Watching Jamaica

Timothy Kincaid

December 28th, 2011

There have been some interesting developments in Jamaica recently.

Institutionalized homophobia has died down a bit – or at least the press has fewer stories of mob murders or police cover-ups of homophobic violence. But as the elections are going into their final days, the sodomy law is becoming something of an issue. (USA Today)

But during a debate last week with Prime Minister Andrew Holness, opposition chief Portia Simpson Miller called for a review of the law. She argued that professional competence, not sexual orientation, will determine who is selected for a Cabinet post if her People’s National Party wins.

Since then, some top Labor candidates have made homophobic comments at political rallies, among them Cabinet minister Daryl Vaz, who said “God created Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve,” prompting applause and anti-gay slurs from his West Portland constituents.

Labor’s candidate for West Central St. James, Energy Minister Clive Mullings, asserted that easing up on laws against homosexuality would bring God’s wrath down on Jamaica, while West Kingston candidate, Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie, used an epithet at a rally while an anti-gay dancehall song played.

I’ll be watching the results of Thursday’s election to see if either party – currently neck and neck – is a clear winner.

There is another potential story to the uptick in homophobia, but I’m waiting on responses before discussing it further.

\\

December 28th, 2011

“…would bring God’s wrath down on Jamaica”

May have a point here: if there ever was some sort of typhoon or a hurricane at the Jamaica islands, it COULD be just an ordinary weather phenomenon, but more then likely it’s just God having a hissy fit against two males or two females holding hands.
I don’t know about you, but if your God’s way of making a “civilized” critique is by creating disasters, you might want to get new management. Especially if weather phenomenons created by God is suspiciously similar to natural weather phenomenons.

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