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| Police monitor as some of the men who were squatting at a house on Millsborough Avenue pack their possessions and leave the premises. - Gladstone Taylor/ Photographer |
“Police from the St Andrew Central Division evicted 16 self-confessed gay men from an abandoned house in the upscale neighborhood of Millsborough Avenue, Barbican yesterday disclosing that the building will be demolished today. Dressed in gas masks and gloves, the police team — led by Commander Christopher Murdock from the New Kingston Police Post — entered the residence minutes after 5:00 pm and rounded up the men, none of whom seemed to over 30 years old,” the Jamaica Observer reported.
In addition, one of the homeless gay men that were living on the premises solemnly expressed “we don’t have anywhere to go. Persons want to kill me at home and majority of us will be killed if we return home because they know of our story. We can’t go back home. The reason I left my home, people found out that I am a homosexual. A man attacked me in order to kill me and I had to escape by foot. From that, I have been from one vacant lot to another.” (Translated in English: See the CVM TV News report excerpt below).The same sentiment is one shared by majority of the homeless gay youth.
CVM TV news 7/3/2013
Over the past several years, young gay and lesbian Jamaicans have been cast out of their homes and communities. While a few who possess a visa have the option to flee to another country, mainly the United States of America, Canada and United Kingdom for refuge and freedom, unfortunately many are forced to live on the streets, captured homes, gullies and in bushes, especially in Kingston. According to a J-FLAG employee, “minors between the ages 12 and 17 years who are either self-identified or perceived to be gay or lesbian are cast out of their homes, excommunicated and in numerous cases brutally beaten by family members, strangers or a mob.”
The proliferation of homeless gay men living in the streets of Kingston is startling and in several instances unbearable for those who are repulsed by their presence and their sexuality. This has been a concern by J-FLAG, the only organization which help to rehabilitate some of these young men. The organization is in desperate need of help and resource to mitigate this problem, but is unable to do so effectively due to the lack of support from the government of Jamaica.
Without assurance and certainty of a meal or a safe place to rest, shower and sleep, sadly some of the homeless young men are force to roam, loiter and seek unlawful means in order to survive. The media, for example, the Jamaica Observer, in its egregious and often prejudicial interest to publish stories concerning homeless gay youth, have sort to classify and deem the victims as rowdy, malicious and a great threat to society.
After the allegedly illegal occupancy of a abandon home in Millsborough Avenue in St Andrew by 17 gay men, the editor for the Observer Karyl Walker stated that the “residents of Millsborough Avenue in St Andrew say their neighborhood has gone to the dogs.” In this instance the word ‘Dogs’ is the equivalent of ‘Gays’. They simply need a roof over their heads.
Jamaican Homeless gay men are ‘rowdy’ because they are slaves and cast outs in their own country. They are classless citizens. Their families rejected and neglected them. Their community and government condemn their sexuality and lifestyle which often resort to national purging of gays through mob attacks, beatings, bullying, eviction, excommunication, persecution and death. Young homeless gay children are reacting to the harsh and homophobic stimuli within the Jamaican society. Rebellion and rowdiness are reactions to the oppression, persecution and affliction they face by Anti-gay (mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, pastors, media, government, church, and neighbors).
Outraged Allies and members of the gay community at home and abroad echoed, “How can we stand by and watch our gay children and brothers fighting to survive in a country that hates them? Homeless gay youth know nothing but the streets and the will to live another day. As a civilized nation, I call up the Government of Jamaica, the Office of the Children Registry (OCR), the Children’s Advocate, the Church, and other public and private institutions to help to save our homeless youth/children, who happens to be gay by no choice of their own.
Police monitor as some of the men who were squatting at a house
on Millsborough Avenue pack their possessions and leave the premises.
- Gladstone Taylor/ Photographer
on Millsborough Avenue pack their possessions and leave the premises.
- Gladstone Taylor/ Photographer
Gone to the dogs is a local expression it does not equate to gay. You need to be culturally aware when you are writing articles like that. If a girl is acting in an un-lady like manner, someone can use that expression. Or if someone rapes an elderly, that would be said. If people act boisterous in a community that is not accustomed to that behavior, people use that expression. They were not saying gay men are dogs.
ReplyWhat is the definition of slave idiot?
ReplyI'm not sure they were evicted because they were gay. All accounts indicate they were evicted for rowdy and uncontrollable behaviour. In fact, JFLAG has barred unruly gay men from their premises. It is unfair to frame the discourse in this way, without attributing appropriate responsibility to the gay men in question.
ReplyANOTHER THINK MR. BROWN YOU ARE CALLING THEM SLAVES BECAUSE YOU HAVE THAT SAID MINDSET YOU CANNOT CALL A SPADE A SPADE HELP DEM OUT MAWSAH YUH TOO NUFF NO WONDER YOU RUN FROM JAMAICA STOP STIR UP STRIFE AND LEAVE DOWN THERE YOU DO NOT LIVE THERE.
Replywhy are they wearing a mask, to do an eviction? is that the policy in jamaica?
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