Homosexuality and the Bahamas

"Indeed, if you want to know whether today people believe in democracy, if you want to know whether they are true democrats, if you want to know whether they are human rights activists, the question to ask is, 'What about gay people?' Because that is now the litmus paper by which this democracy is to be judged,"

Bayard Rustin in 1986, according to Time on Two Crosses -- The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin.

By TANEKA THOMPSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

tthompson@tribunemedia.net

BAYARD Rustin, a little known American civil rights advocate and trusted adviser to Martin Luther King Jr, once said that the way homosexuals are treated would be the next litmus test -- after struggles for racial equality -- for democratic societies.

Dubbed the "unknown hero" behind the landmark civil rights movement in the United States, Rustin taught Martin Luther King Jr his platform of non-violent resistance and is credited for organising the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest peaceful protests ever held in the US.

Despite his contribution to black history, he never gained the recognition of his counterparts because, some speculate, of his sexual orientation. He was threatened, arrested, jailed, and sacked from influential positions -- all because he was an openly gay man in an intensely homophobic era.

I must admit that I had not heard about Rustin and his life-long fight for black and gay equality until last week, during an interview with local human and gay rights activist Erin Greene about homophobia in our society. But to me, his argument rings true. I believe that if one were to apply Rustin's litmus test to the Bahamas today, our nation would fail, and fail miserably.

Homosexuality is one of the biggest sore points in Bahamian society. Homophobia once drove hundreds to converge in a public square to protest a gay cruise. In 2004 that mob screamed at tourists disembarking their ship that they would not allow them to "take our children."

Many seem to imagine that gays lurk in dark corners or back alleys committing illicit, immoral, non-Christian acts. Gays are our modern day "boogie men" ready to snatch little children away to corrupt and convert to an abhorrent lifestyle. Many can't fathom how a man, or woman, could be attracted to and have an intimate relationship with a person of the same sex, therefore it must be dirty and wicked. The prejudice, oppression and violence towards gays is similar to the bigoted beliefs of racists and segregationists.

As a descendant of persons who were subjected to this type of treatment, I find it a contradiction to be both black and homophobic.

If you stack the arguments segregationists made to oppose interracial marriage next to the argument against gay marriage, they are shockingly similar. When we question whether the child of a gay couple would grow up confused, it bears an embarrassing similarity to statements made by bigots who conjure up images of the "tragic mulatto" failing to fit in the "white world" or the "black world."

Often times, homophobia is a fear born out of selective use of the Bible to support hate. Today the descendants of slaves quote Leviticus 18:22 to justify denouncing homosexuality just as bigots quoted Genesis 9:25 to justify the subjugation of their fellow man. The correlation between bigoted attitudes towards gays and the filthy racism that kept millions of our brothers and sisters in physical and metaphorical bondage for centuries seems crystal clear to me.

Yet I've often wondered what in our culture has given rise to the seething hatred which is spewed over the talk radio airwaves and from certain church pulpits.

According to anthropologist and scholar Dr Nicolette Bethel, Bahamian attitudes towards gays were not always so pronounced.

"(Homosexuality in the Bahamas) has not always brought about such a passionate response, historically Bahamians have been far more tolerant of different sexualities than other West Indians," Dr Bethel told Insight in a recent interview.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, homosexuality "wasn't talked about, wasn't condemned. People might have laughed, might have ridiculed, but no one was talking about (gay) people going to hell," remembered the scholar.

In fact she recalled instances when nightclub entertainers walked down Bay Street -- Nassau's bustling downtown district -- in full drag, or in women's clothing.

"People were fine with it," she said.

While no thorough research about the origins of homophobia in the Bahamas has been done, Ms Bethel sees the change in tide towards gays and the introduction of fundamentalist Christianity to our society as no coincidence.

"I don't remember the kind of frenzy and interest in people's sex lives (two decades ago) compared to what has happened in the late 1990s and 2000s. The 1980s were watershed in recent history in two ways: it was the drug era and the reaction to the drug era was the interest in fundamentalist Christianity. And fundamentalists around the world are far more interested in sex than most other Christian manifestations, so I don't think that they are unrelated."

Erin Greene shares a similar view.

"There is this theory that -- homosexuality always existed in the Bahamas, like everywhere else -- homophobia began when the Baptist missionaries came into the Bahamas. Homophobia in these colonial communities is complex but the starting point could be when American southern Baptist churches starting coming in, you started seeing the homophobia. (Before) we knew who the gay people were, they were visible, but then they started to become invisible and people are afraid of what they don't know," surmised Ms Greene, part of the Bahamas' Rainbow Alliance, a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and heterosexual individuals.

As a child who spent many a Sunday in the pew of a Baptist church, I know all too well the rhetoric of fire and brimstone. Try as they might, those impassioned preachers never got through to me, mainly because I could not reconcile how a Saviour whose New Testament message revolved around love, non-judgement and forgiveness could condemn two consenting, loving adults for expressing inherent behaviour.

But there are many who drink in a preacher's fiery onslaught against gays like a thirsty wanderer in the desert, with no thought of questioning what they are taught.

