Guardian's discussion of homophobia in Jamaica

[bobbieinok]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1383487,00.html


Their homophobia is our fault

Real liberals would realise it is meaningless to vilify Jamaicans for attitudes that Britain created

Decca Aitkenhead
Wednesday January 5, 2005
The Guardian

....
How did PJ Patterson plan to remedy the damage Jamaica's gay rights record was doing to its image? The smile vanished. "Let me make it very clear," he said. "The laws of Jamaica must be determined by the parliament of Jamaica, and that right we will maintain. We will never - never - compromise."

He is perfectly aware that his country's homophobia has become a fashionable British liberal cause and that the Home Office has refused entry to reggae stars known for homophobic lyrics. So why would a PM so desperate for foreign favour that he will dance on demand flatly refuse to contemplate reform?

Patterson was born nearly 30 before Jamaica became fully independent, in 1962. Imperialism is living memory, and his message is plainly legitimate: if you really believe in postcolonial independence, don't tell us what to do with it.

But the vilification of Jamaican homophobia implies more than a failure to accept postcolonial politics. It's a failure to recognise 400 years of Jamaican history, starting with the sodomy of male slaves by their white owners as a means of humiliation. Slavery laid the foundations of homophobia, and its legacy is still unmistakable in the precarious, overexaggerated masculinity of many men in Jamaica.

Jamaica was one of the most scandalously misgoverned of Britain's colonies, and since independence we've been helping ourselves to its workforce, while stigmatising it for exporting drugs and yardies. This has left an emasculating sense in many men that the only life that counts is lived abroad.

more....

[saltpoint]

1. I do not believe British colonial oppression is --

-- the root cause of homophobia in Jamaica.

Homophobia exists in places where the British didn't even set foot.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Even if Britain was responsible for Jamaican attitudes in the past

it seems reasonable to ask Jamaica to change, just as Britain and other countries have changed.