Report: Gay man stoned to death in Jamaica

[Behind the Aegis]

22. And?

So, because you "Never saw or heard anything" we should ignore and concentrate on your "story?"

ETA:

Jamaica has a bad reputation for anti-gay prejudice. This small island in the Caribbean has become notorious not only for its anti-gay laws, political rhetoric and murders, but also for its broad societal acceptance of severe sexual prejudice and openly hostile music.

Most people remember dancehall star Buju Banton, who hit the scene when he was 15 with the hugely popular Boom Bye Bye. The lyrics go: "It's like boom bye bye / Inna batty boy head / Rude boy nah promote no nasty man / Dem haffi dead." Hard to decipher for someone not familiar with Jamaican patois, but Buju is essentially describing shooting a gay man in the head – he doesn't want to "promote no nasty man".

In the decades after, hosts of other dancehall artists took up the banner, such as the group T.O.K. who proclaimed that "chi-chi [gay] man fi dead and that's a fact".

Jamaica is not alone; sexual prejudice is all over the news at the moment – from the Sultan of Brunei's introduction of Sharia law, to the anti-gay bill in Uganda. And it's worth remembering that in the UK gay people only acquired equal marriage rights earlier this year. But Jamaica has the double problem of being described as "the most homophobic place on earth", but also being one of those places where little or no research is done to explain these anti-gay sentiments.

This is why, in collaboration with Dr Noel Cowell from the University of the West Indies, I decided to conduct the largest piece of research of its kind to date, using data collected by Professor Ian Boxhill.

more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/06/jamaica-music-anti-gay-dancehall-homophobia