The practice of scripture being used to condemn homosexuality was put to one local pastor who sees it as selectively taking certain inflammatory passages from the Bible literally, while ignoring the text's condemnation of other practices prevalent in today's culture.

"I believe fundamentalism is a way of reading the Bible that is blind to the cultural context on both sides, (not understanding) that the culture in which the scripture was originally written and not also understanding the culture in which it is received. When we take the Bible out of its culture we end up taking all of the Bible on the same plain literally as if it was meant to be taken literally, in all places, at all times," said the pastor who chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal.

I am no religious scholar, but I want to take the time to point out several instances where the Bible appears to denounce homosexuality along with other practices that are commonplace today .

Leviticus 18:22 says "Thou (man) shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is (an) abomination."

If you read this passage alone, it seems like an open and shut case on the practice of male homosexuality. However that same Book condemns the eating of pork, "And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you" (Lev 11:7) and even seafood, "These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat." (Lev 11.9).

Leviticus also advises against farmers planting crops of mingled seeds and wearing clothes woven of multiple blends: "Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen come upon thee." Lev 19:19.

Should we now start condemning people who enjoy shrimp, conch salad or wear a cotton/wool blend shirt?

And then there are the letters of the Apostle Paul. Paul's writings in Romans is viewed by many Christians as the most transparent portion of the Bible that condemns homosexuality.

In Romans 1:26-27, the apostle writes, "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.

"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet."

On face value, and with no investigation, this seems to be clear evidence that Paul viewed homosexual practices as wicked. But an opposing school of thought teaches that this interpretation does not take into account the cultural context of Paul's writing. It is said that Paul wrote his letter to the Romans after a tour of the Mediterranean, where he observed pagan rituals which included orgies, homosexual sex and paedophelia. Some believe this is what Paul condemned and not consensual homosexual behaviour between adults, a practice that was most likely unheard of in his day.

"In the actual writings of Paul, often what is interpreted as homosexuality could possibly be referring to a type of homosexual pagan ritual that he was condemning and not the kinds of monogamous, loving homosexual relationships evident today," the local pastor added.

Let's not forget, Apostle Paul also spoke out against women having a place in the church, and he had no issue with slavery.

"I find a huge rational hole in that argument given that if you're going to interpret Paul's condemnation of homosexuality literally why would you not take his comments on slavery literally or his commands about women (not) speaking in church?" asked the pastor.

So that this entire piece is not a religious argument, let's go back to an earlier comment by Dr Bethel, who said our treatment of homosexuals is traditionally more tolerant than that of others in the region.

Indeed, by comparison to violence against gays in Jamaica, the Bahamas seems somewhat tame. In a 2006 Time article, Jamaica was referred to as "the most homophobic place on earth" due to its disturbing accounts of mob attacks and violence against gays.

According to that article, two of the island's most prominent gay activists, Brian Williamson and Steve Harvey, were murdered several years ago. It is reported that a crowd celebrated over Williamson's mutilated body. In 2004, a teen nearly died after his father learned his son was gay and invited a group to lynch the boy at his school, Time reported.

In 2006, Nokia Cowan of Kingston, drowned after a crowd shouting "batty boy" -- Jamaican slang for homosexual -- chased him off a pier, Time said.

Although instances like those are not commonplace in the Bahamas, Ms Greene thinks the damage done here is equally pronounced.

"What Jamaica experiences in physical violence, we experience in psychological and spiritual violence. In Jamaica they don't talk about it at all, here we ridicule -- with the jokes on the radio -- and separate," said Ms Greene.

But there have been some reported local attacks on gays. In 2008, a 28-year-old man was the reported victim of a gay bashing incident and was taken to hospital after he was assaulted at a downtown restaurant. That same year, another young homosexual man was reportedly attacked coming out of a popular gay nightclub on Elizabeth Avenue in Nassau.

And early last year, Frederick Green-Neely was acquitted after he confessed to killing a reportedly gay man. Jurors in the Supreme Court found that Green-Neely used justifiable force when he stabbed Dale Williams three times, after the man -- who he said was known to be gay and HIV positive -- told him he had a crush on him and grabbed his crotch.

Green-Neely's lawyer told the court he was "defending his manhood."

I was inspired to write this article several weeks ago when I first heard that another gay cruise had plans to sail to the Bahamas this April. I immediately bristled. Not because I was offended by the thought of scores of pride-filled gay men and women descending on our country to frolic on our sand and surf, but because I braced myself for the expected onslaught from the religious community and the general public.

Would the news elicit the same deafening cry of protest from critics of a homosexual lifestyle akin to the heated demonstrations gay cruise passengers met in 2004 and 1998? Aside from some bigoted comments on The Tribune's website in response to a poll on the cruise a few weeks ago, the reaction so far has been relatively mute at best.

As I write this, there is no way of telling if our country and some of its religious leaders have matured past the point of flocking to Prince George Wharf to fight "the gay agenda."

Is the outrage slowly building, bubbling up behind closed doors, set to explode once the fateful cruise docks in two months? Only time will tell.

Rustin died in 1987 before he could see the gay rights and equality movement gain the traction and respect of the civil rights movement. I hope in my lifetime to see our society pass that litmus test.

Published On:Monday, March 01, 2010