Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people in Jamaica , especially men, face legal and social problems not experienced by non-LGBT people. Sodomy and/or buggery can be sentenced to life imprisonment. On the other hand, sexual behavior between women is legal.
Jamaica has been described by some human rights groups as the most homophobic country in the world due to the high level of violent crime aimed at LGBT people. The US State Department said that in 2012, "homophobia is widespread in this country".
The Jamaican government says in 2012 that "committed to equal and fair treatment of its citizens, and affirms that any individual whose rights are allegedly infringed have the right to seek redress." The government also claims that "there is no legal discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation" and that "against discrimination or violence against people whatever their sexual orientation."
An assistant police commissioner stated right before he retired in July 2012 that the homophobic reputation of Jamaica as "hype" and that life for LGBT people is increasing. He suggested the real problem is a gay-on-gay crime and cross-dressing community members in public.
Video LGBT rights in Jamaica
Hukum, kebijakan, dan konstitusi Jamaika
Sejarah kriminalisasi individu LGBT
The islands of the Commonwealth Caribbean adopted British buggery laws; But these laws were not strictly regulated in the Caribbean as in England until the Victorian era. Prior to this era, the count was made by the island's British population involved in sodomy, which probably correlated with the fact that the first colony was mostly male. The slave community in Jamaica and the rest of the English Caribbean consists of men and women from West Africa, people who are more sought after by slave owners.
In Britain, the Buggery of 1861 Act was liberalized in 1967. At this point, Jamaica had gained its independence in 1962, and thus the buggery law adopted from the British constitution, is still in effect today.
Maps LGBT rights in Jamaica
Laws against same-sex sexual activity: Violation Against the Personal Act (1864 )
Jamaican law does not criminalize the status of being LGBT but instead commit a criminal act. The Offenses Against the Person Act (OAPA) provides the following:
Section 76. Breach Not Natural. Anyone who will be convicted of a bad buggery crime, committed either with humankind or with any animal, will be liable to imprisonment and sentenced to forced labor for a period not exceeding ten years.
Section 77. Experiment. Anyone who will try to commit a heinous crime, or will be guilty of any attack with the intent to do the same, or any indecent assault on any man, shall be guilty of a minor crime, and punishable, shall be imprisoned for a period of not more than seven years, with or without forced labor.
Section 79. Resentment against modesty. Any male who, publicly or privately, commits, or is a party to the commission, or obtains or tries to obtain commissions by any male from, any acts of dirty indecency with other men, shall be guilty of minor crimes and convicted will be held liable for the discretion of the court for imprisonment for a period of not more than two years, with or without forced labor.
"Gross obscenity" is not defined by OAPA but has been interpreted as "referring to any kind of physical intimacy", including simply holding hands.
According to Human Rights Watch, regardless of how often people are punished for buggery or dirty indecency, "the capture itself sends a message." The Jamaican press publishes the names of the men arrested for the crime, "humiliating them and putting them at risk of physical injury." The dirty immorality laws in Section 79 make LGBT people "vulnerable to extortion from neighbors who threaten to report them to the police as part of a scheme of extortion."
Section 80. Other things. Any police can withhold, without warrant, anyone to find lying or roaming the highway, yard or other place at night, meaning the interval between 7 pm and 6 am the next day, and whom shall he cause to commit, or will commit any crime in this Act, and shall take such person, as soon as possible, before Justice, to be dealt with in accordance with the law.
The police have great wisdom in detaining people under Article 80. These and other laws are used by police to detain men involved in sodomy, or who abuse animals.
Decriminalization efforts
The European Parliament in 2005 passed a resolution calling on Jamaica to repeal "ancient and discriminatory sodomy laws and to actively combat widespread homophobia".
Following the promise of Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson that "nothing should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation", LGBT human rights campaign Maurice Tomlinson filed a case against Jamaica at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in February 2012. He has fled the country. because of death threats after news of her marriage to another man in Canada reached local media. There is no date for the first trial set.
