Representations of Homosexuality in Jamaica

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to deconstruct representations of homosexuality in Jamaica. Social Representation Theory (SRT) is used to discuss the violence and abuse against homosexuals and the debate between the Jamaican government and the international homosexual lobby about these vexing issues. The fanatical intolerance of the heterosexual consensus is evident in the attempted lynching of a boy suspected of being gay, instigated by the boy's father. In addition the government has been accused of not protecting homosexuals by the Human Rights Watch. The resultant debates in the newspapers are cultural pathways to the larger cultural representations derived from the historical consensus that homosexuality is an abomination to God and therefore homosexuals should be killed. This article attempts to deconstruct representations of homosexuality in Jamaica. Following a review of the literature on Social Representation Theory (SRT), I use SRT to explain and deconstruct the negative representations of homosexuality in Jamaica. The paper starts with a synopsis of SRT beginning with the work of Serge Moscovici. From there I move on to deal with how various scholars have developed the theory in their work. I then present a case illustrating the taboo of homosexuality in Jamaica. I use SRT to explicate this case with the evolution of the anti-homosexual themata which frames the attempted lynching of a boy suspected of being gay, the debates surrounding the treatment of homosexuals, the homosexual lobby's creation of polemical representations and the difficulty encountered in generating emancipatory representations to counter the hegemonic representation against homosexuality. My conclusion follows.

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