More disturbing testimony from Jamaica

Fled from Jamaica to Canada: Gareth Henry

The rather good-looking Gareth Henry was on the BBC the other day talking about life in Jamaica as he knew it. It made for distressing listening, and it doesn’t look any more comforting when one reads up on it in print.

Money excerpts:

“I was with J-Flag for four years,” Henry explained on a trip to London this month. “During that time 13 of my friends were killed.” … A large proportion of the gay community in Jamaica is homeless and living in poverty and being ravished by HIV. Living with no hope and facing humiliation.  … Why would a sane person chose to be a homosexual? Why would you chose death over life?

Henry’s first-hand experience of gay life in Jamaica is four years old but it doesn’t make it any less heart-rending.

Which makes one wonder … what is the Jamaican prime minister, elected in a hail of hope that she would stem the anti-gay tide, doing about cleaning up Jamaica’s terrible record on LGBTI issues?

Related articles

• Jamaica bans sex ed curriculum after protests (dailystar.com.lb)
• A great opportunity for Jamaica’s LGBTI community
• Jamaica – where is your collective conscience?