Efforts to increase criminal penalties
In 2009, Ernest Smith, a Labor Party member, said during a parliamentary debate that "homosexual activity seems to have taken over" Jamaica, describing homosexuals as "rough" and "violent", and called for tighter laws that prohibit behavior homosexuals between men who will impose life sentences in prison.
There is no law protecting LGBT people from discrimination
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Jamaica does not have "laws that prevent discrimination against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression." There is no law dealing with hate crime in Jamaica. "
Jamaican Giant Rights Congress
In 2011, the national Bill of Rights was officially added to the Jamaican Constitution (Chapter 3). While it ensures all citizens of many civil and political rights, specifically stipulates that the charter does not invalidate laws relating to sexual offenses, pornography or traditional definitions of marriage.
Jamaican political party
Neither one of the two major political parties in Jamaica has expressed official support for the rights to homosexual citizens.
However, in a televised debate in late December 2011 between opposition leader (and former prime minister) Portia Simpson-Miller of the National People's Party (PNP) and then Prime Minister Andrew Holness, he said he would consider appointing whom he felt most eligible for his cabinet regardless of sexual orientation and added that he wanted to see the conscience permitted by the big party on LGBT rights issues in parliament. Although Simpson-Miller was criticized by some social conservatives for his establishment, the PNP won a sweeping victory victory a few days later.
During the 2001 election, the Jamaican Labor Party adopted the Chi Chi Man by T.O.K., controversially for the lyrics that promote gay murder, as the theme song.
In April 2006, the then opposition leader and future prime minister Bruce Golding vowed that "homosexuals will find no comfort in the cabinet he formed." Two years later when asked if LGBT people could be in the cabinet, he said, "Sure they can be in the cabinet - but not mine."
New or small political parties, regardless of their political philosophy, oppose LGBT rights. The conservative National Democratic Movement opposes LGBT rights on religious grounds in addition to the more left-wing parties such as the National People's Party and the New Nation Coalition.
LGBT rights movement in Jamaica
Current organization
J-FLAG
The Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) was founded in December 1998, and operates underground and anonymously. This is the first LGBT human rights organization in Jamaica's history, and its core efforts include legal and advocacy reform, public education, crisis intervention, and support programs.
The Quality of Jamaican Citizenship
Quality of Citizenship Jamaica (QCJ), founded by Jalna Broderick and Angeline Jackson in 2013, is an organization that works to create a safe space to empower the LGBT community. The main objective is to improve the lives of lesbians and bisexual women and transgender individuals, and part of the vision of the organization is to improve the health care opportunities for LGBT women and adolescents, particularly regarding mental health and HIV/AIDS awareness. During his visit to the University of the West Indies in Kingston, US President Barack Obama stated about Jackson,
Instead of silence, he chooses to speak and start his own organization to advocate for women like him, and get them treated and get justice, and push back against stereotypes, and give them a sense of their own strength.
Important people
Maurice Tomlinson
Maurice Tomlinson is a Jamaican lawyer, law professor, and gay rights activist who currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2011, a Jamaican Observer, a local newspaper published an article with a picture of himself with his Canadian male partner during their wedding ceremony. After the article was published, Tomlinson began receiving death threats and moved to Toronto. On November 27, 2015 he filed a case of the Jamaican Supreme Court challenging the nation's 'buggary' law. He stated in the court file, "Jamaican law that criminalizes consensual sexual intimacy between men basically makes me a criminal who can not be arrested." He said that the 1864 law grew worse when the requirements of the convicted person to bring the identification of perpetrators added in 2011, could be punished with an additional twelve months in prison and a fine of one million dollars. He argues that the law as a whole encourages violence, and in the blogpost for Human Rights First in January 2016, it states as follows.
I am proposing a constitutional challenge to Jamaican sodomy law, citing the lawlessness of the protection described in the Jamaican Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Charter. This includes the right of personal freedom and freedom, freedom of expression, privacy and family life, and freedom from inhuman or degrading punishment or other treatment, among others.
