Gay jamaicans
Jamaica Gay Independence Movement records
The Gay Freedom Movement (GFM) of Jamaica was founded by Laurence Chang, Michael Davis, Gary Muirhead, Father Joe Owens, Clive Wilson, and Winston Witter in , as the first publicly gay company in Jamaica and one of the first lgbtq+ rights organizations in the Caribbean. The GFM was established to represent the Jamaican gay community with the aim of fighting homophobic prejudice and discrimination through public education. Other goals included raising male lover consciousness and awareness in gay communities and the larger society, providing counseling and support, protesting against anti-gay oppression, calling for the repeal of anti-gay laws, raising funds for a gay community center, and providing necessary social services.
Chang was the General Secretary and organizer of the Gay Freedom Movement. Born in Jamaica to Hakka Chinese immigrant parents, Chang was the first openly gay Chinese-Jamaican male. From to , he was the publisher and editor of the Jamaica Gaily News (JGN), a newsletter created to deal with the needs and issues of the loca
Your privacy is important to us. We want to be sure you realize how and why we use your data. View our Privacy Statement for more details. Accept
Last updated: 17 December
Types of criminalisation
- Criminalises LGBT people
- Criminalises sexual activity between males
Summary
Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Offences Against the Person Act , which criminalises acts of ‘buggery’ and ‘gross indecency’. This law carries a maximum penalty of ten years’ imprisonment with hard labour. Only men are criminalised under this law.
The Jamaican Constitution includes a ‘savings law clause’ – a constitutional provision that shields certain laws from entity challenged in the courts if they were in force before the country’s adoption of its constitution. In , a brand-new bill of rights was introduced into the Constitution of Jamaica. A general savings law clause, which prevented all colonial laws from being constitutionally challenged, was removed and replaced with a savings clause that protects only specific laws, including those relating to sexual offences, from judicial scr
The most homophobic place on earth
The Issue
Jamaica has always been at the core of our work.
LGBT and Jamaica flag on concrete wall
The country continues to be one of the most hazardous places in the world to be LGBTQI+. In , Time magazine dubbed Jamaica “the most homophobic place on earth.”
Approximately 40 percent of our requests for help originate from the Caribbean region. Over the past two years, we have relocated nearly gay, female homosexual, bisexual, non-binary and transgender Jamaicans experiencing extreme persecution.
Reports from those experiencing persecution in Jamaica are staggering. Rainbow Railroad caseworkers frequently facilitate individuals who acquire been brutally attacked, sexually harassed, assaulted, burned with acid or fire, own received death threats or had gang violence occur in their neighbourhoods. These acts of cruelty are usually made known to the police and declare, and rarely is protection offered to or justice achieved by the victims. Unfortunately, this situation is not limited to Jamaica; nine countries in the Caribbean still criminalize sam
Gay rights support improves in Jamaica but anti-gay sentiment grows, fresh research suggests
Three years of intense activism and awareness raising in Jamaica have helped increase help for gay rights and diminish approval for the country’s “buggery law”, new research from Goldsmiths, University of London has found.
But while support for structural prejudice, including the threat of ten years imprisonment for consensual queer sex, has reduced, Dr Keon West (Department of Psychology) set up that personal prejudice against LGBT individuals has increased over the same period.
In Kingston, , two male students at the University of Technology were caught engaging in sexual activity. One escaped, while the other was pursued across campus by fellow students calling for his death. Pursuing refuge with security guards, the guards then turned on him and beat him themselves.
This was followed by a period of intense debate with many arguing that the gay student should have been killed.
But less than three years later, in August and October Jamaica’s first Event events we