This is welcome news, indeed, from Jamaica, which has a reputation for being one of the most anti-gay nations on the planet:
Jamaica’s newly elected first female prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, says discrimination against gay people is wrong. “No one should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation,” Simpson Miller said during a recent election debate, adding that unlike her predecessor she would be open to appointing a qualified gay person to her cabinet.
It doesn’t mean the nation will change overnight — has the United States? No — but to have such a prominent voice arguing against discrimination is huge.
So this ad from Exodus International is running in newspapers in Trinidad and Jamaica right now. It’s indicative of their troubles at home that the only places they feel like they’ll get any bang for their buck are already among the most homophobic nations on earth:
Their graphic designer apparently isn’t as good as ours either.
Last month, the nation alternately cackled and cringed when virulently homophobic “researcher” George Rekers was photographed at Miami International Airport with an attractive hustler he met on RentBoy.com. The good doctor, who had testified in court against LGBT people adopting children, said he only hired the young escort to “lift his luggage”.
Before the laughter over the Rekers ruckus subsided, another anti-gay phony was unmasked for his baloney. Activist Mike Rogers outed Congressman Mark Kirk, (R-Il) after the closet case voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. According to Rogers:
“Kirk voted against repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, despite his being a closeted gay man in the military. As a Commander in the Navy Reserves, Kirk has voted to keep a policy that if he were investigated under he would be tossed.”
Prior to his unconscionable vote, Kirk (pictured)had a relatively respectable record on LGBT issues. However, in his bid for the U.S. Senate, Kirk veered to the right, which included posing as a homophobe. Now that he has been exposed as a fraud, one wonders if the Tea baggers will still consider him their cup of tea.
Another maxim that appears to be accurate is the one that says, “those who have genuine family values never utter the words “family values.”
Seriously, how bored with your spouse, dissatisfied with your life, and spiritually empty do you have to be to unctuously parade your family as a prop on the public stage?
The most recent lowlife squirming under the family values banner is Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) who announced that he would resign from Congress because he had an affair with a woman on his staff. He follows in the footsteps of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.). When will voters finally wise up to these religious racketeers who sell a morality mirage?
Just as gay-obsessed anti-gay activists are often gay, and holier-than-thou politicians are likely to be having sex with everyone but their spouses, one should also be leery of nations prone to attacking their LGBT citizens. While these countries pose as beacons of the biblical banner, their professions of piousness often mask moral mayhem. It seems that almost every anti-gay nation is an authoritarian, cesspool of corruption.
Jamaica, for example has been called one of the most homophobic lands on earth. The island’ Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, said he would not have an openly gay person in his cabinet. Yet, it appears he, and nearly every other politician in Jamaica, is in cahoots with local mafia dons who deal in death and drugs.
In fact, money has flowed into those communities for decades, thanks to an arrangement in Jamaica in which politicians and dons share power. Through extortion and the drug trade, the dons provide security, and by steering contracts and other pork to the neighborhoods, the politicians count on the continued loyalty of voters.
Where are all the outspoken fundamentalists who ferociously condemn gays and make a big show about Jamaica’ values? We keep hearing how this island is a pristine “Christian Nation”, but where are the Christians when you need them to stand up to endemic corruption?
It seems these self-righteous cowards attack defenseless sexual minorities, while turning a blind eye to the most sordid transgressions of scripture. While the epidemics of murder and theft genuinely affect their families — gay people do not. Yet, the misled masses in Jamaica choose to focus on a non-issue like homosexuality, while disregarding factors that have kept their children mired in poverty and pain.
Jamaica is not alone in using LGBT people as scapegoats to distract the public from naked political power grabs. Zimbabwe’ brutal dictator, Robert Mugabe, (pictured) practically wrote the playbook on using gays as political pawns when he once said they were worse than pigs and dogs. Uganda’ president Yoweri Musevini has clung to power for twenty-four years and uses gay people to sidetrack citizens who might otherwise be upset that he has squelched democratic reform. In Northern Ireland, anti-gay conservative parliament member, and the 58-year-old wife of the Prime Minister, Iris Robinson, had an affair with a 19-year-old male lover.
While being gay is normal and natural, homophobia is not. It is often a sickness or a deliberate distraction designed to deceive the na?Øve. And, nations with leaders that are homophobic often scream “perversion” as a smoke and mirrors diversion. It is time people woke up and realized that when someone is rabidly anti-gay they usually want you to look the other way.
