Living Out Loud with Darian

If you read nothing else today make sure you set aside some time to read Black America Web's article on the homophobic and often deadly climate for gays and lesbians living in Jamaica.


Loldarian.com has reported on Jamaica's cruel punishment of it's LGBT community frequently over the years and unfortunately not much has changed in terms of the islands attitude or the inaction by the government to step in and protect all of it's citizens.


Via Black America Web


Andrew, a 36-year-old volunteer for an AIDS education program, said he was driven from the island after his ex-lover was killed for being gay — which police said was just a robbery gone wrong. He moved to the U.K. for several years, but returned to Jamaica in 2008 for personal reasons he declined to disclose.


"I'm living in fear on a day-to-day basis," he said softly during a recent interview in Kingston. "In the community where my ex-lover was killed, people will say to me when I'm passing on the street, they will make remarks like 'boom-boom-boom' or 'batty boy fi dead.' I don't feel free walking on the streets."


Jamaica's most prominent evangelical pastor, Bishop Herro Blair, said he sympathizes with those who face intolerance, but that homosexuals themselves are actually behind most of the attacks reported against them.


Oh really?





"Among themselves, homosexuals are extremely jealous," said Blair during a recent interview. "But some of them do cause a reaction by their own behaviors, for, in many people's opinions, homosexuality is distasteful."


The dread of homosexuality is so all-encompassing that many Jamaican men refuse to get digital rectal examinations for prostate cancer, even those whose disease is advanced, said Dr. Trevor Tulloch, a urology consultant at Andrews Memorial Hospital.


"Because it is a homophobic society, there's such a fear of the sexual implications of having the exam that men won't seek out help," said Tulloch, adding Jamaica has a soaring rate of prostate cancer because men won't be screened.


I highly recommend you watch Batty Man, a brilliant documentary by Stephen Amos for a first hand account of life for gays and lesbians in Jamaica here.