J. Carolyn Gomes
Carolyn Gomes is currently the executive director of the VOC, which works with Caribbean populations who are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and have social and financial barriers that prevent them from care and assistance. Prior to taking this role in January 2014, Gomes served as executive director of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), which he founded in Kingston in 1999 to fill the necessary gaps in Jamaica for citizen rights groups working to combat corruption. in the judicial and public sphere systems and the imbalance in the socio-economic system. He withdrew from JFJ in 2013 after a national push on the sex education leaflets the organization produced for teenagers, as they mentioned anal sex. He talks about LGBT issues because they are related to his organization and partly due to the fact that his sister is a homosexual woman.
International opinion
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2012 says that "discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression is widespread in Jamaica, and... discrimination against them in lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex. communities are entrenched in Jamaican state institutions, those who are not heterosexual or cisgender face political and legal stigmatization, police violence, inability to access the justice system, and intimidation, violence and pressure in their homes and communities.
Human Rights Watch said in 2012 that due to homophobia, "human rights defenders advocating the rights of LGBT people are not safe in Jamaica".
The United Nations
The Jamaican Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was completed in 2011 under the auspices of the United Nations Human Rights Council. In his report,
Jamaica stresses that, although consensual sex between adult men remains prohibited by law, there is no legal discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation. Jamaica shows that Jamaican law does not criminalize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender orientations, nor does the Government justify discrimination or violence against lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He added that there were no cases of arbitrary custody and/or harassment of those persons by the police, nor was there any official policy. Likewise, there is no evidence of murder related to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people. Jamaica stresses that the problem of male homosexuality is one of the great sensitivities in Jamaican society, where cultural norms, values, religions and moral standards underlie the rejection of male homosexual behavior by the vast majority of Jamaica; and that the Government is committed to ensuring that all citizens are protected against violence.
During the UPR working group meeting, Australia encouraged Jamaica to revoke its law on same-sex activities and condemned homophobic statements made by community leaders. The Netherlands expressed its concern about harassment of LGBT people and stated that laws that criminalize same-sex sexual activities may contribute to the problem. The United States "remains concerned about continuing discrimination, violence and exploitation, especially against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities."
Slovenia stated that harassment and harassment of LGBT people by law enforcement officers "is very worrying". The British Empire encourages Jamaica to promote tolerance and end discrimination against LGBT people. Sweden expressed concern about the criminalization of consensual sex between men and asked whether there was any initiative to decriminalize it.
Jamaica refused to support the recommendations made about LGBT rights. "In response to the question of sexual orientation, Jamaica... noted that sexual orientation is not criminalized, only certain acts.Jamaica states that they are aware of the concerns that exist and observe that this is a sensitive issue." In addition, "Jamaica explains that the government has raised public awareness" about sexual orientation and discrimination and "will continue to do so, but it requires resources."
Social conditions
Anti-LGBT Violence
Non-governmental organizations and human rights government entities have agreed that violence against LGBT, especially by citizens, is widespread in 2012. The Jamaican Forum for Lesbian, All-Sexual and Gay (J-FLAG) in 2012 "continues to report serious violations human rights, including assault with lethal weapons, 'corrective rape' against women accused of lesbian, arbitrary detention, mass attack, stabbings, gay and lesbian patients harassment by hospitals and prison staff, and targeted shootings of people such a person. "
"Police often do not investigate such incidents.As the year [,] J-FLAG received 68 reports of harassment or sexual harassment, covering 53 actual trial cases or attacks, including at least two murders and 15 transfer reports J-FLAG shows that young people, ages 18 to 29, continue to bear the brunt of violence based on sexual orientation. "In Jamaica jails, there are many reports in 2012 on gay prisoners' violence against prisoners and other inmates, but some inmates seek a way out through the prison system.
Amnesty International has "received numerous reports of gay vilification by members of the community, and ill-treatment or torture by police, gay men and lesbian women have been beaten, cut, burned, raped and shot because of their accounts, sexuality... We are concerned that these reports are just the tip of the iceberg, many gay men and women in Jamaica are too scared to go to the authorities and seek help. "This violence has prompted many gay people to emigrate and hundreds of LGBT Jamaicans to seek asylum in Britain, Canada, and the United States.
