In Wake of Jamaican Anti-Gay Violence, Corporate Shunning, Controversy
In the wake of reports of anti-gay violence in Jamaica, GLBT equality groups have encouraged a boycott of the island and corporate sponsor Red Stripe has withdrawn its support from Jamaican music events. Radio Jamaica reported that, according to the equality groups, Jamaican society is highly intolerant of its GLBT members, who are at grave risk of being persecuted, beaten, or even murdered, and that the Jamaican government has seemed disinclined to address the problem. A Feb. 24 article in the International Herald-Tribune looked into the issue, reporting on episodes of violence in which groups of men attacked gay men in their own homes with machetes, a police officer came out of the closet in an attempt to dispel anti-gay myths, and the funeral of a gay man was disrupted when a crowd smashed the church windows and then stormed inside to object to the ceremony. All of these events happened in one town, Mandeville. Gays are also encouraged to "cure" their sexuality, or to ...