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OPINION: Jamaican Laws Against Homosexuality Helps Spread AIDS

Written by News One on July 22, 2009 11:23 am

By Yvonne Sobers McCalla

On July 2, 2009, the Delhi High Court in India ruled that buggery (anal sex between consenting adults) would no longer be a crime. The judges decided that a law imposed by Britain in the nineteenth century was out of touch with twenty-first century realities. By contrast, July 17, 2009, the Jamaican Senate passed a Sexual Offences Bill, taking care to keep the law against buggery beyond challenge.

Laws against buggery may satisfy religious conservatives, but they do not stop consenting adults from doing as they please in their bedrooms. In Jamaica, gay men may be charged or threatened with charges of buggery, mainly for purposes of extortion or blackmail. However, convictions are rare because there is no complainant and the “offence” is difficult to prove to the court’s satisfaction.

However, in Jamaica as in other countries that retain buggery laws, gay men at risk for HIV/AIDS infection avoid treatment for fear of being criminalized because of their sexuality. Health workers therefore have difficulty in reaching closeted gay men (about 100 per cent of gays in Jamaica) with information about safe sex practices or about HIV/AIDS prevention, detection, and treatment. Data show that many closeted gay men in Jamaica, to deflect suspicion of homosexuality, engage in sex with multiple unsuspecting female partners.

Jamaica’s attachment to the buggery law has so far been unyielding. However, the Delhi ruling creates a precedent that one day some courageous Jamaican constitutional court might follow. No doubt the protests will continue from those who have it on biblical authority that consensual same-sex behavior in private is a sin. However, it may be that concern about the spread of HIV/AIDS might shove Jamaica into the twenty-first century where human sexuality is concerned.

Tags: HIV/AIDS, Homosexuality, Jamaica
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  • http://www.blackplanet.com/deedee_26/ deedee_26

    Hetro or homo, they still still can be trifling people.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/innocent108/ innocent108

    puleeeseeeeeeeeeee downlow brothers are all over the world and aint no f**king law is making AIDS/HIV spread they grown ass men they should kno how to protect themselves u av numerous private doctors all over jamaica they can simple go in n get a bloodtest with they boyfriend or mate or whateva without anyone knowing its all private n confidential stop makin excuses for these downlow f****ts spreading the virus all over the world

    PROUD JAMAICAN

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/kindagrumpy/ kindagrumpy

    I don’t know how outlawing it is going to help anyone there.

    It’s still going to happen. There is a wide variety of people in Jamica, living different lifestyles, but it has a lot of problems. I don’t know why they are choosing to uphold this “righteous” law in a place that is in a lot of way crumbling.

    I guess it’s a law not based on any kind of logic, and not truly based on Christianity, it seems to just be a way of expressing hatred and discrimination.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Kountry_Mayne/ Kountry_Mayne

    a law cant make hiv spread… once you have it you have it and going to the doctors aint going to get rid of it. and they still gonna do what they been doing. they need to find a way to contain this virus. just think if every infected hiv / aids carrier decided to not have sex any more and die with it the virus would be extinct in just 100 years.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/newbalanceboy/ newbalanceboy

    well truthfully i wish that they come of their shells and get tested because their wives are in danger and so many others are too. I left there at the age of 8 and i neer would hae though that jamaica would have so much gays. neer the less u hae your own thing but they are grown men and they should know better along with anyone who is acting irrisponsible.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/DaintyJen/ DaintyJen

    maybe if people stop looking down at homosexuality and letting people embrace who they are that would probably help a lot…

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/PuMPuMeKaNiC/ PuMPuMeKaNiC

    we need to identify them put a tire around them and burn them out…burn all chi chi man!….nah but straight up i feel that homosexuallity is a plague from the farther

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/DaintyJen/ DaintyJen

    and whites can say the same about us…i tell u about people and their prejudices, yet they claim they want peace….makes me sick

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/sistabigboness/ sistabigboness

    to the person who said “just think if every infected hiv/aids carrier decided to not have sex any more and die with it the virus would be extinct in just 100 years…” you really need to think about what you’re saying. one-third of individuals infected DO NOT KNOW… therefore, they may continue to sleep around, sleep with their girlfriends/boyfriends/wife/husband without protection and infect them and keep that pattern going so it’s not a matter of infected people abstaining from sex and dying… it’s a matter of getting tested if you engage in unprotected sex and taking the necessary precautions.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/GOOZE-DOWN-MY-THROAT/ GOOZE-DOWN-MY-THROAT

    F**K JAMAICA!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/GOOZE-DOWN-MY-THROAT/ GOOZE-DOWN-MY-THROAT

    F**K JAMAICA AND DA UGLY ILLITERATE DISFUNCTIONAL SPIRITS THERE!!!!!!!!!11

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/GOOZE-DOWN-MY-THROAT/ GOOZE-DOWN-MY-THROAT

    people are always quick to call out and cast out the term homosexuallity.. is that all you kno…god favors no worker of INIQUITY..for hell is to those ALSO who commits murder,lying,adultery,stealing,LUST,FORNACATION,hate,envious. on and on…so many that you hypocrits try to sleep on.. but neways.the bible says romans 12;2 Do not be conformed to this world, but continually be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is-what is proper, pleasing, and perfect… you all are sinners.. from out yo momma cat u was a sinner.. but you’ll perish for your own lack of understanding..

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/tru_lee_blessed1/ tru_lee_blessed1

    What does the law have to do with them wearing condoms? Are those outlawed in Jamaica too? Or is this article trying to say that if the gay people were allowed to come out of the closet then the proper people would be able to teach them about safe sex? Get out of here. I guess the straight people in Jamaica don’t know about condoms either because in Jamaica that concept would only be hypothetically taught to gay men who were allowed to come out of the closet.

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    FIYAH BURN GAYS!!!!!!!!!!

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