# How Does the Rastafari Movement Treat Women? Gays?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-rastafari-movement-treat-women-gays/679616>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 24, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-rastafari-movement-treat-women-gays/679616 "2014-01-24T15:45:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-rastafari-movement-treat-women-gays/679616/1 "2014-01-24T15:45:16Z")

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Apparently reggae music (closely tied with Jamaica and Rastafarianism) has a bit of a homophobia problem (see [here](http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/28/jamaican-singer-sizzla-defends-fellow-anti-gay-artist-by-saying-gays-should-burn/).

Do the tenets of Rastafarianism (if they’re even codified in one, specific document or set of documents, viz. the Bible) regard homosexuality as evil? How are women treated within the Rastafari Movement?

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-rastafari-movement-treat-women-gays/679616/2 "2014-01-24T23:23:10Z")

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I would say the homophobia is due to Jamaican culture, and not anything specific to Rastafari. After all, Rastas are less than 1% of the population. The homophobes are mostly Christian, but that doesn’t mean that a [given Rasta doesn’t believe what his culture believes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Jamaica#Attitudes_of_Rastafarians_from_Jamaica). Some use religious justification for why homosexuality is bad.

The best analogy to sect or denomination are the [Mansions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansions_of_Rastafari). I suspect you’ll find differences in their treatment of women. If any differences exist, likely Bobo Ashanti is less nice than the others.