Last year, Truth Wins Out joined a small coalition of activists to boycott Jamaica because of the island’s rampant homophobia. During the campaign, I appeared on Jamaican talk radio shows where people called in and berated me for promoting immorality. The callers insisted that Jamaica a purified Christian nation with bedrock values and pristine morals. The indignant citizens claimed that it was gay rights activists, such as myself, who were corrupting the good citizens if Jamaica.
So, imagine my surprise to learn in the New York Times that the Jamaican government resisted attempts to extradite druggie gang leader, Christopher Coke, who is wanted in the United States on gun and drug charges. His brutal gang attacked three police stations in an attempt to pressure the government to let him remain free.
Mr. Coke is accused by federal prosecutors in the United States of running a major cocaine and marijuana trafficking operation from Tivoli Gardens, the neighborhood in Kingston that he controls. The State Department sought his extradition last August to New York, where he is accused in United States District Court of trafficking drugs and using the proceeds to buy guns in the United States and send them back to his allies in Jamaica.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who represents Tivoli Gardens in the Jamaican Parliament, initially balked at sending him to the United States.
Both of Jamaica’s major political parties have fostered ties with neighborhood gangs, which turn out the vote in exchange for political favors.
Christopher Coke, who runs a consulting firm that receives sizable contracts from the government, is linked to the Jamaican Labor Party led by Mr. Golding.
Just a refresher, Golding is staunchly anti-gay, yet he uses a drug cartel as a get out the vote operation. I suppose that is cheaper than robo-calls. Here is a BBC interview with Golding:
This wonderful culture condemns homosexuality, yet its political leaders protect drug dealing gang leaders. Not just any gang leader, but one in charge of a lethal cartel, the Shower Posse, that American prosecutors say is accused of hundreds of drug-related killings in the United States in the 1980s.
My question is: Where are all those moralistic gay-hating Christians now? Like cowardly bullies, they attack defenseless LGBT people, often in mobs, to supposedly protect family values. But, they are MIA when it comes to standing up to drug gang violence – which truly affects their families. They elect a Prime Minister tied directly to this illegal operation, yet they want to preach against gay people? They want to portray themselves as a Christian nation?
While our official boycott has ended, I personally would not go to Jamaica and I still boycott their products. Not only is Jamaica a homophobic island, it is also filled with phony hypocrites who slander gays but tolerate — even celebrate — violent criminal behavior at the highest levels of government.
It is time the citizens of Jamaica clean up their act before getting on their moral high horse.
Imagine. Gay Pride in Jamaica. The words of William Urich, the chair of InterPride Committee on International GLBTI Human Rights, on the first public Pride even on the Caribbean island which was staged yesterday.
“Yesterday was an amazing day, here in Montego Bay,” he told UK Gay News.“My eyes well up at the very thought of the day’s outstanding and astounding success.”
Officially, it was the Walk for Tolerance from Howard Cooke Park, along Howard Cooke Boulevard and ending on the beach.The Rev. Nancy Wilson and Rev. Pat Bumgardner (pictured) the Metropolitan Community Churchwere on-hand for the march. Congratulations for the brave Jamaicans and MCC for creating positive steps for change in this country.
Last year, we helped launch a boycott against the homophobic island nation. Although the boycott is officially over and did not accomplish what we had hoped, it did raise awareness of the plight of LGBT Jamaicans. As for me – I’m personally still boycotting. Although, with more efforts, such as this, maybe I will one day visit this island. I certainly hope so.
Rev. Aaron Dumas, an antigay pastor and advice columnist for The Jamaica Star, tells a lesbian that U.S. ex-gay political activists can cure her “lifestyle.” He advises her to seek out a “Christian counsellor” — certainly not one of those mainstream mental-health professionals who “would encourage you to continue to practise homosexuality.”
Jamaica is a nation where antigay vigilantism is culturally accepted; authorities leave violence unpunished; and no GLBT organization can meet in public, hold events, or advocate publicly for justice and equality. In Jamaica, it takes courage to simply say “no” to violence.
Columnist Diane Abbott of The Jamaica Observer on Sunday wrote a column citing numerous recent reports of antigay murder and vigilantism. She warned that public denial of the severity of such violence harms Jamaica’s reputation.
Because attitudes to homosexuality in Jamaica are so hostile, it is not sufficiently understood how damaging its stand on the issue is outside the country.
A U.S.-based, pro-equality boycott against Jamaica was put on hold earlier this year when J-FLAG, Jamaica’s GLBT organization-in-hiding, withheld its support.