Violence against HIV positive people is common, but the legal effect of aggressors is rare. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS representation for Jamaica has described spies against homophobic violence as "legitimate discrimination" and has claimed that violence has pushed the HIV epidemic further underground, making access to treatment and outreach more difficult.
Special incident
In June 2004, the founding members and public faces of the Jamaican Forum for Lesbian, All-Sexuals and Gay (J-FLAG) and Jamaican leading gay-rights activist Brian Williamson were stabbed to death at his home. The police decided that the murder was the result of a robbery, but J-FLAG believed that his murder was a racial crime. Human Rights Watch researcher Rebecca Schleifer met with Williamson that day, and arrived at his home shortly after his body was found:
He found a small crowd singing and dancing. A man exclaimed, "Battyman he was killed." Others celebrate, laugh, and shout, "Let's get them one by one", "That's what you get from sin." The others sang "Boom bye bye", a line from the famous dancehall song by Jamaican star Buju Banton about shooting and burning gay men. "It's like a parade", says Schleifer. "They're basically partying."
HRW also reported that police helped a suspect avoid identification, and consistently refused to consider the possibility of homophobic motives for murder, with senior officers responsible for an investigation claiming "most homosexual violence is internal." We have never had male cases - gay men beaten [by heterosexual]. "
A Williamson friend, Lenford "Steve" Harvey, who worked at Target Intervention in Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, was shot dead on the eve of World AIDS Day the following year. A number of armed men blow themselves up to his house and ask for money, demanding to know "Are you battymen?" "I think his silence, his refusal to answer that question sealed him," said Yvonne McCalla Sobers, head of the Family Against State Terrorism. "Then they opened his laptop and saw a picture of him with his partner in a hug that showed them together, so they took him out and killed him." Six people have been charged with murder. Their trial began and was then postponed in 2007. Followed in 2012, in 2014 one of the defendants was released.
In April 2006, students at the Mona campus of the West Indies University rioted when police tried to protect a man pursued on campus because another student had claimed that the man had proposed to him in the bathroom. The masses demanded that the man be handed over to them. It was only scattered when riot police were summoned and an officer fired a shot into the air.
In November 2012, two campus security guards beat a female student who was reported as a gay student when he sought refuge from a mob of students chasing him. Security firms fired two guards, and their actions were criticized by the University of Technology and Security companies. The University established working groups to develop sensitization and education programs to address intolerance and intimidation and to recommend corrective measures.
In August 2013, an open gay man in Montego Bay was stabbed to death at his home and then his house was set on fire. At the beginning of the month, two men considered by angry residents to be gay were forced into shelter at the police station after a minor car accident. In July, a mob in St. James stabs to death a 16-year-old boy who is not gender-appropriate, Dwayne Jones.
In August 2017, Dexter Pottinger, Jamaican gay activist, designer, and face Jamaica Pride 2016 and 2017, was found murdered at his home in St. Andrew's.
Public attitudes toward LGBT
Poll results
Results from the "National Survey of Joint Attitudes and Perceptions of Joint Same Sex Relations" were published in 2011. Based on a randomized survey in late 2010 of 1,007 Jamaicans, aged 18-84, 85.2 percent opposed the legalization of homosexuality among adults. In addition, 82.2 percent say that male homosexuality is immoral, 75.2 percent believe that female homosexuality is immoral, and 75.3 percent believe that bisexual relationships are immoral.
In 2008, a poll of 1,008 Jamaicans was conducted that read, "Do you agree with their lifestyle, do you think homosexuals are entitled to the same basic rights and privileges as anyone else in Jamaica?" 26 percent say "yes", 70 percent say "no", and 4 percent do not know.
A poll in 2001 showed that 96 percent of Jamaicans opposed any steps that would seek to legalize homosexual relationships.
Gender
Homophobia based on masculine idealization
Jamaica has a male-dominated social structure. As a result, adultery and fornication are touted as a sign of male virility in the lyrics of popular songs, especially in Jamaican dancehall. Homosexuality (ie, buggery) in this context is seen as a potential insult to the "ideal" of men. The malignant forms of homophobia in Jamaica are caused by hypermasculinity norms, which are roughly equivalent to machismo-related sexual behavior in Central and South America.
