The Jamaican gay issue (Gleaner lifestyle article)

The Soloist
It's back in the news again. Seems like we just can't get away from it or get enough of it. It's this homosexual issue and this time it's all this talk about fairness, equality and rights as well as respect.

My beef this time is whether as a sovereign nation, a foreign organisation has the right to tell us how to conduct our affairs. And if the majority of our citizens take issue with homosexual relationships, does anyone outside our shores have the right even to suggest they change their views? For arguments sake, cricket, not baseball is our sport of choice, does that give another country the right to come here and tell us we are wrong to love cricket? No! So if we decide that we do not like the idea of two men having sex, marrying, and even adopting children, in the same way that a man and woman does, what gives an outsider the right to dictate otherwise?

Equal under law

So let's say, all men are equal under the law and all men have the right to be who or what they want to be. And let's say, all consenting adults have the right to engage in sexual intercourse with members of the same sex or opposite sex if they choose, why does anyone even care?

And let's say we care enough to object, why do homosexuals among these same foreigners, who have seen our reaction and natural cultural beliefs about sexual behaviour, still choose to live and move and be among us? Why leave their unrestricted habitats to come live in a closet? Why not keep your baseball and allow us to play our cricket?

Has anyone stopped to look more closely into the whispers about the so-called violence against gays in the society, where violence is usually commonplace, and crimes against gays are usually perpetrated by their lovers, based on relationship conflicts? Has anyone stopped to consider that Jamaicans simply (gay or straight), have a bad habit of settling disputes violently?

'Gay hater'

So to all those who are looking on with a view to blocking our progress in any shape or form because we are a homophobic society, remember the following: The average Jamaican 'gay hater' is so paranoid:

1. He would not knowingly drink from the same glass used by a gay man in a bar.

2. He would not knowingly join the same sports team with a gay person.

3. He would not willingly sit beside a gay man in a room.

4. He would not let him hug or kiss his child.

5. He would most certainly not take his clothes off in the same changing room with him.

No matter how nubile, muscular, handsome and sexy they may look, I would advise prominent and well-heeled gay men to stay away from partners who are prone to have a violent nature.

These guys are so desperate to escape their circumstances, they will use you to escape their plight. In other words, they lead you on, then blackmail you, then kill you. Stop giving my Jamaica a more violent name than it already has. So the next time you hear about a prominent gay man being killed violently, check the facts surrounding how he lived and died.