NYT: Jamaican Dead Include
'Men Dressed as Women'
A story in today's New York Times about Jamaican government attempts to capture drug dealer Christopher Coke mentioned something in passing that I think the gay community needs to pay attention to:
Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said that family members of the missing would soon be told whether their relatives were among the roughly 70 civilians killed during the fighting. He said two of the dead were women, and that several were men dressed as women.
I deplore all of the violence and murder that take place in Jamaica, against all persons, and most certainly the mayhem and bloody attacks on its gay and transgender citizens.
And I have to wonder, with limited knowledge, if any of the dead men who were found in female clothing were transgender or gay persons. A few questions must be raised.
Why were some of the victims dressed that way? And how many were found that way? Did the police offer any explanations about this oddity?
I'll root around some more at gay and news sites from Jamaica and see if I can find additional info about this. I'll also send a note to the foreign desk at the Times and ask them for further information.
2 comments:
More than likely they are not trans or gay as cross dressing has been used by gangs and thugs to fool soldiers and police in raids in some of these inner city communities.
A few robberies have also taken place before where men were dressed in women's clothes and even a couple taxi men have been fooled into taking up a "woman" only to be robbed or killed as occured in one instance I recall from memory several years ago.
I wouldnt' rule out the possibility of trans though as the unwritten rule in Tivoli and a few other garrisons similar in nature is that no person who is from the area must be harmed within its confines unless so ordered by the dons etc so there were a few known gay persons, a couple I know personally there I don't think they crossed dressed inside the community though, you would appreciate that while ones sexual orientation maybe tolerated to a certain extent one has to be circumspect non the less.
So unless it was for above mentioned reasons of fooling the security forces as we saw only a few days into the incursion there (Tivoli) were mostly women and children were left behind in the community while the men disappeared except young boys and a few older males as usual a tactic used to distract the cops and in some instances will make themselves into human sheilds so the thugs can make good their escape.
It's a complicated and well orchestrated setup these garrisons.
A state within a state.
Peace
hello jamaican friend,
thanks for the information and shedding light on the situation. i'm happy to post your note. keep up the excellent advocacy and blogging you're doing.
best,
michael
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