Sometime in the late hours of Saturday night the call will come in. Philbert (not his real name), like many of his Christian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) buddies, wait anxiously for the call in order to know the time and place of the van pickup, and where it’ll drop them off to a safe and secluded place for Sunday worship. Last week’s worship service was in Montego Bay, just 50 miles from Negril’s Grand Lido, one of the flagship resorts in Jamaica, where Philbert works the night shift at the bar. This week Philbert hopes for a closer worship space, perhaps a safe space in Gales Valley, just 40 miles from work.

Every Sunday Philbert and his friends have to worship in a different space. The risk is too high if it’s found out they’re queer.

“My experience as a gay man living in Jamaica is one which is marked by periodic incidences of abuse, both verbal and physical. I have lost count of the number of times I have been verbally abused, called ‘battyman,’ ‘chi-chi,’ ‘sodomite,’ ‘dirty battybwoy,'” an unnamed gay man shares on the Jamaican Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-Flag) in 2003.

When Jamaica’s leading gay rights activist, Brian Williamson, was murdered in his home in June 2004, multiple knife wounds savagely mutilated his body. A Human Rights Watch researcher witnessed the crime, reporting a crowd gathered after the killing, rejoicing and saying, “Battyman [Jamaican slang for homosexual], he get killed!” Others celebrated Williamson’s murder, laughing and calling out, “Let’s get them one at a time,” “That’s what you get for sin,” and “Let’s kill all of them.” Some sang, “Boom bye bye,” a line from renowned Jamaican reggae artist Buju Banton’s then popular anti-gay song about killing and burning gay men. (Banton has a long history of advocating the killing of LGBTQ people in his lyrics, yet he was nominated for a Grammy this past year for his album “Rasta Got Soul”.

In 2005, a gay man was harassed at the beach, and a mob pursued him. To avoid the homophobic wrath of the mob he ran into the sea and drowned.

In 2007, a pastor’s church was attacked by an angry mob on Easter Sunday because of the presence of people accused of being homosexuals were at a funeral service he performed earlier in the week.

And in November 2008, Rev. Richard Johnson, one of the leading Anglican priests on the island, was found nude and stabbed 25 times, in the rectory of St. Jude’s Anglican Church in Kingston, because he was thought to be gay.

Homophobia is so intense in Jamaica and goes unchallenged that people who speculate about who’s LGBTQ can easily plot to kill them, and unabashedly announce their intent with impunity, because the police won’t protect Jamaica’s LGBTQ citizens from mob-led murders and violence; they instead incite the country’s homophobic frenzy by either being present and inactive during these assaults or by following and watching them all the time.

In 2010 nothing has changed. So when the van arrives on Sunday morning before the island has risen, Philbert and friends stealthily pack into it and off they go.

Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) provides most of the vans, helping these underground Christians find sacred space. Sunshine Cathedral (MCC), in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, has chartered a Sunshine Cathedral mission Church in Jamaica. The mission Church is active in several cities in Jamaica and has monthly island-wide meetings at changing locations.

Jamaican LGBTQ Christians welcomes MCC’s outreach ministry to them, but the church is viewed by many of the islanders as an abomination.

In a letter to the editor of the “Jamaica Observer” titled “Wilson’s homosexual theology ain’t right,” JM Fletcher of St. Andrew expressed his outrage:

“I note with interest an article written by an American lesbian preacher Nancy Wilson, who is bent on crusading and promoting her chosen lifestyle. My concern about homosexuals is that if allowed to run unchecked they move from their outward recruitment drive to deliberate thrust of their lifestyle on the rest of us. This can be seen in how they are moving into every segment of the community – even the church – to try to perpetuate their lifestyle.” Fletcher states.

“If Ms. Wilson is an American, why is she so desperate to start a foundation for homosexuality in other countries? She cares nothing for the culture of other nations? She might ask us soon to allow a man to marry a pig! Because from a Christian perspective, what would be the difference? Both are an abomination to God, yet homosexuality happens and bestiality too — if one is made legal, so should the other, and the homosexual church can allow for a man to marry a dog — if he finds the companionship of a dog preferable to that of humans … For the pastors claiming to be Christians who are approving of such churches, I repeat, they are not of God.”

The Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson is unquestionably a woman of God, and was the first pastor of MCC Boston in the 70s. Rev. Wilson is now the Presiding Elder and Moderator of the Universal Fellowship of MCC, a global denomination with now 300 churches in 28 countries. Founded by Troy Perry, an ex-communicated gay Pentecostal minister, MCC is a radically inclusive church opened to all people, regardless of theological background, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or ability, and is a leading force in the development of queer theology. (In the 80s MCC saved my life, welcoming me as a member of MCC, NYC).

In April 2008, Cambridge (Mass.) City Councilor Ken Reeves, the son of Jamaican immigrants, traveled to Kingston, Jamaica to join Wilson and Rev. Pat Bumgartner of MCC, NYC in a demonstration denouncing violence against LGBTQ citizens on the island. And in June of that year Reeves put together the panel, “Jamaica: Yes, Problems — A Visit to Homophobia,” held at Christ Episcopal Church in Harvard Square, to seek out solutions.

