The scenarios listed below display the acts of violence and mistreatment that often takes place in the lives of homosexuals on the island of Jamaica. These scenarios are not even examples of the worst transgressions that have occurred.

“Irate residents attacked mourners at a funeral in Mandeville, Manchester because some of the mourners were cross-dressers (Virtue 2007) and a cross-dresser was beaten by a mob in Falmouth, Trelawny and had to be rescued by the police (Hines 2007). Two alleged homosexual revelers gyrating on each other at the Montego Bay Nite Out Carnival in St. James were attacked, beaten and chased by an angry mob (Daily Observer 2007). An angry mob in Kingston attacked three men who were accused of being homosexuals because the men wore tight jeans pants and skimpy shirts. The men sought refuge in a pharmacy and were rescued by the police who had to discharge tear gas canisters at the mob to protect the men. The men accused the police of taunting them (Walker 2007). The owner of a salon in Portmore, St. Catherine had to close her business because of threats against her male staff who were accused of being gay men (Davis 2007)” (Charles, Christopher A.D. “Representations of Homosexuality in Jamaica.”).

The mistreatment against gays that takes place in Jamaica is due to the need that men feel to excessively display their masculinity. Heterosexual men in Jamaica feel the need to constantly prove that they are heterosexual and prove how heterosexual they are. This leads to hypersexuality that was created during the time of slavery. During slavery it was “the white heterosexual male that defined the standards of manhood…” (DAVIS, ANDREA. “Translating Narratives of Masculinity Across Borders: A Jamaican Case Study.”). Since the white heterosexual males were placed at the top within society they were able to “not only position themselves as economically and politically powerful but they were also able to exercise ultimate sexual control over women’s bodies and physical control over male bodies.” (DAVIS, ANDREA. “Translating Narratives of Masculinity Across Borders: A Jamaican Case Study.”).  This control that was exercised by the heterosexual white male caused “slave society to deny male slaves legitimate access to women by constructing black men as the ultimate sexual predators against whom white women, especially, had to be protected. So that while black men were constructed, on one hand, as less than men, they were represented simultaneously, as Kimmel explains, “as hyper-masculine, as sexually aggressive, violent rapacious beasts, against whom ‘civilized’ men must take a decisive stand and thereby rescue civilizations” (135).” (DAVIS, ANDREA. “Translating Narratives of Masculinity Across Borders: A Jamaican Case Study.”). The deprivation and belittlement of male slaves caused them to cling to what they could to reinforce their masculinity that was taken by the white heterosexual male. They clung to physical strength and sexual virility (DAVIS, ANDREA. “Translating Narratives of Masculinity Across Borders: A Jamaican Case Study.”).  While in slavery there was a fixation on male slaves being physically strong and being made out to be animalistic with a high sex drives. Therefore, once slavery was over they focused on what they knew themselves to be. As they used these things to reinforce their masculinity they then began this process of othering and policing any other male that did not fit into the guidelines for what the “right” idea of a man should be. This “right” idea of what a man should be in regards to his sexual preference is heterosexual.

The “right” idea of what a man’s sexual preference should be comes from the the religious ideas that were taught during the time of slavery. Slaves were taught to obey the Christian religion which is the religion that to this day majority of Jamaicans still believe in and follow within their daily lives. “The contemporary sexual intolerance of Jamaicans has its roots in the “Christianization” of Jamaicans during slavery (LaFont 2001)” (Charles, Christopher A.D. “Representations of Homosexuality in Jamaica.”). Within Christianity homosexuality is something that is considered wrong and is considered a sin; so as a result Jamaicans take the beliefs that they were taught during the time of slavery and practice and reinforce it within today’s society. Since, from a religious aspect homosexuality is wrong and heterosexuality is right Jamaicans believe that it is okay to act out in violence towards homosexual individuals. These individuals do not fit into the societal views of what the “right” idea of a man is, which was created from religious views and hypersexuality that was emphasized during slavery. Not only were these ideas simply taught during slavery but they were reinforced by Britain. “Britain exported its views about sexual immorality to its Jamaican colony (LaFont 2001).” (Charles, Christopher A.D. “Representations of Homosexuality in Jamaica.”). These ideas were retaught and supported by the church. Once the “right” idea of what a man should be was accepted and established within society, society began working to police and uphold that idea.

This need to police began the violent acts like those listed above against homosexuals and the creation of vulgar murder music that became incredibly popular. When it comes to violent act against homosexuals sometimes it doesn’t even matter if it’s their own child. In a scenario in east Kingston a father found nude images of men in his sons bag and showed up at the school. “He encouraged students to maul his son as he just drove away. The students broke desks and benches to beat him with as well as punching and kicking him. When police tried to intervene the students began to attack them by throwing stones at them and damaging their property. Eventually the police were able to get to the young boy” (Charles, Christopher A.D. “Representations of Homosexuality in Jamaica.”). However, some individuals are not as lucky because, “As the Human Rights Watch Report of 2004 entitled “Hated to death: Homophobic violence, and Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS epidemic” notes, the Jamaican police force is too often a threat to gay men and lesbians.” (Charles, Christopher A.D. “Representations of Homosexuality in Jamaica.”). Many times “The response of law enforcement is rationalized as biblical “judgement” that the homosexuals deserve (Carr 2003)” (Charles, Christopher A.D. “Representations of Homosexuality in Jamaica.”). When it comes to music, Boom Bye Bye by Buju Banton is an incredibly popular song. However, the lyrics encourage the killing of homosexual men. Banton says, “Boom bye bye, inna battybwoy head, rude bwoy no promote no nasty man, dem haffi dead.” He is simply saying that being gay is not accepted and that they should die. He goes on to say, “ Hitch up on an rub up on, an lay down inna bed, hug up on another, anna feel up leg, send fi di matic an, di Uzi instead, shoot dem no come if we shot dem.” In these lines Banton says that as long as they engage in sexual acts with another man, we as a society should find a gun and shoot them. As Banton uses these lyrics he is, “metaphorically killing the “battybwoy,” Banton’s song not only marks the boundaries of the nation as male-dominates and heterosexual but also subjects the nation to internal policing.” (Bost, Darius. “Traumatizing Black Masculinities: Bearing Witness to Male Rape in the African Diaspora.”).  This policing continues in songs that are even older than this one. The song Mauma Man by Shabba Ranks in 1988 continues this obligation to policing. Within this song we hear, “it’s not right, it is wrong, a man a push his penis in a shit tank… gunshot is the solution, the one them that carry aids in our island, no homosexual my friend….if man from Jamaica would legalize gun, to kill battyman would be the greatest one, bow, bow, and them get shot down, …” The lyrics go on and on with this same idea that killing homosexuals is the only way.

On the island of Jamaica the society was taught through religion during slavery that homosexuality is wrong. When this is added to the necessity of constantly emphasizing how masculine they are and that they are in fact masculine this obligation to policing takes place. The policing is then continuously stressed and supported in the lyrics of music and violent acts towards gays within the island of Jamaica.