One Love Only

Beyond the white sandy beaches and the upbeat notes of reggae music, Jamaica reveals a solid tradition of intolerance against homosexual and transgender expressions. The country's society has a strong religious background outlined by a paranoid defense of its' core values. Inside the ghettos, ultraconservative churches and gang culture play an important role: the virility displayed in such contexts collides with the notion of homosexuality, and a gay man is perceived as the embodiment of anti-male qualities. The Offenses against the Person Act condemns consensual sex between men and any kind of public expression of homosexuality, with charges for the "abominable crime of buggery" that can result in a sentence of up to ten years' hard labour in jail.

In a country where homophobia is a cultural norm, LGBT people are forced to live at the borders of society, leaving their family and community, and for many of them the streets are the last and only place to survive. "They shot me when I was coming back home after work, and I had to run for my life" says one gay man in Kingston. "Now I lost my house, my job, everything else."