Dec 10, 2007Quickie Link: “It Is Hard to Survive When You Are Gay in Jamaica”
By vanrozenheim
(Jamaica) - Janice has been beaten up for being a Lesbian. Sitting in the small windowless room in an anonymous house in uptown Kingston, the 31-year old Jamaican shows a scar above her left eye. She says she never leaves her house without her knife nowadays. She claims she used it “a couple of times for self-defense”. When she speaks about her life as a Lesbian in Jamaica, one can feel the pain in her angry eyes. She left home as a teenager because her family never approved her sexuality. : « I was 14, she says. My sisters had boyfriends, and I didn’t want any. So, I told my mom I was not going to have any boyfriend and any kids because I was different. She did not accept it ».
