Equal Rights and Justice for all?

The editorial cartoon published today in The Sunday Gleaner of April 3, 2010 makes a silent yet salient statement about Jamaica's social and political attitude toward gays. This is so especially in light of the fact that this newspaper has now emerged as one of very few public allies for JFLAG's campaign for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the soon-to-be-passed Charter of Rights. Such a public statement ought to be lauded and seen as an indication that at least some Jamaicans are fed up with the nonsense of blind homophobia in this modern world that we wish to inhabit.

This attitude is not novel. The vitriolic murder campaigns that overseas-based activists love to cite as well as the pathological disdain for homosexuality that every Jamaican is supposed to espouse have been dispelled as cultural myths despite the persistence of this stigma. Perhaps there is a sort of patriotism at play where Jamaica's hetero-normative hegemony sees the stain of homophobia as a badge of honour or moral righteousness. A signal to the world that Jamaica will not fall like Babylon. The hypocrisy of it is obvious for all to see but it is an open secret draped in patriotic bravado. Very much like the "machismo" of our clandestinely bisexual latin neighbours for whom sex is often less binary and more fluid. Though this is often difficult to manage given their own Spanish-Colonial-Roman-Catholic hegemony which is at conflict with the underlying culture of their tribal ancestors.

Yes, there is intense homophobia in Jamaica that often rears its ignorant head, but this is largely confined to instances of mania in a usually tepid environment. The heteros would much rather scorn the sodomites from a distance or bemoan the levels of depravity, iniquity, and sexual immorality Jamaica has attained now that these uppity homosexuals are now so brazen...but rarely is a blow ever delivered.

The challenge that exists is that privately the social leaders agree with JFLAG and its vision of a true ONE LOVE paradise not unlike the idyllic destination the Tourist Board is surprisingly good at selling. The reality however, that is much more difficult and complicated to change, is that any public embrace of JFLAG and its ideals is political and social suicide. Which is exactly why despite having so many identifiable allies JFLAG and the Jamaican Gay Rights Movement in general (because it would be an injustice to believe that it started with JFLAG or that JFLAG encapsulates all points of view of the community) has been stymied because no seemingly sensible organization, entity, or politician is willing to endorse the mission. That isolation makes it easy for the zealots to make the movement appear to be the fantasies of a bunch of morally bankrupt lunatics.

Now that the movement has received a rare public endorsement how do we capitalize on it?

Times are changing and now is when strategies ought to be devised.

Militancy will never work so we must appeal to the concept of universal human dignity and hope that good sense will prevail.

ONE LOVE