May 28, 2019

32: Can you be gay in Jamaica?

1 hour 24 minutes

While in Jamaica for Carnival we recorded a few podcasts with the people looking after us and our family. We got an update on the issues facing Jamaica and looked deeping into Jamaican becoming a LGBTQ friendly place.

Early one late summer morning, more than 200 people gathered under the lush canopy of Hope Gardens in Kingston, Jamaica, for a breakfast party.

The revellers ate – ackee, saltfish, fried plantain – and swayed to a soundtrack of dancehall and soca.

Same-sex couples danced together. A transgender woman strutted by in a flowing white dress adorned with a sash bearing the words: “Miss Supermodel Intl 2018”. The park was strung with rainbow banners for the fourth annual Pride JA celebrations. At about midday, the party wrapped up. A light rain eased the heat and the dancers went home to sleep.

It was all a far cry from the country that Time magazine called “the most homophobic place on Earth” in 2006. Yet that label has clung to Jamaica ever since, and with good reason. In a 2013 survey of 71 LGBT people conducted by Human Rights Watch, more than half said they had been victims of homophobic violence. Non-violent discrimination is even more pervasive, with bullying and exclusion faced in education, healthcare and within local communities.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/dec/06/jamaica-lgbt-rights-activists-pride-two-decades-of-progress-j-flag

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