The sexual identity of Jamaican males has long been defined as an opposition to homosexuality. According to Dr. Kingsley Ragashanti Stewart, a professor of anthropology at the University of the West Indies, "Many Jamaican men, if you call them homosexual,... will soon experience violence.This is the worst humiliation you can give a Jamaican man." Stewart believes that homophobia affects almost every aspect of life and forms the everyday language of the ghetto youth. "It's like if you say, 'Come back here,' they'll say, 'No, no, do not say' come back '." You have to say 'go ahead,' because it again implies that you're 'back to back', which is how gay men have sex. "
Attitude about lesbians
For lesbians in Jamaica, the situation is much more ambiguous. In general with many countries where homosexual acts are or are illegal, legislation specifically refers to acts among men, making homosexuality of legal women with negligence. Jamaica Gleaner columnist Morris Cargill, who supports the view of "nurturing" with respect to the environment and sexual orientation, wrote in 1999:
There seems to be a certain logic in female homosexuality. Because if true, in general, we get our first sexual inclinations in infancy, girls who are urinated and stroked by their mothers, nurses and sisters get what might be said to be "normal" affection for their own sex.. But this does not apply to boys, so I think there is a very basic difference between male and female homosexuality.
Amnesty International, however, has received reports of violence against lesbians, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. Lesbians are reported to have been attacked on the grounds of the physical appearance of "mannish" or "signs" of other sexualities. Some reports of kidnappings and rape originated in the inner city community, where local non-governmental organizations have expressed concern about the high incidence of violence against women.
Although lesbian civil ceremonies have taken place, Jamaica does not recognize any legal basis for partnership between women. In 2012, Jamaica-born Jamaican couple Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn and Emma Benn held their first lesbian marriage in Jamaica, although their marriage is not legally recognized in Jamaica, they are legally, legally married in New York State (which is endorsed the same - sex marriage in 2012) where they live. The couple held a celebration ceremony in Jamaica after being legally married in the United States.
Individual transgender
What makes the lives of transgender individuals in Jamaica different from those in other countries is the fact that Jamaican society has a very low tolerance for LGBTQ individuals, especially male-female transgender women, according to a case study conducted by the University of West Institute of Social Sciences Economy Sir Arthur Lewis. The stigma given to these individuals affects their perception of the world, and after internalizing this stigma, the treatment process becomes more difficult. Viewpoints emerge that doctors will stigmatize patients or treat them poorly due to unconventional treatment being performed. Ultimately, low tolerance causes patients to get less overall treatment.
Religion
Homophobia based on religion
Many Jamaicans identify as devout Christians and claim that their anti-gay attitude is based on religious reasons.
In June 2013, Jamaican church pastors gathered nearly 1,500 people in Kingston to support state buggery laws. Pastor Leslie Buckland of Christ Church argues that LGBT activists seek to "take over the world" with their challenge to the law. Buckland said that if the law was revoked, the activists would "return to court to make it a criminal offense to speak out against a homosexual lifestyle."
In February 2006, a coalition of church leaders and members of the Barber Christian Lawyers declared their opposition to the privacy provisions of the proposed Charter of Rights that would form the basis of the revised Constitution of Jamaica. Most worrying is that homosexuality can be made legal, although Justice Minister A. J. Nicholson and opposition leader Bruce Golding deny this and oppose the decriminalization of buggery.
Cecil Gutzmore at the University of the West Indies has written that religious fundamentalists believe the Bible by various means declares homosexuality as "abomination," "vile," "unseemly," "unnatural," or "wickedness."
Those who commit this great sin are thus explicitly interpreted... as a legitimate subject to be punished by the final violence, destiny is not only directly dealt with by God Himself but, perhaps, also by those who consider themselves to be faithful servants and agents who maybe. His will. These people feel some kind of right justification for... acting rudely in the name of God against people who are considered homosexual and homosexual.... In Jamaica, enthusiastic and destructive metaphor stones are thrown by taking homophobic song lyrics, passionate lectures, and speeches of parliamentary and party conferences voicing a refusal to liberalize anti-homosexual laws.
