horrific of gay experiences. And I am not saying there is no value in sharing these stories, but they can be inimical to our efforts, in that they can further imprison people and keep them in the shadows. I am not suggesting homo-negativity is a thing of the past in Jamaica, but proffering that there is a complexity; a multifaceted process that requires our appreciation to move forward with dignity and right.
Nelson is right that the every member of the LGBT community does not have a homogeneous, death-unto-you experience marked by violence. And true, there is no one way to measure homophobia.
However, here is the problem with his article. There is an implicit denial of the shared experience of fear members of the LGBT community undergo.
No matter how much you resist it, no matter how strong you try to be, if you are gay or bisexual in Jamaica, at some point, you are afraid. You are afraid of what your parents, or friends, will do. You are afraid of what the public will do. You police yourself to ensure you conform with the sex-role stereotypes. And, importantly, most LGBT persons cannot openly claim their sexual orientation without some reprisal.
Our society defends and supports such reprisals and this culture of fear. That is the indication of homophobia. It is foolish to look for violence.
We know there are laws that deny rights to this community. We know there are persons who actively support this system of discrimination and we know the community is marginalised. It is culturally accepted and defended. To say we are not as homophobic because there is nothing to measure it is just blind. It is foolish.
I do not think saying "all gay men and women don't have the same experience with violence" is the same as saying we are not a homophobic country.
What it does say is that the homophobia takes many forms, that it varies according to class and education. Ian Boxill has a study that proves this. Homo-negativity is alive and well and publicly showing itself. So for those gay men and women who do not experience it, good for you, but it does not alter the reality I have described and Jamaica's cultural position on sexual difference.
GLENROY MURRAY
jacques_lebeau@hotmail.com
Kingston
However, here is the problem with his article. There is an implicit denial of the shared experience of fear members of the LGBT community undergo.
No matter how much you resist it, no matter how strong you try to be, if you are gay or bisexual in Jamaica, at some point, you are afraid. You are afraid of what your parents, or friends, will do. You are afraid of what the public will do. You police yourself to ensure you conform with the sex-role stereotypes. And, importantly, most LGBT persons cannot openly claim their sexual orientation without some reprisal.
Our society defends and supports such reprisals and this culture of fear. That is the indication of homophobia. It is foolish to look for violence.
We know there are laws that deny rights to this community. We know there are persons who actively support this system of discrimination and we know the community is marginalised. It is culturally accepted and defended. To say we are not as homophobic because there is nothing to measure it is just blind. It is foolish.
I do not think saying "all gay men and women don't have the same experience with violence" is the same as saying we are not a homophobic country.
What it does say is that the homophobia takes many forms, that it varies according to class and education. Ian Boxill has a study that proves this. Homo-negativity is alive and well and publicly showing itself. So for those gay men and women who do not experience it, good for you, but it does not alter the reality I have described and Jamaica's cultural position on sexual difference.
GLENROY MURRAY
jacques_lebeau@hotmail.com
Kingston
ENDS
It seems the younger ones who come into these organizations somehow get "infected" by the very mindset of the older heads. Where one would expect a change of new approaches we see a continuation of old ideologies pushed through new faces.
Peace and tolerance
H
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