Freedom at what cost?

I've touched on this topic before but every once in a while something brings it to the fore of my mind once more.

I believe it was one young advocate who in his zeal and frustration at my growing cynicism with the current 'leadership' of the 'movement' and dismissal of his militant approach to social change, made it clear that the cowards would have to leave their comfort zone and join the brave soldiers on the front line, and that like Stonewall, some would probably have to die in order to achieve the changes we all want to see.

Really? It's like that?

No longer seeing myself as the cog that turned the wheels of advocacy has changed my perspective a great deal. In fact in many respects I now liken my past incarnation to a hamster on a jogging wheel. That wheel sure squeaks loudly but the Hamster isn't advancing despite how furiously it is working.

This is the section of the Offenses Against the Persons Act that outlaws anal sex and that many say legitimizes homophobic intolerance.

The law is repugnant in any modern democracy, but I am not sure the average bitter heterosexual is knowledgeable or concerned with the legality of the act in the eyes of the state as they are with the morality of the act in the eyes of God.

If someone accosts you on the streets of downtown Kingston for being identifiably gay they are not doing so because they want to make a citizens' arrest and present you to the nearest magistrate. They want to beat the shit out of you because Moses says "their blood shall surely be upon them" and so the 2x4 used to beat the battyman to a bloody pulp is the rod of correction as ordained by the God of Abraham!

I am a gay business owner in one of Kingston's busiest distircts. I know they know I'm gay. I walk undisturbed despite the whispers I hear on occasion when I pass or the curious stares I notice when I arrive.

By and large I've come to understand that Jamaicans are not irrational homophobes that enjoy the amusement of killing battyman as some sort of bloodsport.

I believe Jamaicans are remarkably tolerant, but to a point.

I'm serious, Shebby!

Didn't we meet up the other night at that restaurant when you were in that yellow knickers, red tank top (read blouse) and platinum soul glo curls?

Sure they looked, but they wouldn't dare touch!

I believe Jamaican advocates have to chart their own course that takes into consideration Jamaica's cultural idiosyncrasies. We are a contradictory people with a contrary moral code that usually defies the loud evangelism you'll hear on the streets.

The gangs of young butches and young queens that traverse Half Way Tree and Downtown Kingston every day do not go unnoticed. People know exactly what and who they are and by and large leave them to their own devices. Sure, every once in a while you'll hear a shout of "sodomite!" or "battyman!" after the group has passed, but the witch-hunting mobs of yore apparently have better things to do.

I think we have to thank persons like Ragashanti for being one of the most vocal advocates of this nouveau "do your thing, I do mine" approach to homosexuality.

It takes someone such as Raga to influence the minds of ordinary Jamaican that resents the big-stick political activism that typifies the LGBT movement in the US.

Jamaicans don't want to see marches and pride flags and to hear shouts of "we're here, we're queer, get used to it!"

I believe they are much more content to leave you to your space as long as you are classy within that space.

Progress will have the occasional retrograde step on either side of the political divide, but you can't stop progress once it has already built up momentum and I believe that momentum toward a more tolerant Jamaica is building and that the ordinary Jamaican deserves just as much (if not more) credit than the typical advocates for social change because it is he that is on the ground dealing with differences in lifestyle and opinion that lead to conflict while the advocate is in the air on the way to a conference to discuss the same old shit or in an office, oblivious to sentiments on the ground with the lumpen.

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