I’m always reading about how this or that reggae artist from Jamaica made some anti-gay comment or had some lyric in his songs bashing gays (sometimes literally advocating violence.) And I’ve read that Jamaica is “the most dangerous place on earth” for homosexuals.
But I don’t understand why this is. What is it about Jamaican culture that’s so hostile to gays? There are lots of other islands in the Caribbean with similar cultures and yet you don’t hear about this stuff coming from any other Caribbean country.
One of the elements of Rastafarianism is generally a hard-line adherence to the Old Testament, including passages about the sinfulness of homosexuality. That’s a major reason why homophobic attitudes are common in Jamaica, and why there’s a perception that it’s limited to Jamaica rather than the whole Caribbean (the Rastafari movement is widespread in Jamaica but not so much in the rest of the Caribbean).
However I suspect there are two other contributory reasons: one is that Jamaica has extremely high rates of violent crime, so anti-gay sentiments are frequently manifested in high-profile cases of gay people being attacked or murdered. Other countries might well share similar homophobic attitudes, but if they’re not borne out in violent crimes you won’t read it in the news. The second reason is the global popularity of reggae music and Jamaican culture in general: again the populations of other countries in the Caribbean might have similar attitudes about homosexuality, but Jamaican reggae music allows those attitudes to be exported directly to the US and the rest of the world, through songs like this infamous one for instance. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are very similar levels of anti-homosexuality sentiment in, say, Trinidad and Tobago, but we don’t pay as much attention to their culture on the whole. The stereotypical image we have of Jamaica is of laid-back dreadlocked guys smoking weed and preaching about peace and love, so when people hear about the vicious and rife homophobia it can come as a shock.
Rastafarianism is very much a minority religion in Jamaica.The main source of homophobia is nearly always said the evangelical protestant Christian denominations which are the main religions of what is quite a religious country. Buju Banton who became infamous for his extreme homophobia in songs such as Boom Bye Bye, directly cited the Bible as justification for his stance. You also have to Jamaica has been comapritvely violent place throughout it’s history.
They also speak English in Jamaica, which is another reason we may hear more of these reports from there. Although how other English-speaking places in the area, like the Bahamas and Bermuda, compare to Jamaica I don’t know.
Generally the Caribbean is not gay friendly, but Jamaica is a much more violent country than the smaller islands, there’s the mob rule issue too. I’m going to agree with These are my own pants in the hate being Christianity fueled.
Not that I disagree with your larger point about the homophobia in the evangelical protestant Christian denominations in Jamaica, but you picked a bad example there, because Banton himself is Rastafarian (and, in fact, the Rastafarians also rely on the same biblical passages as the Evangelical Protestants in their condemnation of homosexuality).
I’ve also heard, in all seriousness, that Jamaican men refuse to perform oral sex on women…whether this is somehow related to Rastafari culture or something else, I don’t know…
I lean towards this response. For Jamaica, you have a culture of homophobia, you have a culture of violence; putting those two together gives you violent homophobia. This is just simple additive math.
For example, what do you get when you have a culture of rigid, societal, social-interactions and sexual conservatism? Saudi Arabian obsession with virginity. Change that conservatism to liberalness and what do you get? Japanese fetish involving squids. It’s all in the math.
Well, I’d say it’s both Christianity and Rastafarian fueled. Neither religion likes homosexuality. The two aren’t really distinguishable on their views on that matter.
