By Lionel Gayle
I am fuming with disgust over “the brutal slaying” of 17-year-old Wayne Jones in Jamaica, merely because he was dressed in drag and, allegedly, seen partying with another male at a dance in the Parish of St. James.
Could he have been my distant relative, or yours? Did he have many relatives and friends at home and in the Jamaican Diaspora? What role was he destined to play in the people-centred Vision 2030, Jamaica’s most ambitious national development plan? I guess we’ll never know the answer to the latter.
Obviously, members of the Montego Bay mob who battered the youth to death on July 22, 2013, had given no thought to their heinous crime, and so far seemed to have eluded crime-fighters. Judging Wayne by his cross-dressing, the homophobic miss-fits had concluded that he was a homosexual, therefore he deserved to die.
Perhaps he was gay. Even so, the Offences Against the Persons Act 1864 (“which outlaws sexual intimacy between two men,” privately or in public) is still on the statute book of Jamaica, and as far as I know, street justice or unsanctioned vigilantism against any minority group is a no-no in the land of reggae music and world-class athletes.
MISGUIDED HOMOPHOBES
Nevertheless, a group of citizens – including Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) and Jamaican Forum for Lesbians All Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) – while advocating for the repeal of the buggery act, “argues that the law encourages vigilante justice…against sexual minorities.” (http://constructedthoughts.wordpress.com/)
Interestingly, while the no-buggery-law advocates are rearing their heads, there is a group of religious moralists who is equally vociferous in goading the Government of Jamaica to keep the sodomy law intact.
But whether the 148-year-old law is repealed or maintained, people who belong to the community of Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – better known by its initialism LGBT – are here to stay. No vigilante force can purge them from the Jamaican populace or any other place.
I am fuming with disgust over “the brutal slaying” of 17-year-old Wayne Jones in Jamaica, merely because he was dressed in drag and, allegedly, seen partying with another male at a dance in the Parish of St. James.
Could he have been my distant relative, or yours? Did he have many relatives and friends at home and in the Jamaican Diaspora? What role was he destined to play in the people-centred Vision 2030, Jamaica’s most ambitious national development plan? I guess we’ll never know the answer to the latter.
Obviously, members of the Montego Bay mob who battered the youth to death on July 22, 2013, had given no thought to their heinous crime, and so far seemed to have eluded crime-fighters. Judging Wayne by his cross-dressing, the homophobic miss-fits had concluded that he was a homosexual, therefore he deserved to die.
Perhaps he was gay. Even so, the Offences Against the Persons Act 1864 (“which outlaws sexual intimacy between two men,” privately or in public) is still on the statute book of Jamaica, and as far as I know, street justice or unsanctioned vigilantism against any minority group is a no-no in the land of reggae music and world-class athletes.
MISGUIDED HOMOPHOBES
Nevertheless, a group of citizens – including Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) and Jamaican Forum for Lesbians All Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) – while advocating for the repeal of the buggery act, “argues that the law encourages vigilante justice…against sexual minorities.” (http://constructedthoughts.wordpress.com/)
Honestly, I am scoffing
at the line of reasoning that the buggery law “encourages vigilante justice.”
This is the sort of irresponsible utterance that could easily incite a group of
misguided homophobes to wreak havoc upon their fellow citizens.
I am a heterosexual man
who has absolutely no likeness for, or interest in the gay lifestyle. But
whether you’re gay or straight – or someone else within those boundaries – you
are a member of my human family. You deserve the right to live without the fear
of vigilantes who abhor you because of your sexual orientation or gender
identity. Interestingly, while the no-buggery-law advocates are rearing their heads, there is a group of religious moralists who is equally vociferous in goading the Government of Jamaica to keep the sodomy law intact.
But whether the 148-year-old law is repealed or maintained, people who belong to the community of Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – better known by its initialism LGBT – are here to stay. No vigilante force can purge them from the Jamaican populace or any other place.
COPULATING
If I were living in Jamaica, or anywhere else where the buggery law is still in vogue, I wouldn’t care a hoot whether it was repealed or upheld. If gay people are looking for leeway to practise their private business in the public, that’s a bad idea. It’s not going to happen in Jamaica.
The sight of two men
necking and petting in a city mall would make me very queasy. And two gay men copulating
on their front porch or in a bus shed after dark would be a repulsive
behaviour. My emotional displeasure would be equally loathsome if I saw a pair
of lesbians or a heterosexual couple performing the same act in public view. I believe
that certain level of intimacy should always be conducted out of the sight of
non-participants – behind closed doors.If I were living in Jamaica, or anywhere else where the buggery law is still in vogue, I wouldn’t care a hoot whether it was repealed or upheld. If gay people are looking for leeway to practise their private business in the public, that’s a bad idea. It’s not going to happen in Jamaica.
Now, so what if young
Wayne was gay? There is no law against gay people in Jamaica. And there is no
indication that he had committed “the abominable crime of buggery,” either with
human or animal. Such act would have earned him a prison sentence of up to ten
years with hard labour, if convicted in a court of law.
Neither is there any complaint
that he had attempted to commit the
said crime for which punishment would have translated into a misdemeanor, with
imprisonment of seven years maximum, “with or without hard labour.”
