Huh.
The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?
Crimes against gays are mounting in Jamaica and across the Caribbean
Brian wears sunglasses to hide his gray and lifeless left eye—damaged, he says, by kicks and blows with a board from Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton. Brian, 44, is gay, and Banton, 32, is an avowed homophobe whose song Boom Bye-Bye decrees that gays "haffi dead" ("have to die"). In June 2004, Brian claims, Banton and some toughs burst into his house near Banton's Kingston recording studio and viciously beat him and five other men. After complaints from international human-rights groups, Banton was finally charged last fall, but in January a judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence. It was a bitter decision for Brian, who lost his landscaping business after the attack and is fearful of giving his last name. "I still go to church," he says as he sips a Red Stripe beer. "Every Sunday I ask why this happened to me."
Though familiar to Americans primarily as a laid-back beach destination, Jamaica is hardly idyllic. The country has the world's highest murder rate. And its rampant violence against gays and lesbians has prompted human-rights groups to confer another ugly distinction: the most homophobic place on earth.
In the past two years, two of the island's most prominent gay activists, Brian Williamson and Steve Harvey, have been murdered — and a crowd even celebrated over Williamson's mutilated body. Perhaps most disturbing, many anti-gay assaults have been acts of mob violence. In 2004, a teen was almost killed when his father learned his son was gay and invited a group to lynch the boy at his school.
Wow. I had no idea. Depressing....
I think I hear my workmen in the hall. They're 1/2 hour late, dammit.
In 2004, a teen was almost killed when his father learned his son was gay and invited a group to lynch the boy at his school.
Gah. That boy, that poor boy. Please,
please
let him be someplace safe and far away from his father now. And what a horrible thing to have to wish for.
interrupting :
it is a great day , because at least two buffistas were born today . me ( of course ) and the wonderful Raq!
yayyay
kermit hands in the air
Hippo Birdies beth and Raq!
You both rock!
Birthday Happy Hippos for beth and Raq!!
Happy birthday, beth!
Happy birthday, Raq!
I'm all squeeful that beth is just on the other side of the Bay and Raq will actually be right exactly here in just a month.
Happy Birthday, Beth and Raq!
Phil was so pleased with his graft that he had to hug himself and giggle with glee. (Probably JZ's favorite moment of the weekend.)
Mine too. The whole weekend sounds lovely, but that's just adorable.
I'm skeptical of the "covers Viagra but not BC" example. Does anyone have an example of a real case where this happened?
I thought it was about the gov requiring coverage for Viagra, or something like that. Lemme dig around... Ah, here's a pdf, but this is the relevant part:
U.S.: Medicaid Must Cover Viagra
By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, Friday, July 3, 1998; Page A21
The federal government ordered states yesterday to cover Viagra under their Medicaid programs, infuriating many of the nation's governors, who swiftly accused U.S. health officials of costing them millions of dollars and ignoring their worries about the male impotence drug. The unexpected directive, dispatched in a letter from the Department of Health and Human Services, told states that federal law requires them to pay for the expensive, enormously popular drug through Medicaid, the insurance program for the poor and disabled. Any state Medicaid program that covers prescription medicines, the letter said, must also pay for Viagra. But states countered that, in issuing its order, the federal government was putting them in the untenable position of covering Viagra for men while virtually none of them cover birth control or infertility treatments for women.
So far I've discovered that if I give birth after 35 weeks gestation when I'm out-of-network, I have no insurance coverage at all.
Good lord. Is this the get-your-health-care-at-the-company-store plan, or the other equally monolithic blue-colored organization?
