Commentary: What is there for LGBT Jamaicans to feel patriotic about?
In this letter to the editor, Jamaican/Canadian LGBT rights activist Maurice Tomlinson bemoans Jamaicans’ homophobia.
Dear editor,
Sometimes, I am forced to say that Jamaica is not a real place. The most recent occasion was when I read the latest national poll, which found that over 80% of my fellow citizens still support the archaic anti-sodomy law.
This colonial relic imposes up to 10 years’ imprisonment at hard labour for any form of male same-sex intimacy, even my husband and I holding hands in the privacy of our bedroom!
Ironically, most people championing this heinous edict “pride” themselves (pun intended) on being “Christian” when Jesus never said a word about homosexuality.
To compound the irony, is the overwhelming support for this discriminatory law while the country laments the hemorrhaging of teachers, nurses, and other skilled professionals at a rate second only to remote Samoa. Many of the island’s LGBT people are among this calamitous exodus and our Prime Minister’s solution to this catastrophic brain drain is patriotism, not equality.
But what exactly should LGBT Jamaicans feel patriotic about? A nation which thinks that the most intimate parts of our lives are sinful, and we should be thrown in jail for daring to express our love? Or to a country where violence against us is regularly under-policed? Or to a state where we can be fired, evicted, kicked out of school, and denied health care simply for being ourselves? Surely the PM jests?!
A popular local pastor even made the desperate suggestion that the island’s teachers should stay put to prevent pro-LGBT foreigners landing on our shores and teaching that gay people exist! The whole situation would be hilarious if it was not so tragic.
LGBT Jamaicans are like other citizens. We go where we are wanted, valued, and celebrated. So, our countryfolk who support the anti-buggery law choose hate, and along with it ignorance, poverty, and ill-health as well.
Yours truly,
Maurice Tomlinson
