Petrelis Files

Essence: Bishop Says Gays
Are Killing Gays in Jamaica

(A transgender person under attack from a mob of heterosexuals, April 2007. Source: The Jamaica Observer.)

Ah, the twilight zone. A space between reality and willful fantasy. On at least one occasion, an influential religious leader in Jamaica was in the twilight zone when he made incredibly ignorant and outrageous claims about the violence gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people face in his country.

From the March issue of the black women's magazine Essence:

Bishop Herro Blair, one of Jamaica's most respected pastors, who presides over 22 churches on the island, dismisses the notion that men are being beaten for being gay. He offers his own theory for the violent killings that have been reported in Jamaican newspapers—that they are lovers' quarrels. "I can safely say, nine times out of ten, that when a homosexual is killed, it's by another homosexual," he declares, leaning forward over the desk in his stately office in the capital city of Kingston.

"Homosexuals are the most jealous community you'll find anywhere in the world," he adds.

I sure would like to know there the bishop got his statistic from and who has verified his claim. It certainly was not the U.S. State Department. Echoing the bishop's nonsense is a high-ranking government official in charge of, ahem, justice:

Minister of Justice Dorothy Lightbourne also isn't convinced gay men are being targeted. "There have been reports in the paper of incidences," allows Lightbourne. "But I wouldn't say it's so widespread. I don't know, sometimes it could be youngsters too-young boys-who carry on these acts. I'm just making a suggestion."

But as activists and local officials square off about the severity of homophobia in Jamaica, gay men and lesbians say they are struggling just to stay alive.

As troubling as these comments may be, I'm still glad Essence included them, if only to educate readers about the awful stupidity of religious and political leaders of Jamaica. And because I hope the remarks move more gay people and human rights advocates to support the boycott of Jamaica that launches on March 28 from San Francisco.

Who can read those dumb comments and think the safety of gays on the island nation is well understood by the country's leaders?

The magazine devoted lots of space to the extreme violence facing GLBT Jamaicans. Here are excerpts:

Gareth Henry is haunted by a memory. When he tells the story, his voice starts to crack. It was a sunny day, June 18, 2004, and Henry, a slightly built man with a round, boyish face and quick smile, was relaxing on the beach in Montego Bay, Jamaica, with a few friends. From where he sat, he could see three police officers approach another friend, Victor Jarrett, who was farther down the beach. Henry vividly remembers one of the officers pushing Jarrett, 24, while another yelled at him that no battymen (local patois for faggot) belonged on the beach. Henry winced as the officers began to beat Jarrett with their batons and fists. ...

"I will never forget it," Henry, 31, says, speaking in the vaguely British lilt of a well-educated Jamaican. "There were about 100 people and they were saying to the officers, 'Hand him over; let us finish him.' " According to Henry and several eyewitnesses who would later report the incident to the international rights organization Human Rights Watch, the police walked away from Jarrett, leaving him to the angry mob. "Beat him because him a battyman!" said one of the officers. Men picked up sticks and stones and started pummeling Jarrett. ...

Not depressing enough for you? Then read this:

Even children are not spared the abuse: In one of the more shocking examples cited by Amnesty International, in February 2004, an eleventh-grader at a Kingston high school was assaulted when his father, suspecting his child was gay after finding a picture of a nude man in the boy's backpack, summoned other students to beat him.

The island's gay rights organization, Jamaica's Forum for Lesbians All-sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), notes that between 2006 and 2008 more than 150 homophobic assaults and murders were reported to the agency. Gay men and lesbians have been chased, chopped, beaten, raped and shot.

Does that sound like a tourist destination gay dollars should support? The boycott of cruises to the island nation, Myers rum and Red Stripe beer is long overdue. More horrors from Essence:

J-FLAG, which is funded by anonymous donors and international human rights agencies, provides assistance to gays and lesbians who have been harassed or attacked, helping them find safe housing and making sure they get medical attention. According to the organization, gay men suffer the most abuse, but lesbians are not immune.

In August, for example, [JFLAG volunteer] Karlene was called to help Stephan, a young lesbian, and her brother, Karl, relocate after they were shot at by neighbors. (Both Stephan and Karl declined to use their full names.) The two were outside their home one night, looking for a set of car keys that had fallen in the dirt. Suddenly two men who were sitting on a nearby veranda opened fire. Stephan was shot through the abdomen, the bullet piercing her kidney and liver. Bleeding profusely, she fell to the ground and pretended to be dead. As she lay there, one of the gunmen shot her between her legs.

"He was aiming for my vagina," she says, "but the bullet only grazed my buttock."

Jamaica. Hell on earth for LGBT people. The boycott of Jamaica begins this weekend.