| Songs Of Freedom documentary – Interview with Larry Chang Songs Of Freedom: Compelling Stories of Courage and Hope by Jamaican Gays and Lesbians Excerpt taken from an interview recorded in 2002, available in the documentary Songs Of Freedom. We are known, diservely or not, to be probably the most homophobic society on earth. That’s probably an exaggeration. Anyway, we are known for Homophobia. But people never stop to wonder “why is it that the average Jamaican male reacts in such a personal and immediate way to the phenomenon of homosexuality”. I have my own theory, of course: I think that it is a complex of things. But one of the main thing that is operating is the role of the black male in this society, generally, as it relates to our inheritance from slavery. I think that the issue is directly tide in to Jamaican men in particular. Their self image, their awareness of themselves as men. And to me, what they probably think of as their primary function as a man is to breed. And this is a carry over from the days of slavery, well this is exactly what men slave were expected to do. If this is recognize than as one of, if not the major, indicator of manhood in the Jamaican psyche. Than we could begin to understand why if there is a Jamaican male who does not fit into this category, who does not chose to even pretend to fit in this category, than that person immediately becomes a threat to the psychological security of self-identity of the average Jamaican male. Because you are now drawing into question, the very basis of his existence. Everything that he has based his identity on has to do with procreation and here comes somebody who says “well no, that’s not what I’m about, I’m about something else completely different”. NOTE: I transcriped the interview from the documentary. Their might be some grammatical errors, as I am not perfectly bilingual. The words that have a lighter grey shade are the words that I'm unshure of. |
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