SOUNDBITES — “I’m living in fear on a day-to-day basis. 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.” —Jamaican resident Andrew, on living in fear on the island because of his sexuality [AP]
Jamaica dispatch
‘I’m living in fear on a day-to-day basis’
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
Dabq
Wow, that is just so sad and scary and somehow the international community needs to intervene and or cut off aid. And, like most of these hate filled homophobic places, they use gays to cover up the real issues that are making life miserable for all its citizens as they realize that a ill-informed public will bash the gays to get a release from their own poverty.
scott ny'er
terrible.
and then I think back on previous Queerty posts and how some people would say don’t ban Jamaica. Here’s a perfectly good reason why. That dude needs to move.
sal(the original)
welcome to the caribbean!paradise for some
James
I travel through Jamaica frequently for business. Trust me, it’s a dangerous shit hole. The natives are stupid, lazy, backward, hostile, impoverished, bigoted people who basically hate and resent Americans – or any white people – because they are completely dependent on them for tourist economy. If lots of fat, rude white people descended on your home day after day you might hate them too.
And a lack of education and any sophistication about the rest of the world makes changing their attitudes towards gays nearly impossible. Jamaicans make people from Oklahoma seem sophisticated. In America, blacks are generally more homophobic, and in the Caribbean they have taken this to a huge degree because they are also very religious. In the Islands there’s basically nothing to do but go to church and hustle unsuspecting tourists.
The only way Jamaica would even begin to contemplate changing their attitudes is a complete and total tourist boycott, which is never going to happen, because tourism companies and cruise ships just don’t care that much. Also, knowing the stupid Jamaicans, a tourist boycott would only make them kill the gays and blame them for their economic collapse.
If you’re a gay traveler who wants to go to the Caribbean, you basically have 3 options – a small gay resort in St. Croix (surrounded by antigay vagrants), the gay friendly island Curacao (which is actually about as gay friendly as Alabama), or a gay cruise that lets you return to the safety of the ship.
Jamaica would be a great place for nuclear testing.
Steve
Wow. James. What hatred.
Bigoted much?
How about education? What ever happened to the idea that people can be educated out of their bigotry? Oh yeah, you’re a bigot and like the Jamaicans you hate you’re not interested in being educated out of your hateful attitudes.
Shame.
TANK
@Steve:
We should ship your ass to jamaica to live.
TANK
And educate, steve. You should educate in jamaica…about their ignorance…teach them the right way. Just move there and start walking the talk.
TANK
And then after that, it’s off to beautiful baghdad to test that hypothesis of yours that people can be educated out of their bigotry.
James
Sorry guys, but education will do little or nothing for the Jamaicans. Call me a bigot or whatever you want, but I have dealt with these people once every several months for seven years, and I think I know what I’m talking about.
RainaWeather
People use stupid logic.
@James:
Aren’t the gay Jamaicans who live in fear also Jamaican?. Go you hate gay Jamaicans?
J. Clarence
That’s an absolutely horrible life to live. You know what makes it worse though, when we give conservative Jamaican religious wing nuts ammunition to turn up the hate, by allowing them to say “Gay foreigners want to take away money from you with a (ineffective) boycott.”
newport
@James:
I agree with your passion. In the antebellum south the majority of the people there agreed with slavery. They were assholes, and subhuman for such thoughts.
sal(the original)
@TANK: lol,i agree send him here!!the Caribbean would sooo “welcome” him