Local LGBT rights group J-FLAG acknowledges that anti-LGBT sentiments are influenced by certain parts of the Bible, but reply,
the seizure by the legislature from Christian condemnation of homosexuals is a wholly arbitrary process, largely guided by individual bias and collective prejudice. In the case of adultery, which is more mentioned in the biblical text, Jamaica does not have laws relating to its criticism or prosecution. The same is true for sexual immorality.
Attitude of Rastafari from Jamaica
There are some homophobic attitudes in the Rastafari movement, according to an educated and uneducated Rasta elder in 2007:
The real reason why the average "Jah D" in Jamaica has an extreme and rational aversion to male homosexuality is not... because "fearing the others" is not a biblical command; it is not because of the supposed "un-Africanness" or the fact that Jamaica is nominally "a Christian country". It's just that she can not forgive the nip and tuck's "nip and tuck" neglect of normal heterosexual relationships for unhygienic plunge in the middle of rubbish, unfriendly bacteria and poisonous germs.
Senior Rastafari Ras Iyah V opposes the lifting of Jamaican buggery law. "I have to stand with people who oppose homosexuality because it is not our way." From a moral and traditional African standpoint, homosexuality is unacceptable. "
Some Rastafari from Jamaica, however, have supported gay rights. The English-born author Benjamin Zephaniah said in 2005, "I am not sick when I see that [Jamaica]... is now linked to people's persecution because of their sexual orientation I believe it is my duty to call all Jamaican progressive people... to against homophobia. "Mista Mahaj P, Jamaica-born Jamaican Rastafari based in the United States, released the 2011 reggae first pro-gay album titled Tolerance . King B-Fine, Rastafari Reggae artist born in Jamaica, openly supports gay rights. He clarified this after some controversy about his song "Yah Yah Mati".
Pop culture
The portrayal of LGBT people in Jamaican popular music
Jamaica's popular culture has a strong musical tradition, including reggae and dancehall. As a result, the players are well known, both of which influence popular opinion and reflect it. The US State Department said that in 2012 "through the songs and behavior of some musicians, dancehall culture in the country helped perpetuate homophobia." In its review in Jamaica in 2011 for compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed regret over "malicious lyrics by musicians and entertainers inciting violence against homosexuals" and recommended that Jamaica investigate, hear, and impose sanctions. people who do it.
Artists such as Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, Mavado, Sizzla, Elephant Man, Capleton, T.O.K., and Shabba Ranks during their writing or performing career, or both, songs that advocate attacking or killing gays and lesbians.
Buju Banton, according to Time magazine, is a recognized homophobic [1992] song Boom Bye-Bye states that gay 'haffi dies' ('must die'). " The song also "boasts gay shoots with Uzis and burns their skin with acid 'like an old tire wheel'." The Buju Banton manager, Donovan Germain, insisted that "Buju lyrics are part of a metaphorical tradition, they are not a literal call to kill gay men."
One of Beenie Man's songs contains the lyrics: "I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, coming to execute all gays." Bounty Killer has urged his listeners to burn "Mister Fagoty" and make him "grimace in pain." Elephant Man said in one of his songs, "When you hear a lesbian being raped/It's not our fault... Two women in bed/That's two Sodom's supposed to die." The lyrics of Sizzla's songs include: "Battybwoy shot, my big gun boom." (Shoot, my big gun blew up.)
Some Rastafari have advocated violence and discrimination against LGBT people. While singing about gay men, the supporters have used terms such as "MAUMA MAN (Maama Man), FASSY HOLE (or simply FASSY), MR.BURN, PUSSHOHOLE, FAGOT, FISHMAN, MAN CUTE, MAN TIME, MANIA FREAKY, MAN POOP , BUGGER MAN and most commonly used, BATTY MAN (butt man) and CHI CHI MAN (chi chi, in Jamaica, are slang for ticks). "
When singing about gay women, they have used terms like "SODOMITE, CHI CHI GAL or just LESBIAN." The Bobo Ashanti, including Sally's dancehall singers, Capleton, and Anthony B, condemned everything that contradicted their beliefs: "Fire pound politicians, Vatican pound fire, Fire pon chi chi man..." Some singers have defended themselves by saying that is "a 'spiritual fire.'"
