The Structuration of Violence

Part I. The Structuration of Violence

Homophobia and Treatment of Jamaica's LGBT Population

(Boom boom boom) Boom bye bye

Inna batty bwoy head

Rude bwoy no promote nasty man

Dem haffi dead

Boom bye bye

Inna batty bwoy head

Rude bwoy no promote no batty man

Dem haffi dead

(Can me say) Dis is not an bargain (Me say)

Dis is not a deal

Guy come near we

Then his skin must peel

Burn him up bad like an old tire wheel

gwaan buju banton yuh tough₁

“Boom bye bye,” a popular song by homophobe Buju Banton about killing gay men, describes the situation that is likely the commonplace in Jamaica. In one particular event, crowds shouted out lyrics from the song when Jamaican gay rights activist Brian Williamson was stabbed to death in his home.₂ The outright, deliberate violence against homosexuals in Jamaica persists and has evolved to the point where harassing gays has become the norm. Human Rights Watch documents countless testimonies of individuals being driven from their homes and threatened by their neighbors. In one account, after being driven out of his mother's home Vincent G. states,“I don't live anywhere now...Some guys in the area threatened me. 'Battyman, you have to leave. If you don't leave, we'll kill you.'”₃ The term “battyman,” a slang for buttocks indirectly referring to anal sex, has become the classification of gay men in Jamaica.

The elevating violence in Jamaica also stems from discrimination against sexual minorities and the stigma of HIV/AIDS as a disease transmitted between gays. Due to existing beliefs that homosexuals are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS (because of their sexual “impurity”), the availability of prevention information and services is not as accessible. In many cases, gays continue to experience verbal and physical abuse from Jamaican health workers and police who participate in and encourage the acts of violence. Despite efforts of groups such as J-FLAG (Jamaican Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays), Jamaica's Ministry of Health, the National AIDS Committee and various nongovernmental organizations, the abuse of human rights is reinforced by the state's sodomy laws and the agents that reproduce the violence. The process of structuration, then, is constituted between structure and agency and mediated by the role of discourse. In order to understand the perpetuating process, it is necessary to analyze the problem-solving theory of liberalism and its emphasis on the security of natural human rights; conversely, the dominant ideology behind protecting human rights has evolved into a rapidly growing AIDS epidemic that threatens both the national and human security of Jamaica.