Miami Herald - November 17, 2004
Michael A.W. Ottey, mottey@herald.com

HIV/AIDS is spreading quickly in Jamaica, yet government measures to fight the epidemic are hampered by discrimination and violence against gays and people living with the disease, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday.

In the report, Hated to Death: Homophobia, Violence, and Jamaica's HIV/AIDS Epidemic, the New York-based group blames ignorance and homophobia for the spread of the disease in Jamaica.

"Until Jamaica addresses the epidemic of homophobic violence, it will have no hope against the epidemic," said Rebecca Schleifer, author of the report. "If the Jamaican government is serious about fighting the country's AIDS epidemic, it should stop promoting brutality against gay men and lesbians and start protecting them from abuse."

Jamaica has anti-sodomy laws that some believe are aimed specifically at gays, and senior government officials have traditionally denied reports of attacks on gays, Schleifer told The Herald. Government spokespeople could not be reached.

ENCOURAGE VIOLENCE

Schleifer added that too many Jamaicans still believe HIV/AIDS is exclusively a gay man's affliction and approve of or celebrate brutal attacks on gays. Several Jamaican musicians, most prominently dancehall artist Beenie Man, have recently been criticized for lyrics that promote violence against gay men.

Dr. Robert Carr, executive director of the nonprofit Jamaica AIDS Support in Kingston, said the rampant homophobia makes his job more difficult. "The level of the debate, from our perspective, is very disappointing," he said.

Despite campaigns to educate the public, Carr said Jamaicans either don't know or choose to ignore the fact that heterosexuals make up the majority of HIV/AIDS cases in the country.

An estimated 1.5 percent of Jamaican adults have HIV/AIDS, the third-largest population with the disease in the Caribbean, behind Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

UPHILL BATTLE

In June, Jamaica's Ministry of Health launched a project to distribute anti-retroviral drugs to people with HIV/AIDS. The government also is trying to address the homophobia. But the battle is tough.

"There has been an effort to educate, and the message is getting through," Carr said. "But there's still a lot of stigma, and that stigma is around people not knowing how HIV is contracted."

Schleifer said outreach groups such as Carr's have also been targeted by gay-bashers. Often, she added, it's the police beating gay men and outreach volunteers.

"We've had some of our outreach workers accosted by the police," Carr said. "Our outreach workers are constantly challenged to manage their safety."

Still, some police officers have been supportive, Carr said, and the Ministry of Health has been trying hard to combat the disease.

"The challenge is really at the level of the society," Carr said. "We still hear cases of HIV-positive people being put out of their [church] congregations."

The Human Rights Watch report documents the cases of several men who were brutally attacked or killed because of their sexual orientation.

"Some parts of the Jamaican government send a very clear message that the lives of gay men and people living with HIV/AIDS aren't worth as much as anybody else's," Schleifer said. "There's a crisis here, but there's a real opportunity to address these issues."

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