An international campaign against homophobia by reggae singers is led by OutRage!, A UK-based gay activist group, and the UK-based Musical Coalition of Kills. The deal to stop anti-gay lyrics during live performances and not produce new anti-gay material or re-release offensive songs was achieved in February 2005 between record labels dancehall and organizations opposing anti-gay murder lyrics.
According to a report published in 2005, Canada's High Commission in Jamaica also requires players who want touring in Canada to sign the Entertainer Declaration stating that they have read and fully understand quotes from the Criminal Code, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom and the Human Rights Act Canadian Man and will not "engage in or support hatred against people because of... their sexual orientation." Calls for the Jamaican boycott and his music in Canada have sparked a debate about censorship and free expression in Jamaica and Canada.
In August 2013, Queen Ifrica made anti-gay commentary at the Grand Gala independence festival in Kingston, which was immediately criticized and labeled as inappropriate by the government's Youth and Culture Ministry. The Rastafest promoter in Toronto, held in the same month, then dropped it off the concert list after various people and groups protested the participation.
A 2010 randomized survey of Jamaican adults showed that among those who listened to most reggae music, 65.0 percent expressed repulsion (the most negative emotion among eight possible Riddle scales) of people in same-sex relationships. Percentage for dancehall music was 62.8 percent, 47.5 percent for rhythm and blues, 45.4 percent for those with no music preferences, 42.9 percent for hits and old gospels, 35.3 percent for rock/alternative, and 30.8 percent for hip hop/rap.
The depiction of LGBT people in the literature
Individual LGBT is represented in the work of Jamaican writers such as Claude McKay, who left Jamaica in 1912 to pursue a writing career in Harlem. McKay was one of the first Jamaican fiction writers to write about homosexuality; However, she refrained from being open about her own sexuality. In his novel Home for Harlem and Banjo , he created a "homosexual" world where men engage in sex exclusively with other men. McKay is more widely known and accepted among the black community as a powerful figure in the Harlem Renaissance than as an important figure in a strange community.
LGBT Pride in Jamaica
In 2015, Jamaica held the first LGBT Pride celebration. However, there were no marches because it would be risky for the demonstrators, according to J-FLAG.
Health and fitness
Mental Health
In a study conducted by the International Journal of Sexual Health in 2007, in which LGBT individuals were selected from groups for sexual minority support, human rights, and HIV/AIDS care and prevention, 13% of those interviewed were diagnosed with depression, and 11% fulfilled criteria for substance abuse. 76% of the participants reported that they were victims in rough experiences up to twelve months prior to the interview, among which 19% reported physical abuse. There are several existing groups of human rights advocates and sexual and HIV/AIDS minority groups in Jamaica who provide social support, information services, counseling, legal representation and education, but many argue that these programs have no organization and no have enough mental health counselor.
HIV/AIDS
The underlying and basic determinants
According to a study conducted in 2015, adverse life events and low literacy have an effect on HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men (LSL) in Jamaica. Through the survey method, the researchers in the study found that both of these factors were the determinants of infection, and HIV was found to be the most common in sex workers who have sex with men and have been raped. These people have lower self-esteem, which often leads to a decrease in the ability to practice safe sex. HIV risk factors that have been classified as a prescribed determinant such as prescription anal sex and sex couples tend to be more common among MSM who have dealt with issues previously stated. Other underlying determinants of HIV included sex work, comprising 41.1% of those surveyed, and identified as transgendered, as did 52.9% of survey participants. Overall, 31.4% of MSM surveyed were HIV positive.
Prevention efforts
There are many more efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in Jamaica and the Caribbean today. In 2001, the head of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) declared AIDS a regional priority of the Caribbean, and the Pan-Pacific AIDS Partnership (PANCAP) was established to initiate regional responses to HIV.
