Minister Hits, Misses Mark

“Brits Made Jamaica Anti-Gay”

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It’s no secret Jamaica’s a largely homophobia nation. There have been no less that four major attacks against gays on the Caribbean island this year alone. While some Jamaican’s dismiss such discrimination as “tradition,” a prominent preacher’s asking, “Whose tradition?”

Writing in Jamaica Observer, Minister John Hardy correctly asserts that homophobia’s yet another colonial legacy. Hardy’s rationalization’s, however, leave a bit to be desired…

The black slaves and most of their descendants developed this hatred for homosexual activities because of the painful experiences that their forefathers endured during slavery. It is alleged that if and when a white slave master suspected that black male slaves were showing any sign of resistance to their enslavement, the most cruel and brutal treatment would be meted out to them.

It is just about 170-odd years since the blacks in Jamaica have been freed from slavery, and the painful memory of the colonial masters’ sodomisation still lingers. It may take another 400 to 500 years before Jamaicans become more tolerant to homosexual activities.

While slave masters may have sodomized their oppressed masses, it seems to us that Jamaica’s homophobia’s more rooted in Britain’s anti-gay colonial laws: Section 377, which forbade male homosexuality.

Despite freeing themselves from Britain’s iron glove, a number of former colonies continue to endorse – or at least adhere to – Section 377. Jamaica’s anti-gay culture’s born from that very law, not some demented slave master’s perverted sense of justice. And, even if we are to believe Hardy’s assertion, slave masters would only dole out such a punishment because they viewed gay sex as socially unacceptable.

Hardy may seem progressive – and he is, by Jamaican standards – but he’s not about to embrace faggotry:

The Christian community must be free to use their right of freedom of speech to be vocal about the wrongness of homosexuality, but the church community should not join with the rest of the society and physically or verbally abuse homosexuals.

Homosexual behaviour can be conquered as evidenced by the thousands of people who have completely given up the lifestyle.

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