'If you're gay Jamai, you're ad' | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY JAMAI TRAVEL GUI
• JAMAI SHOULD REPEAL GAY SEX BAN, SAYS AMERIS TOP RIGHTS BODY
• GAY JAMAI: J-FLAG TALKS IMPACTS ON LGBT HEALTH AND RIGHTS
• 'IF YOU'RE GAY JAMAI, YOU'RE AD'
• GAYS IN JAMAI LIVE IN FEAR

GAY JAMAI TRAVEL GUI

Her words are a step the right directn – pecially nsirg that Jamai’s prev prime mister, Bce Goldg, said on the BBC that no homosexuals would be allowed his bet. When mors swirled last summer that Miller would repeal the buggery laws, 25, 000 anti-gay-rights monstrators and relig lears took to the streets prott. I spoke wh a gay policeman for the report – he liv terror of the vlence he’d face if others learned about his sexualy – and he knew of many s where police refed to document, vtigate, or make arrts around homophobic vlence.

Now, gay people n’t openly talk to doctors and nurs whout beg aaid of beg outed their muny – and of the vlence that may follow. Homosexualy⚢✖ Male illegal, female legalCensorship✔ No censorshipNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✖ Sexual orientatn onlyHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsConversn TherapyAmbiguo.

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

Homosexual activy Jamai is male illegal, female illegal, female legal Female same-sex enunters are not explicly outlawed. Illegal some ntexts Some protectns om harassment based on sexual orientatn protectnsHomosexualy is currently illegal. For years, the media Jamai have hyped stori about the crim of "rowdy gays, " craftg a distorted image of the LGBT muny at large, lol activists say.

Many out gay public figur have also gone to exile, while several others have been murred the past 15 years; the number of out gay public figur still livg the untry n be unted on the fgers of one headl that ran the day after the sewer raid were typil: "Gay robbery spects arrted [New Kgston] raid, " said the Jamai Observer a 660-word feature that foced on the youths' cross-drsg and exhstn om "partyg all night. ) The police and the prs, Michael said, were gog after the group for the same reasons the group took shelter the sewer the first place: Homosexual nduct is agast the law, and Jamains are willg to take enforcement to their own hands.

"Bee I am gay and 's not legalized the untry, they want to get rid of , " he suatn for LGBT people Jamai has been terratg sce July, when a 16-year-old named Dwayne Jon was hacked to ath by a mob the northern cy of Montego Bay after he was outed while dancg wh a man who did not know Jon had been born male. Sce then, there have been multiple cints when mobs scend on the ho of people perceived to be gay, cludg a firebomb attack October, also the area of Montego wasn't always this way. Between 2009 and 2012, the Jamain Fom for Lbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG), the untry's olst LGBT rights group, unted 231 reports of discrimatn and vlence.

GAY JAMAI: J-FLAG TALKS IMPACTS ON LGBT HEALTH AND RIGHTS

Michael, who has the blond hair the photograph above taken days after the raid, left his muny three years ago at age 17 after beg threatened at gunpot for beg gay. "Some people tomatilly thk — bee that's the only reprentatn that they know of gay people — that that's how the majory of gay people behave.

"She said that activists like Lewis, who are sulated om the threats ls well-off gays face on the streets by livg gated muni and drivg rs, don't fully appreciate why the youth act out. She was often a reprentative for J-FLAG the years when s members were too ightened to be intified as gay the prs.

KINGSTON, Feb 17 (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Jamai should repeal s lonial-era gay sex ban, the top rights body of the Ameris said on Wednday, a symbolic landmark lg on LGBT+ rights the Jamains who iated the se 2011 - after they were attacked by homophobic gangs and sought asylum overseas - said the 1864 ban on the “abomable crime of buggery” and “gross cency” legimised vlence agast LGBT+ people. “Gays and lbians ntue to be killed and tortured bee they are emed to be different, ” he said, scribg how he was beaten by the police ont of a mob.

'IF YOU'RE GAY JAMAI, YOU'RE AD'

A spokwoman for the Jamain ernment was not immediately available to is the first time the Inter-Amerin Commissn on Human Rights (IACHR) has led that crimalisg gay and lbian people vlat ternatnal law, said the Human Digny Tst, an LGBT+ legal advocy group which brought the se.

Jamai’s Prime Mister Andrew Holns said 2014, when opposn, that he wanted to put the gay sex ban to the public a “Grand Referendum”, along wh marijuana, abortn and whether Bra’s Queen Elizabeth should stay head of IACHR cisn was ma September 2019, but remaed strictly nfintial unr s orrs until Wednday.

GAYS IN JAMAI LIVE IN FEAR

We spoke to Dane Lewis – Executive Director of the Jamain Fom for Lbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG)- about the report’s fdgs, and the health implitns for members of the Jamain lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) muny. It n be said however those anti-sodomy laws serve to rerce cultural hostily toward gay men and have also been known to emboln those wh pre-existg prejudic. “We’re not sayg that gay people should be oblerated om the face of the earth … but bee your behavural pattern is breach of all cency … do not try to impose your filth on others, don’t force others to accept you and your filth”.

DL: Given the cultural hostily and the fear of physil vlence many LGBT Jamains face, there have been many anecdotal reports of prsn, anxiety, and strs which are ced as beg ultimately rponsible for g some LGBT Jamains to flee Jamai and seek refuge untri that are believed to be more acmodatg of gay people. Followg the murr of gay activist Brian Williamson Kgston June, the Jamai Observer published a letter which read, "To be gay Jamai is to be ad. The motive was officially given as robbery, but Williamson was the only "out" gay activist the untry; members of the Jamain Fom for Lbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-Flag), an anisatn that operat unrground and anonymoly, believe that homophobia ma him a target.

Internatnal human rights anisatns have scribed Jamai as one of the most homophobic plac the world; gay and lbian relatnships are largely nducted secret.

But, while prejudice and vlence agast gay men have h the headl followg Williamson's murr and the ongog ntroversy over Jamain sger Beenie Man's lyrics (which ll for the executn of gay men), the plight of lbians Jamai has not attracted the same attentn. Yet their liv are no ls difficult: a strongly-word statement issued June, Amnty Internatnal highlighted the growg problem of vigilante actn agast gays and lbians, and of their ill treatment and torture at the hands of the police. Acrdg to the Amnty statement, gay men and women have been "beaten, cut, burned, raped and shot on acunt of their sexualy.

"Pla Ettelbrick, executive director of the Internatnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn says: "Brian [Williamson]'s murr has really phed thgs back. Technilly, is not illegal to be gay Jamai, although the Offenc Agast The Person Act bans any kd of physil timacy between men. Sectn 76 of the act bans anal sex between men, and between men and woman - although the majory of prosecutns volve gay men, who n serve 10 years jail wh hard labour if nvicted.

No statistics are currently available on the number of prosecutns of gay men unr this legislatn, but J-Flag plans to start llectg figur held at lol police statns. Homophobia is an irratnal fear of gay people and people worry that if they allow gay people to 'take over' there will be no more procreatn and the human race will die out.

"A number of gay Jamains have claimed asylum untri where they n exprs their sexualy openly, such as Canada, the US and the UK.

"A Home Office letter sent to a lbian asylum seeker om Jamai acknowledg that public figur the media, the church and polics have voiced homophobic views, and that there have been numero reports of acts of vlence agast gays but adds, "Neverthels is unrstood that this attu is not universal: police officers Jamai have protected homosexuals om vlent asslts, and Jamai's public fenr, who has publicly nmned homophobic vlence, has stated that the perpetrators mt be punished.