Jamaica Bans School Books That Mention Gays Favorably

(Kingston) Jamaica's Ministry of Education has ordered a ban on any book that mentions homosexuality in a favorable light.

The directive followed a decision to remove a book on home economics that has a four sentence mention of families headed by same-sex partners.

"It is unfortunate that four sentences on page four in the text under the sub-heading family forms, were used to label the total text as a gay book; we are very angry about that because that was not the intention," author Rita Dyer told the Caribbean Media Corporation.

"It says there is much discussion about what constitutes a family, there seems to be a broadening of a traditional definition of a family structure and when two men or women live together in a relationship as lesbians or gay they may be considered as a family; they may adopt children or have them through artificial means," Dyer said.

Education Minister Andrew Holness has issued a warning to all schools instructing them to submit to the government any book they were uncertain about. Holness said that schools would be held accountable for breaches of regulations governing the use of textbooks.

Jamaica has what has been described as the worst record of any country in the New World in its treatment of gays and lesbians.

Gay sex is illegal in Jamaica, punishable by ten years in jail, with the possibility of hard labor.

More than 30 gay men are believed to have been murdered since 1997 Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG) says. In most of the cases the killers have never been brought to trial.

Arrests, however have been made in several cases which received international attention.

In 2004 Brian Williamson, Jamaica's leading LGBT civil rights advocate was brutally murdered. He had been stabbed at least 70 times in the neck. A 25 year old man is currently serving a life sentence for the murder.

In December 2005 Lenford "Steve" Harvey who ran Jamaica AIDS Support for Life was killed..

Harvey was shot to death on the eve of World AIDS Day. (story) His organization provided support to gay men and sex workers. Four men were arrested almost a year later.

Last year the bodies of two women believed to have been in a lesbian relationship were found dumped in a septic pit behind a home they shared. The killers of Candice Williams and Phoebe Myrie have not been caught.

Students at University of the West Indies in Kingston rioted last year as police attempted to protect a gay student and escort him from the campus. The incident began when the student was chased across the campus by another student who claimed the gay man had attempted to proposition him in a washroom.

Also last year a young man plunged to his death off a pier in Kingston after reportedly being chased through the streets by a mob yelling homophobic epithets.

In February of this year three men in "tight jeans" and wearing what some witnesses described as makeup were cornered by a mob of 2000 in a drugstore. There were yells of "kill them" along with gay slurs and demands the three be sent out "to face justice". Police had to fire teargas into the crowd to rescue the three.

Reggae, or Jamaican dancehall music, is blamed for fueling homophobia. Reggae star BujuBanton's hit song Boom Boom Bye Bye which threatens gay men with a "gunshot in ah head".