But in a country with no federal hate crime bill, police enforcement and church to protect LGBTQ Jamaicans, solutions can’t be found.

So in the meantime, Philbert and his friends wait anxiously for the call on Saturday night to be told where their sacred space will be. And when the van arrives on Sunday morning before the island has risen, Philbert and friends stealthily pack into it, and off they go.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-monroe/jamaicas-gay-underground_b_503762.html

Artists in this Article
/artist/buju-banton/30072?tag=lrailart
Buju Banton .After Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton had a conversation about drugs with a government informant he met on a plane, it triggered a series of meetings and phone calls about buying and selling cocaine, according to testimony from the informant and recordings played in Banton’s federal drug trial.

Banton and the informant, Alexander Johnson, met on a plane from Spain to Miami at the end of Banton’s European tour last summer.

Johnson testified Sept. 21 that they began talking about drugs early in the flight.

“He told me he was involved in the transportation of drugs from Venezuela to St. Martin,” Johnson said. “His involvement was he moved money himself for traffickers out of England.”

They exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet the next day in Fort Lauderdale. Recordings of that July 27, 2009, meeting and other phone calls and conversations from July 2009 through December were played in court Tuesday.

“Do you have any contacts where I can get cocaine?” Banton asked Johnson in one recorded conversation.

He told Johnson he wanted to give him money so he could buy and sell the drugs – but the singer did not want to be more involved.

“All I do is finance,” Banton said.

The four-time Grammy nominee is on trial in Tampa federal court on charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine and carrying a firearm during the course of a drug trafficking crime and aiding and abetting two co-defendants in possessing a firearm during the course of cocaine distribution.

Banton and Johnson discussed a variety of enterprises over several meetings in restaurants, such as selling drugs in Europe, having Banton finance a drug deal, buying drugs from Colombia and the Caribbean island of St. Martin, using Johnson’s boat to transport drugs, and giving Johnson a cut of a drug deal.

Banton’s attorney, David Markus, says those conversations turned to drugs only after the men were drunk.

“You talked about [Banton] doing a lot of things that he did not do,” Markus said while cross-examining Johnson.

The men also made small talk while driving to an undercover police warehouse in Sarasota on Dec. 8, according to another recording.

Johnson admonished the singer for smoking. Banton replied, “I smoke herbs, man. A lot of ganja.”

Banton also complained, according to the recording, about a gay rights group that had protested over violent, homophobic lyrics from early in his music career. Shows in several U.S. cities last year were canceled because of the protests.

“They’re pushing me, man,” he told Johnson. “These guys are trying to run me under.”

Johnson also testified that Banton introduced him to Ian Thomas, a co-defendant, who the singer said had contacts to sell cocaine.

A video played for the jury of the meeting at the Sarasota warehouse with Johnson and an undercover police officer appeared to show Thomas opening a kilo of cocaine, with Banton peering over his shoulder. Thomas then appears to hand the knife he used to cut open the drugs to Banton, who tasted the drugs with a finger.

Also in the video, Johnson and Thomas negotiate the price and quantity of a shipment of cocaine.

Thomas pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. He faces up to life in prison.

DancehallEurope Dancehall Community
#BLOODDIAMONDS , HOW BOUT THAT AS TRENDIN TOPIC? #COKESMUGGLA OR THAT ONE? #FAKERASTA OR THAT ONE? BUNCH A WAGONIST, UNU NUH RIGHT JAHKNO
29 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DancehallEurope Dancehall Community
STRANGEST FEELINGS IM FEELING, BUT ME ALWAYS WILL STAY SMUGGLIN AN DEALIN CAH ME GREEDY, DO U MAY THINK MY FAITH IS IN VAIN, TILL SHILOH …
36 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DancehallEurope Dancehall Community
I GUESS BEEIN AN ARTIST MAKES UP FOR IT ALL DONT?
37 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DancehallEurope Dancehall Community
UNU PEOPLE NUH RIGHT, IF IT WAS ANY OTHER MAN THEN BUJU UNU WUDDA BAWL FI EXECUTION AN LYNCHMOB DID WAIT PON D ACCUSED ONE..
38 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
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DancehallEurope Dancehall Community
WATTADAY, DEM ABOUT TO SET A GUN CARRYING, COKE DEALING/TRAFFICING, BLOODDIAMOND SMUGGLA FREE, AINT THAT SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE EEH?

PEOPLE UNNO JUS AS DISAPPOINTED AS MISELF MI ASK FEW PEOPLE WHEY SHUDDA KNOW DEM DID HEAR DI SED TING SUH FI NOW MEK WE WAIT TILL DEM COME BACK FROM LUNCH

DEM SEH GAYS INA MASK OUTSIDE A EMANCIPATION PARK A PROTEST??????? IS WHA REALLY A GWAAN INA JA??? UNNO NUH HAVE NOTHING FI DO WID UNNOSELF DIS MAWNIN ????????