Central America And The Caribbean: Jamaica

SebastianSplendid
West Hollywood

The Most Homophobic Place On Earth--Don't Go

Human rights activists have given Jamaica the infamous title: “The Most Homophobic Place on Earth.” If you love your gay friends and family members, you won’t visit Jamaica. If you care about the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, you won’t buy Jamaican products.

Isn’t it time we stop rewarding this hate state with our tourism dollars? Isn’t it time to stop drinking Jamaican beverages, such as Myers Rum and Red Stripe Beer?

This nation should be avoided at all costs until the Jamaican government takes action to end the country’s virulently homophobic climate and draconian laws that persecute homosexuals. Until Jamaica takes the following easy steps an official boycott is in effect:

1) Publicly commit to end gay bashing on the island and improve the human rights situation

2) A statement from the Prime Minister clearly and unequivocally condemning violence against GLBT people and expressing regret for past violence

Comments:

jamaicangirl27
0 places

I think that each country should and does have the right to determine it’s own laws. I think that’s the beauty of democracy and independence….self determination. Wouldn’t you agree Monsieur West Hollywood? Bien sur!

Our country is doing just that in the same way that some countries believe they can bully other countries and lock others in a state of dependency, wage war against other nations for oil etc or raid others because they feel they can do so.The latter I am absolutely against.

Jamaica is “the most homophobic place on earth”...and what? We determine our own laws and such laws were never seen as discriminatory 50 years ago. Things and times have changed but we have decided that we do not wish to part with certain principles that are foundational to our social fabric.

By the way, who are you to instruct our prime minister to issue statements? Kindly rid yourself of such notions sir.

I therefore invite you to visit and encourage others to visit countries where they feel their homosexuality is welcome instead of trying to undermine a nation who believes in the continuity of certain principles which was never criminalised. Principles that most countries of the world affix (ed) their approval.

So Mr. Splendid, maybe you could do the world a favour and boycott countries that bully smaller nations, bomb places like Hiroshima, India, Iraq in the selfish pursuit of scarce resources. Maybe you could boycott those countries who trick other nations into this whole idea of free trade, which in turn undermined their local industries and livlihood.Then again, you may not have much of a choice there?

A bien mediter monsieur….west hollywood.

SebastianSplendid
West Hollywood

You open your missive with the words “I think”, and then you repeat them in the next sentence. The problem is, I don’t believe you think at all, because if you did stop and think, even for a full minute, about the horrific things that people do to gays, lesbians and transgendered persons in Jamaica, you might have stopped right there and not fired off a knee-jerk response that contains no actual thought, but instead reeks of wounded nationalist pride and hatred of “Imperialist America”.

I can freely state that I am no fan of many of my countries actions, especially within the last 8 years of Bush, with his stolen election, illegal oil war, bungling of Hurricane Katrina, the list goes on. If you want to talk about that, we can probably find many areas where we agree. But that is not what my original post was about, and you chose not to respond to the topic at hand and instead go off on a rant about everything but.

When I first read your response I found it sad more than anything, and definitely not the galvanizing wake-up call you seem to have intended to deliver. Taking someone out of their house and burning them alive in the street because they were perceived as a “batty-boy” or gang raping and then disposing of a woman because she might be a “zamie” may have been acceptable 50 years ago, and I suppose it still is in your country. Then again, 50 years ago our president Obama’s parents would have been forbidden from marrying. Things usually change for the better, and I had to remind myself of that after reading your thoughts.

I appreciate your invitation to visit countries with more tolerance than Jamaica, and I accept your invitation graciously. In fact, when I was at a friend’s wedding recently, they mentioned that they were thinking of going to Jamaica on their honeymoon. I am proud to relate that when I informed them of the long history of human rights abuses there, they actually changed their reservations and went to Greece instead. You see, there is no need for tolerant, kind individuals to invasively force our beliefs on another countries laws and traditions; we will simply not gift them with our hard-earned vacation dollars. The boycott is having its effect and it will continue to grow, God willing, until Jamaica and countries with similar attitudes let go of their fear and ignorance in these matters.

Yours, Sebastian


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