In Jamaica alone, there is a Human Immunodeficiency Virus program based at the Jamaican Ministry of Health designed to slow the epidemic and reduce its impact. This has been a national plan in Jamaica to respond to HIV since 1988 when the National AIDS Committee was formed to lead the island's multi-sectoral response to HIV/AIDS. To prevent epidemics, information, education, and communication campaigns have been established to promote condom use, control sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and establish workplace programs, HIV testing, and counseling.
There are also efforts to minimize stigma and discrimination around issues related to HIV and AIDS in Jamaica. In 2001, antiretroviral therapy was introduced to prevent vertical HIV transmission from mother to child. In 2004, a public access treatment program was introduced, and in 2005 the parliament unanimously adopted a national HIV/AIDS policy. The National Strategic Plan 2007-2012 includes the efforts of Jamaica toward the goal of achieving HIV prevention access worldwide.
Homophobia_and_HIV.2FAIDS_in_Jamaica "> Homophobia and HIV/AIDS in Jamaica
An estimated 1.8 percent of Jamaican 18-49 residents are HIV positive in 2011. The rate of men who have sex with men is 32.8 percent. The highest infection rates are in the most colonized parish and in the tourist areas. The HIV epidemic is closely linked to poverty and developmental and socio-cultural issues, including slow economic growth, high unemployment, early sexual debut, the culture of many partnerships, and informal medicine as well as the commercial sex sector.
In 2004, Human Rights Watch published a report on the status of LGBT people in Jamaica. The report documents widespread homophobia and argues that high levels of intolerance have undermined public efforts to combat HIV-AIDS violence and pandemic.
The way Jamaican people associate HIV with homosexual anal sex has been partially shaped by international media coverage at the start of the epidemic. Dr. Robert Carr, widely known as one of the world's leading researchers on the cultural and pandemic forces of HIV, revealed,
AIDS is considered a gay, white, male North American disease. And people are very afraid of it. There was no treatment available in the Caribbean at the time, so AIDS really was a death sentence. You have people with Kaposi's sarcoma, people with terrible diarrhea, who just wasted themselves and then died in truly horrible and traumatic ways. To mention what's going on here, "stigma and discrimination" is really dismissive. Inside the ghetto [,] they place the tires around people affected by AIDS and ignite the burning tires. They kill gay people because they think AIDS is contagious. It was a very extreme environment, and really awful things were happening.
Stigma has been linked to HIV in Jamaica since the beginning of the epidemic, in part due to its association with male homosexuality. Jamaican males, in particular, are very worried about being linked to homosexuality so they hesitate to seek out HIV treatment and prevention services. Poor men living with HIV are assumed to have participated in same-sex sexual acts, and poor men who participate in such actions are assumed to be HIV-positive. Some people in Jamaica became suicidal when they first received their HIV diagnosis, rooted in the fear of isolation and discrimination that will be generated by others who seek out and not from the potential deaths associated with it. HIV is a disease that can be reported, resulting in visits by investigators â € <â € The spread of HIV also encourages a cycle of mistakes and violence, which marginalize and encourage violence against gay lifestyles. This cycle takes on a further meaning under Jamaican law, which criminalizes all anal sex and often turns a blind eye to violence against homosexuals. Some people are willing to use human rights language against what happens to homosexual and HIV positive individuals because they are held responsible for the spread of HIV. A study conducted by AIDS researchers found that half university students surveyed in Jamaica felt sympathetic to heterosexual men and HIV-positive non-sex workers, but did not feel the same for homosexual men and women sex workers. Basically this research shows that less blame is attached to people who become positive through "less controllable" actions such as voluntary heterosexual relations or drug use. Many Jamaicans feel that sex workers and homosexuals should not be pitied because they act in a way that consciously puts themselves at higher risk. The secret nature of gay culture in Jamaica makes reach almost impossible. The fear of being identified as gay has forced many men into an early marriage in the hope of avoiding future accusations. Miriam Maluwa, UNAIDS country representative for Jamaica, said, "[Gay men] get married fast enough, they have kids fast enough to set themselves up, and that's really a ticking bomb". Gay men forced to marry heterosexuals must have an affair outside of marriage. These affairs place their wives at a high risk for infection as well.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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