Gay jamaicans
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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 existence challenged in the courts if they were in strength before the country’s adoption of its constitution. In , a new bill of rights was introduced into the Constitution of Jamaica. A general savings law clause, which prevented all colonial laws from creature constitutionally challenged, was removed and replaced with a savings clause that protects only specific laws, including those relating to sexual offences, from judicial scr
Jamaica Gay Autonomy 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 entity in Jamaica and one of the first same-sex attracted 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 lgbtq+ 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 gentleman. From to , he was the publisher and editor of the Jamaica Gaily News (JGN), a newsletter created to speak to the needs and issues of the loca
Gay rights support improves in Jamaica but anti-gay sentiment grows, new research suggests
Three years of intense campaign and awareness raising in Jamaica have helped raise support for gay rights and reduce 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 lesbian sex, has reduced, Dr Keon West (Department of Psychology) found 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. Seeking 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 learner should have been killed.
But less than three years later, in August and October Jamaica’s first Lgbtq+ fest events we
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 risky 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, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary and transgender Jamaicans experiencing extreme persecution.
Reports from those experiencing persecution in Jamaica are staggering. Rainbow Railroad caseworkers frequently help individuals who have been brutally attacked, sexually harassed, assaulted, burned with acid or fire, have received death threats or had gang abuse occur in their neighbourhoods. These acts of cruelty are usually made known to the police and state, 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