Homosexuality, Same Sex Marriage And The Jamaican Dilemma

Contributor: Errol Mc Leish :

Since the United States, Supreme Court’s dec­la­ra­tion on the sta­tus of same sex mar­riage, there has been inter­est and con­cern, from some nations. Naturally, giv­en the US’ influ­ence on the geopo­lit­i­cal land­scape, the spot­light and focus has been inten­si­fied on coun­tries like Jamaica, where there is open dis­agree­ment with the con­cept. But should the Jamaican peo­ple and its gov­ern­ment be con­cerned at all about the impli­ca­tions of this turn of event? To answer this ques­tion, we look briefly on a num­ber of relat­ed issues to estab­lish a basis for the discussion.

The Jamaican soci­ety and cul­ture was ini­tial­ly, offi­cial­ly struc­tural­ly framed by its colo­nial mas­ters, Great Britain. It’s out of this cul­tur­al adap­ta­tion that laws against cer­tain acts which were deemed anti­so­cial were enact­ed. Among these, was the offence against the per­son act? This stat­u­ary pro­vi­sion is very wide, and includes, inter alia, the bug­gery act. Interestingly, this sec­tion is list­ed and cap­tioned in the pre­am­ble as an unnat­ur­al act. Given the influ­ence the church had on the cul­ture of Great Britain, one should not be sur­prised that the act of bug­gery would be includ­ed in the pro­vi­sions. Perhaps Leviticus 18: 22 might shed some light on this. “Thou salt not lie with mankind as with wom­ankind, it is abom­i­na­tion.” You got the picture?

If we under­stand how laws are cre­at­ed, we would appre­ci­ate that soci­etal norms and reli­gious prac­tices con­tribute immense­ly to its cre­ation. The bug­gery act remains on the Jamaican law books to this day because of adapt­ed soci­etal norms and the lack of inter­est on the part of any polit­i­cal par­ty, on either side of the polit­i­cal fence, be it the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) or the Peoples National Party (PNP), to ini­ti­ate any changes to the law.

Of inter­est too, is the fact that, although these laws have been on the books for years, there has not been any sig­nif­i­cant arrest of any­one who has engaged in Homosexual activ­i­ty, at least not dur­ing my life time. This has been the case, despite the fact that prac­ti­tion­ers are known, even at the high­est ech­e­lon of our soci­ety. Many have only been open to the real­iza­tion of their exis­tence when they are killed, which in most instances were at the hands of oth­er per­sons who engaged in sim­i­lar activ­i­ty, these are the facts. Although empir­i­cal data is avail­able to demon­strate this, human rights and gay rights advo­ca­cy groups, in Jamaica, have engaged in a smear cam­paign against the state and its peo­ple, on the basis, that homo­sex­u­als are being ostra­cized, mar­gin­al­ized and tar­get­ed, because they are “dif­fer­ent”. This tru­ly is unfor­tu­nate, giv­en the facts avail­able, which obvi­ous­ly indi­cate the contrary.

One needs not to look too far, to con­clude why objec­tiv­i­ty is lack­ing from these groups. Well for one, their major spon­sors or either based in the US or in Europe. Jamaica gets grant or aid from these region, which have immense influ­ence on invest­ment and trade in the island. The heav­i­ly indebt­ed Jamaica, have to trod lines care­ful­ly and not be too crit­i­cal of poli­cies to which they are in dis­agree­ment. Given that this is the sit­u­a­tion it would come as no sur­prise that the US and Great Britain has been crit­i­cal of the bug­gery laws.

Great Britton’s PM had declared in their Parliament, that they would go as far as with­draw­ing aid to coun­tries who demon­strate anti homo­sex­u­al sen­ti­ments. The US has in recent times sent envoys to Jamaica in an effort to influ­ence changes in its bug­gery laws, and there will be more pres­sure, giv­en the par­a­digm shift on the issue.

A nation like Jamaica which has wast­ed its resources and have to rely on grants and loans from orga­ni­za­tion such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and oth­er multi­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions , have very lit­tle wig­gle room to make uni­lat­er­al deci­sions with­out con­sid­er­ing how the US and the UK would per­ceive it . The real­i­ty is, our deter­mined eco­nom­ic path is reliant on these eco­nom­ic pow­ers, and that places us in a rather pre­car­i­ous position.

While same sex Marriage might not be a real­i­ty in the near future in Jamaica, relax­ation of our bug­gery laws is tru­ly a like­ly pos­si­bil­i­ty. It is not a ques­tion of if it will hap­pen but when it will happen.