Nevertheless, Abbott says Jamaicans should learn from the boycott and from numerous reports of antigay violence:
The boycott has so far been unsuccessful. But a country dependent on tourism cannot afford to ignore the fact that attitudes to homosexuality in other countries have moved on. There are probably as many people in Britain who are privately judgemental about homosexuals and lesbians as there are in Jamaica. But the British take the view that what people do in the bedroom is their affair. So gay marriage is legal and leading politicians in both the government and opposition parties have publicly acknowledged their sexual orientation and married their partners. It is difficult to imagine such a state of affairs coming about in Jamaica any time soon.
But Jamaica could do more to stress that despite the blood-curdling lyrics of much of its popular music, it is a more tolerant society than people think. And violence against gay people should be universally condemned.
The latest anti-gay terrorism in Iraq — is gluing shut the anuses of homosexuals, while forcing the victims to ingest a form of Ex-Lax. The special glue can only be removed by surgery — thus often leading to a painful death.
It is always a challenge to know if such information is accurate. But, confirming (I have) the latest form of torture is beside the point, really. What we do know is that the news from overseas is rarely encouraging.
For example, in March “tens of thousands” of people from Burundi demonstrated to outlaw homosexuality. This destitute nation is the kind of place that you may have seen in late night infomercials where flies buzz around the lips of starving children. Eighty percent of Burundi’s population lives in poverty. Famines and food shortages have occurred and the World Food Program reports that 56.8-percent of children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Yet, the good citizens of Burundi have time to chant and hold signs demanding the imprisonment of homosexuals.
Back to Iraq — our tax dollars are now overseeing the wanton murder of gay Iraqis. The New York Times reported this month that “the bodies of 25 boys and men suspected of being gay have turned up in the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City…”
In Nigeria, lawmakers are debating a bill that would imprison gay people who live together and jail anyone who doesn’t rat out the gay couples. In July 2008, London’s Independent wrote a story about a 26-year-old gay man in Turkey, Ahmet Yildiz, saying that his own family may have killed him. “They wanted him to see a doctor who could cure him, and get married,” a friend explained.
Box Turtle Bulletin reported that a Ugandan newspaper this week published an article under the banner headline, “Top Homos In Uganda Named.” This outrage — that jeopardizes the lives of gay people – follows a recent anti-gay conference in Uganda featuring a board member from the American “ex-gay” organization Exodus International.
In Moscow, mayor Yuri Luzhkov has rejected calls for a gay pride march to be held during an upcoming European music festival. He has called pride parades, “gay propaganda” and “satanic acts”, according to the New York Times.
What we are seeing in front of our eyes is the globalization of gay bashing. The United States has exported marketing techniques and church structures to culturally homophobic countries. The sexual minorities caught in these nations’ do not have the same freedoms that we enjoy in the west, so they can’t fight back. They are essentially voiceless and fearful — allowing insidious myths and stereotypes to go unchallenged. With gay people effectively demonized and hatred promoted by civic and religious leaders, hysteria on gay issues ensues. (Read More)
Some Jamaicans have spoken out in favor of efforts to boycott Jamaican goods or music until leaders take serious action to reduce antigay vigilantism.
Perhaps most prominent among music-boycott supporters in 2008 was Gareth Henry, who was the co-chair of Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, Allsexuals, and Gays until he was forced to flee the country for Canada last year. J-FLAG publicly expressed disagreement with the 2008 music boycott, but according to Xtra.ca, Henry said that JFLAG could not be seen to publicly support a boycott.
“They can’t be the ones to call for the boycott,” he says. “They can’t be that voice. But the gays, lesbians and queers on the ground are supportive of a boycott.”
Henry says he’s tried talking to the government.
“We have tried numerous approaches, numerous dialogues with government officials,” he says. “They have been non-responsive to the call. We have to hit people where it’s going to hurt, where they’ll feel it. In the Jamaican context talk is cheap. After 10 years of JFLAG’s existence what else can we do?”
[Addendum:Henry opposes the 2009 boycott of goods and tourism that is advocated by BoycottJamaica.org.]
Stop Murder Music Canada (SMMC) advocated a boycott last year of Jamaican musicians whose songs contain violently homophobic lyrics .
Xtra.ca reported that Canada’s reggae community was split on the issue.
