The Jamaica Course

JOURNALS

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

We started this morning with another lecture on HIV/AIDS with some of the same material repeated. That’s OK. Dr. Figueroa spoke of the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS, just as Dr. Bain had yesterday. But today Dr. Figueroa also mentioned that sodomy was illegal in Jamaica, something that I am already aware of.

But neither lecturer acknowledged the stigma and discrimination associated with homosexuality and how this might contribute to the spread of HIV. Gays and lesbians are frequently beaten in Jamaica; a recent example was the CBS reporter (or cameraman, I can’t remember) who was severely beaten here a within the last few months.

I bought a book two days ago by a professor here named Barry Chevannes, titled Learning to be a Man: Culture, Socialization and Gender Identity in Five Caribbean Communities. Chevannes is the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences here at UWI Mona. This book is a study of the socialization of male children, and deals a little bit with homosexuality. Two communities in Jamaica are included, Motown and Joetown. Motown is in the western part of Kingston and Joetown is an area of downtown Kingston.

The author interviews members of both communities, and their comments are included in the dialect in which they were spoken. Among other things, the Motown guys said (when talking about associating the author with gay men), “But, if a mistake di man a mek, den a so! If a no so, bwaii, yu life coulda iina danger, because we no like dem-ting deh roun’ ya.” That was interpreted by the author to mean “If the man is mistaken, so be it. If he isn’t your life could be in danger, because around here we do not approve of such things”.

In his conclusion, he says “the issue here is not (always - my interpretation) homosexuality per se, but the intensity of revulsion from it”. He goes on to explain that homosexuality is tolerated to a degree. Caribbean societies that are very homophobic at the same time provide room for homosexuals. The Motown guys that threatened him spoke of known homosexuals in their community (that they accused the author of associating with) to which no harm had been inflicted.

Ok, enough about that for now, this is not a sociology class. But the point is that in Jamaica, homosexual activity is an enforced crime, and law enforcement often ignores assaults on homosexuals. This type of stigma and discrimination leads gay men to indulge in risky behavior. They may seek transactional sex or have sex with multiple partners, or get married to appear straight, only to continue risky sex with men and unprotected sex with their wives. All of this leads to increased risk for HIV and not just for the gay men, obviously.

I think that in the U.S. where homosexuality was much more stigmatized just a couple of decades ago, that the advent of HIV and AIDS helped reduce the stigma of being gay, even while the stigma of HIV was still growing. But through advocacy groups like ACT UP and GMHC in New York, along with the realization among Americans that people they loved (family members) and respected (Rock Hudson) could be gay (and affected by HIV). Now homosexuality is generally accepted and HIV carries much less of a stigma.

I want to contact Mr. Chevannes while I am here and question him a little on this. I have tried to find his email address on the UWI website, but so far have not been successful. Meanwhile I will continue in his book.

But I also wonder: among the medical community, the psychiatric community and the public health community; how is homosexuality viewed? I guess I will have to inquire to find out.

In the afternoon we went on a mosquito project close to Spanish Town. We were interrupted though by rain, and will try tomorrow. We met the Public Health Officer, Mr. Bromfield, and he spoke with us about the area, the recent malaria outbreak, and he and Stephanie spoke about the influx of Haitian refugees seeking asylum in Jamaica, and how they are brought into the system and checked for such things as malaria, filarial diseases and I presume HIV and other things before being allowed to become part of the community. Also I was fortunate to be sitting near Mr. Castle and was able to pick his brain about things like DDT use and honeybee colonies dieing in the United States and whether the Mosquito Deleto that I have in my backyard works as an efficient mosquito trap.

And we became aware of tropical storm Dean in the Atlantic, and will keep our eye on him. The NWS Hurricane Center site has it square over Jamaica on its 5 day forecast as a hurricane. Here we are!

Joe Openshaw

Back to Journal Home page