Profiled lesbians clash with coaster bus crew over stigmatizing & underhanded comments

Sorry for the late posts but holiday scheduling and DJ duties took up some of my time and a family reunion was also in the mix which had me busy as a bee.

Hope you all enjoyed the season but even in the midst of it crap can happen as this latest entry will reveal.

Well as I live and breathe the holiday season is definitely upon us and I like many Jamaicans were out and about shopping and grabbing last minute household items as the traditional fix-up-the-house fever goes into effect. I was in the Half Way Tree area on the eve of the eve of Xmas and was frustrated with the traffic both vehicular and people so I boarded a coaster bus at the old bus park to downtown to avoid the madness. The usual rude poorly kept thugs both as loader men and conductors were around, bleached skins, tight pants and all the sometimes obnoxious treatment of would be female passengers with inappropriate approaches and such including touching, hope they remember or realise a sexual harassment bill will soon pass into law.

I witnessed this one myself as four ladies approached the shouting loader man encouraging passengers then came the first of many off hand comments which was to the effect “downtown lesbian crew....?” the facial reaction was clear enough especially from a cross looking sister but they eventually ignored the slight and took their seats as I observed keenly wondering if this was going to blow up into something else. The women were obviously being profiled by not only the rude loader man and also the conductor (kinda hard to tell who is whom as between the noise and distraction of getting passengers roles get cloudy) with the very audible comments about one lady of the four who has some masculine features and what appeared to be bleached skin.

As we made our way down Half Way Tree road by the nursing school it was clear drama was going to go down as the music on board was turned up as one of the girls was making a call where she asked for a reprieve to finish it and then the refusal by the crew to oblige until she managed to shout over the volume to make her point. This did not sit well with the so called self described bad man who ‘nuh tek talk from sodomite’ among other tersely worded comments which I will not quote but imagine the colourful deluge. The women soon had supportive company from her colleagues who gave the conductor and indeed the driver a tongue lashing which included defense of their perceived sexuality which came to dominate the exchange to which the impacted women proudly suggested they will take away all the girls from them as men as they are not worthy of them and are poorly kept. The argument went on for good twenty or so minutes as intermittent traffic and bad driving forming a new lane where there was none which had other passengers objected to the indiscipline and sway of the bus thought to be dangerous. However as we say in Jamaica colloquially ‘de gal dem block it’ (the girls blocked it) ‘Blocking it’ is term we use to suggest a victory from some sort of homo-negative event implying bravery and non acceptance of same.

“................Who woulda want you (badwud badwud), yuh work pon bus dutty conductor boi...........”

This and other such comments did not sit kindly with the crew and now other males on the bus and the pandemonium ensued all the way from Cross Roads to downtown with outbursts along the way as the ladies were determined to hold their ground as they are paying for the service not begging a ride on the bus. Then came the usual veiled threats to not only them but homosexuals in general and then the music was turned up at high volume. I tried to signal the ladies to cool it as it made no sense as we approached King Street via the York Park Fire station and as the bus turned that deep bend by Kingston Senior school the usual fare collection procedure happened. That was when the clash took another turn as the money was grabbed by the conductor in supposed defiance of the lady’s resolve in standing their ground; one man said he knew where one of the girls hailed from and that she acts like a man while he also expressed his supposed surprise on how bold homosexuals overall have become.

Upon arrival at the Kingston Parish Church in parade a spot often used as a quasi terminus for robot buses things really got ugly as the vocals went up and the standoff got really tense. I tried to intervene to the ladies to just leave the scene although I do not know them personally as it made no sense after coming so far to only end it in possible physical harm. But the ladies were determined not to be outdone by the slights and insults by the bus crew and others. The aforementioned male passenger who had made remarks was still adamant that he knew one of the ladies and he suggest some sort of threat or exposure of the exchange to her area of origin did not stop the ladies from holding their ground.

Things simmered eventually as other passengers suggested they end it as they disembarked the bus as the driver revved the engine to hasten person’s exit; the ladies eventually went off but with a hot parting shot said among other things suggesting strongly they were not impressed or moved by the projected strength or bravado:

“........ yuh tink se we fraid a unu ............ unu nuh frighten we..........”

In other words they were not intimidated or jolted by the event.

Nuff said.

Peace & tolerance

H

also see previous coaster bus challenges:

Brawl on Coaster Bus from Portmore ... man accused of riding another's ass while in transit

Gay joke goes wrong ... bus personnel escapes thrashing 2011

Alleged Gay advance upsets 'loader man' in Half Way Tree 2014