Gays and lesbians in Jamaica
live in a state of constant fear.
We live knowing that the probability of us being killed is very high.
Dwayne Jones was a transgender youth who was chased out of home at about 14 years old.
He was killed because he was at a party,
he was dressed in female wear and someone at the party outed him.
This was at a street dance with about 300 people
and it appeared that no one attempted to intervene
as they ran him down, stabbed him, shot him three times,
and then ran over him with a car and left him to die on the side of the road.
How does it reflect on society when you have a 16 year old kid
that's being so brutally murdered and nothing happens. No consequence.
When I was in Jamaica I interviewed over 77 LGBT people.
The one thing that we heard time and time again
was about how they were not accepted by society.
Kids as young as 12 years of age being kicked out of their homes.
I was beaten by six guys along with my brother
and my mother in Spanish Town,
Where I had to run, and pack my things and leave from that community.
That's how I ended up here.
I have been following the homeless LGBT youth who live in storm drains.
For these youth it means that they have shown signs of behavior
that is outside of a heterosexual norms.
That may mean that they are bullied at home at school or bullied within their families.
Sometimes communities threatened to beat the gay youth
presumably to beat the gayness out of him
and this threat can be escalated to threats of death
or threats of burning down the home in which the youth lives.
These persons feel that there is nowhere to go.
Homosexuality is not necessarily illegal in Jamaica
However Jamaica does have the buggery laws on its books.
The buggery laws are very old laws that come from
when Jamaica was under British rule.
While it doesn't outlaw homosexuality,
it does outlaw anal sex between men.
But the interpretation by different government agencies
including the police, fuels homophobia.
There have been too many cases
in which persons who have attacked members of the LGBT community
have not been charged let alone convicted.
I was beaten up by four police officers in a pharmacy in Kingston
in front of over 200 people.
I went to live in hiding.
One day I was stopped in traffic,
and a man walked across from a parked car on the side of the road
and he came across and said to me,
he said we'll find you. And we're gonna kill you.
Um,
that...that was a life-changing moment.
I didn't go back home.
People are leaving Jamaica because, uh, because they fear for their lives.
They feel...they don't feel safe at home in Jamaica,
and they're moving to countries like Canada to find safety.
The reason I left Jamaica is because I was kicked out of the closet
so I had to flee the country that I was born in to seek refuge
in a country where I am fully accepted for my sexual orientation.
I worry everyday about the LGBT people Jamaica.
I worry every day. I get phone calls I got emails
I get letters asking for help.
"My life is in danger back home can you help?"
No one deserves to be hunted and chased out of their homeland,
and I think it's supported by all government
in the fact that they don't do anything.
Why, you know, why we just can't be allowed to be who we are,
treated with respect and dignity
that we deserve.