When your sex gets loud....

One has to be so careful out there even though the very slouchy change and tolerance of homosexuality in Jamaica as a discussion is still loaded with some abhorrence for anal sex and the belief that such act is too loaded with interaction with faecal matter is still real and can often lead to challenges in everyday life as persons feel justified with certain lines are crossed. Couples or persons cohabiting as same gender lovers or non romantic sex partners and who engage in loud sex overall has caused problems before and a few have made the mainstream news locally. Some strange things have been reported since May through to recently albeit we are in Pride month but sheesh the silly season is on us again.

A male couple learned the hard way in a St Catherine community after renting one of the Matalon houses which are joined together on both sides of neighbours; the original tenant has had a frequent male visitor among other friends over for some time as his friend and was present in the moving exercise some months ago but an incident earlier in April this year has had some residents in the community all of a sudden looking for or profiling persons due to their perceived sexual orientation, the slightest non conforming behaviour or too much male company as it were has become grounds for opposition. The confirmed report is that the men were heard making love in the late hours of the morning of Sunday April 12, 2015 after they arrived from an outing the night before. The men reportedly were most noisy with sounds of pleasure emanating from the living room section of the house which also joined to the neighbouring house’s bedrooms. I also have had neighbours (heterosexual) in high ecstasy complete with bed or furniture banging on the walls to emphasise the thrusting action; they have since moved and more sanguine persons now occupy the flat.

The love making men were knocked up by irate neighbours from both sides of the house with others who were alerted some time afterwards who complained bitterly about the “noise”, persons were expecting a woman to emerge from the house according to one person claiming to be an eyewitness but instead the main tenant came out apologizing profusely but it soon became apparently it was a gay couple who were emitting the lovely sounds. The decibel levels of the neighbours went up when they soon discovered the gender of the couple and as usual the homophobic rhetoric came flowing. Thankfully it never went on to a violent clash as what happened in another incident earlier this year with a lesbian who eventually was chopped by one of her neighbours on an apartment complex of all places where more middle class persons would exist thus such violence would have been unexpected.

The owner was contacted but she was way more level headed as she said sexual noises should not be reason for her to give notice to quit to the man as he is free to entertain whomever so long as it is not disturbing to others; although she took the high road on the matter the other residents even as far away as other avenues said she was inveigling homosexuals in the community and proceeded to ‘burn out’ the landlord as well. However for a peaceful existence the men were asked to leave privately by the landlord and as they moved the heckling were heard from some of the residents even as the truck with the men aboard left the block the laughing could be heard and persons had smart phones capturing the event.

Sadly there have been run-ins like this I can remember my days in Greater Portmore in the early 2000s where a friend of mine was also forced to move as he was accused of harbouring too many males including teens and that loud ‘f***’ noises emanating from the house, similar to the joined up housing units by Matalons in other housing schemes the giveaway as in similar matters is the ease at which persons can hear each other in their units. Apartment complexes and townhouses have not escaped this ‘noise’ overflow issue but the response seemed more subdued until a matter earlier this year on the Washington Boulevard property showed us otherwise.

A recent story of a young lady carried on sister blog GLBTQ Jamaica and in the Jamaica Observer earlier this year where a chopping episode involving a machete was the outcome showed us that disturbing others can be disastrous when one is perceived LGBT, unfortunately the young lady lied to the paper or withheld one of the real reasons why she was the subject of an attack; yes you guessed it loud, very loud sex with her female lover and also fights which annoyed the neighbours on the apartment complex who tried to talk to her but her temper got the better of her and hence the chop wounds we saw. While the attack from the diminutive woman is not so justified most sensible persons including the other tenants on the complex were wondering why a regularly calm introverted woman would resort to pulling a machete on a high tempered individual?

It turns out the young lady has had other visitors with noisy episodes including non sexual ones as her temperament has been a challenge for other tenants. The sympathy originally extended to the chopped victim has since died and the chopper has now garnered those voices on her side even though her demeanour had persons suggesting she was not so head righted. We sometimes make things or attract unneeded heat sometimes with our poor judgements and actions and avoidable situations but when will some of us learn it the fundamental questions. The court case has since fizzled and some fallout has been reported involving a police woman from a precinct outside of Kingston who is alleged to have owed the injured woman thousands of dollars and who was called in to handle the riled neighbour in exchange for the cancellation of the debt, that officer has since turned on the lesbian saying it was her fault for her own troubles. The matter is still alive in some sense as the aggrieved party has installed cameras in all access areas close to the chopped lesbian who has complained that she is not enjoying privacy albeit in all access areas.

The moral of the stories is just be mindful of the things we do and how even in terms of sounds is a factor just for peaceful existence; be conscious of one’s neighbours or where one lives. Jamaica maybe changing but it does not mean we have changed and sadly some things still exist no matter how we try to go around it. I am pleased that the landlord was fair about the situation obviously she is otherwise happy with her tenant suggesting an otherwise good relationship with the man that she was willing to split justice.

Peace and tolerance

H