Jamai should repeal gay sex ban, says Ameris top rights body | Rters

Contents:

• GAY BASHG JAMAI - JAMAI FOM
• GAYS IN JAMAI LIVE IN FEAR
• JAMAI'S ANTI-GAY 'MURR MIC' CARRI VLENT MSAGE
• INTERNATNAL STARS TURN TO GAY BASHG
• NO ARRTS AFTER BTAL ANTI-GAY ATTACK JAMAI
• JAMAI SHOULD REPEAL GAY SEX BAN, SAYS AMERIS TOP RIGHTS BODY

GAY BASHG JAMAI - JAMAI FOM

Anyway, she and her partner wanted to go to Jamai and was told by a travel agent that they should strongly nsir another statn that was more "gay" iendly, bee they wouldn't be weled Jamai.

GAYS IN JAMAI LIVE IN FEAR

If they are not willg to be discrete then another island would be a much better choice, although lbians are looked at wh a ltle more acceptance Jamai than gay men. Jamai has very warm and rg people, and like WR said a very graed relig belief that homosexualy is not proper.

A group of men kicked him and slashed him wh kniv for beg a “batty boy” — a slang term for gay men — after he left a party before dawn October 2006. They sliced his throat, torso, and back, hissed anti-gay ephets, and left him for ad on a Kgston rner.

I jt need to go home, I start to get nervo, ” said the 36-year-old outsi the secret office of Jamai’s sole gay rights group. Dpe the easygog image propagated by tourist boards, gays and their advot agree that Jamai is by far the most hostile island toward homosexuals the already nservative Caribbean.

JAMAI'S ANTI-GAY 'MURR MIC' CARRI VLENT MSAGE

But they have ltle reurse bee of rampant anti-gay stigma and a sodomy law banng sex between men Jamai and 10 other former Brish loni the Caribbean. It is impossible to say jt how mon gay bashg attacks like the one agast Sherman are Jamai — their tormentors are sometim the police themselv.

INTERNATNAL STARS TURN TO GAY BASHG

But many homosexuals Jamai say homophobia is pervasive across the sun-soaked island, om the pulp to the floor of the Parliament.

Hostily toward gays has reached such a level that four months ago, gay advot New York Cy lnched a short-lived boytt agast Jamai at the se of the Stonewall Inn, where monstratns lnched the gay-rights movement 1969.

State Department also not that gays have faced ath and arson threats, and are hant to report cints agast them bee of fear.

NO ARRTS AFTER BTAL ANTI-GAY ATTACK JAMAI

Andrew, a 36-year-old volunteer for an AIDS tn program, said he was driven om the island after his ex-lover was killed for beg gay — which police said was jt a robbery gone wrong. Many this highly Christian natn perceive homosexualy as a s, and sist vlence agast gays is blown out of proportn by gay activists.

Some say Jamai tolerat homosexualy as long as is not advertised — a tropil versn of former Print Bill Clton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for the U. Jamai’s most proment evangelil pastor, Bishop Herro Blair, said he sympathiz wh those who face tolerance, but that homosexuals themselv are actually behd most of the attacks reported agast them.

JAMAI SHOULD REPEAL GAY SEX BAN, SAYS AMERIS TOP RIGHTS BODY

“But some of them do e a reactn by their own behavrs, for, many people’s opns, homosexualy is distasteful. Other church lears have acced gays of flntg their behavr to “rec” youngsters, or lled for them to unrgo “remptive work” to break ee of their sexual orientatn.

Durg a parliamentary ssn Febary, lawmaker Ernt Smh of the lgJamai Labor Party strsed that gays were “brazen, ” ”abive, ” and “vlent, ” and exprsed anxiety that the police force was “overn by homosexuals. A few weeks later, Prime Mister Bce Goldg scribed gay advot as “perhaps the most anized lobby the world” and vowed to keep Jamai’s “buggery law” — punishable by 10 years — on the books.

The dread of homosexualy is so all-enpassg that many Jamain men refe to get digal rectal examatns for prostate ncer, even those whose disease is advanced, said Dr. “Bee is a homophobic society, there’s such a fear of the sexual implitns of havg the exam that men won’t seek out help, ” said Tulloch, addg Jamai has a soarg rate of prostate ncer bee men won’t be screened. Some reggae rappers, cludg Bounty Killer and Elephant Man, pend on gay-bashg songs to roe ncert-goers.

“It stirs up the crowd to a gree that many performers feel they have to e up wh an anti-gay song to ce the dience, ” said Barry Chevann, a profsor of social anthropology at the Universy of the Wt Indi.

“The macho ial is celebrated, praised Jamai, while homosexualy is paralleled wh pedophilia, rapists, ” Ch said.

“Markers that other people perceive as gay — they walk a certa way, wear tight pants, or are overly iendly wh a male iend — make them targets. Even New York Cy, anti-gay Jamain bigots sent her hate-filled e-mails after a 2007 appearance on Oprah Wey’s TV talk show to discs homosexualy.

Long, head of a gay rights program at the New York-based group, poted out that most other English-speakg islands the regn have ty populatns, where gays don’t e out and visible activism is limed. “(But) what stands out about Jamai is how absolutely, head--the-sand unwillg the thori have been for years to acknowledge or addrs homophobic vlence, ” he said.

“Most notably, three succsive ernments have pletely, utterly, publicly refed even to talk about changg the buggery law — which exprsly nsigns gay people to send-class cizens and pats. Proment Jamain polil activist Yvonne McCalla Sobers noted that social standg still protects gay islanrs, pecially Kgston, where a qut for privacy and the fear of crime has driven many to live behd gated walls wh key pad entry systems, 24-hour secury and closed-circu televisn monorg.

A group of men kicked him and slashed him wh kniv for beg a "batty boy" - a slang term for gay men - after he left a party before dawn October 2006. I jt need to go home, I start to get nervo, " said the 36-year-old outsi the secret office of Jamai's sole gay rights group. It is impossible to say jt how mon gay bashg attacks like the one agast Sherman are Jamai - their tormentors are sometim the police themselv.