Christian Lacoste, an openly gay Montreal reggae fan who runs the website Murder Inna Dancehall, supported both the music boycott and an official immigration ban on visits by homophobic dancehall artists. But Cezar Brumeanu, who runs the Montreal International Reggae Festival and that city’s House of Reggae nightclub, opposed a boycott.
This year, Jamaican blogger Dave, supports BoycottJamaica.org, a newer boycott of Jamaican goods and tourism. Dave — who is forced to remain anonymous to protect his safety — says:
This could potentially devastate my country during this global recession but this is basically the only thing I can do to improve my living conditions without putting myself in physical danger. Jamaica sucks when it comes to addressing LGBT issues and I am tired of living under these stupid conditions. Obviously, LGBT issues require much more attention Worldwide, even in the US, but Jamaica just refuses to even give us any basic rights. And they NEVER speak out against violence against gays. I don’t F-ing care how long it takes, just Boycott our asses and pass the word along.
The goals of BoycottJamaica.org are modest: There is no requirement that Jamaica affirm same-sex orientation or legalize same-sex intimacy. Instead, BoycottJamaica calls for Jamaican officials to publicly commit to ending antigay violence, and for the Prime Minister to clearly and unequivocally condemn antigay violence and express regret for past violence.
But they refuse. Until Jamaican leaders declare a halt to antigay vigilantism, boycotts appear to be the only way for North American LGBT people and their allies to tell Jamaica that they will no longer subsidize Jamaicans’ war against their gay neighbors and against basic human decency in exported music.
National Jamaican Boycott Campaign Kicks-Off in New York City With “Rum Dump’ at Birthplace of Gay Rights Movement
Stonewall Inn Owners Dump Stock of Myers Rum and Red Stripe Beer in Sewer; Urge Other Bars To Follow Lead
Gay advocates launched a national boycott of Jamaica in New York City at the famed Stonewall Bar — birthplace of the gay rights movement. The bar’ owners and boycott supporters dumped Jamaican liquor — Red Stripe beer and Myers’ Rum — down the sewer.
Human rights activists have given Jamaica the infamous title: “The Most Homophobic Place on Earth.” Gay people have regularly been beaten and murdered on the island, while authorities do little to stop the violence.
“We, as the owners of the Stonewall Inn, birthplace of the Gay rights movement, refuse to support, in any way, shape or form, the oppression of any people especially our gay brothers and sisters in Jamaica,” the Stonewall Inn said in its statement. “We ask all people of all walks of life to send a clear message to the Jamaican people and their government, that as long as they continue to allow and condone violence and hatred toward the Gay community, we will neither buy their products nor support their tourist trade. To do so is to tacitly support the current climate of oppression.”
“If you love your gay friends and family members, you won’t visit Jamaica,” said boycott co-organizer Wayne Besen. “If you care about the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, you won’t buy Jamaican products. We hope that all gay and gay friendly bar owners and restaurateurs across the nation will participate in “rum dumps.’ We can no longer subsidize our own slaughter.
GLBT activists Michael Petrelis, Wayne Besen and Jim Burroway launched this boycott after a State Department report highlighted the violence faced by GLBT people. According to the report:
The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG) continued to report human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of homosexual patients by hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of homosexuals. Police often did not investigate such incidents.
The West Coast portion of the boycott took place earlier this month with a rum dump in San Francisco that featured Petrelis and city Supervisor Bevan Dufty.
With a gift of $35 to Truth Wins Out, you can receive an autographed copy of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth."
It was once a speculative clich?© to say that rabidly anti-gay individuals were actually closeted, self-loathing homosexuals. But thanks to an avalanche of hypocrites, the notion is quickly becoming a truism.
Prior to his unconscionable vote, Kirk (pictured)had a relatively respectable record on LGBT issues. However, in his 
countries pose as beacons of the biblical banner, their professions of piousness often mask moral mayhem. It seems that almost every anti-gay nation is an authoritarian, cesspool of corruption.
Jamaica is not alone in using LGBT people as scapegoats to distract the public from naked political power grabs. Zimbabwe’ brutal dictator, 
Last year, Truth Wins Out joined a small coalition of activists 
From Andy 
Jamaica is a nation where antigay vigilantism is culturally accepted; authorities leave violence unpunished; and no GLBT organization can meet in public, hold events, or advocate publicly for justice and equality. In Jamaica, it takes courage to simply say “no” to violence.
The latest anti-gay terrorism in Iraq — is gluing shut the anuses of homosexuals, while forcing the victims to ingest a form of Ex-Lax. The special glue can only be removed by surgery — thus often leading to a painful death.
