The Editor, Sir:

I reached for my March 2009 Essence magazine with great delight. Going through the pages I saw 'Jamaica' and, of course ,the fact that there was something about Jamaica in an international magazine meant I had to stop and read. The article's title, 'Trouble in Paradise' did not quite prepare me for what I was to read.

There it was, Jamaica disgraced, for all the world to see our ugly little public secret, not only are we a homophobic nation, we are a nation where it is a criminal offence and, to go further, we are proud to have that law on our books. When you read a six-page article on the atrocities against persons in our society, and while it is not the same as Sudan, or child soldiers in Uganda, you are gripped with a fear of a society which could do this to each other. Jamaica, known historically for being at the vanguard of progressive thinking, is exposed.

Homophobia

The current administration is making a concerted effort to whip up the homophobia, to state unequivocally that the law will be enforced, that anyone committing buggery is a criminal. The public, by extension, is using this as a literal call to arms and a 'licence to kill. The previous administration spent 18 years afraid of offending and not wanting to impact on the results on any given election day, said nothing and hoped that 'the problem would go away'. The rest of us, well-thinking Jamaicans, sit on our front porches and while we do not take part in the beating and murdering of fellow Jamaican men and women, because of their sexuality, there is no condemnation from us.

If one more person tells me it is a crime, I will scream. For the record my fellow Jamaicans, those in the pulpit, those in Parliament, on either side of the House, do you know that when a woman takes a man to court and she is awarded child support, he has broken the law when he does not make that payment? But ask any of us women in that position how difficult and costly it is to go through the court system to enforce payments.

Philosophy

Now, I am going to ask those who are sitting on their verandahs, those who are beating and murdering young men and women, those in Parliament and parish councils, and those in the pulpit, to focus on enforcing that law, to condemn those men who gloat about not making child support payments.

I live by a philosophy, 'if they come for you in the morning they will come for me in the evening'. Today, it is because of your sexuality, tomorrow it could well be because you are a 'retard' - I crossed myself several times just to type what we in the community for persons with disability refer to as the R word - and you are therefore not normal.

So, I speak always against injustice and not wait for it to be our turn because, for me, a society that accepts murdering and maiming of persons, because of their sexuality, is a society already on a slippery slope.

I am, etc.,

MAUREEN FAY WEBBER

lornamfw@yahoo.com.