Batty Bwoy! Do Jamaicans Really Hate Gays?
Slaver owners used to rape Jamaican slave men as a form of punishment.
Many people believe that Jamaicans are among the world's most homophobic people and that homosexuality is illegal here. Buggery is a crime under the Offenses Against the Person Act, specifically Sections 76, 77, and 79.
Section 76: Unnatural Offences
Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of buggery, committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall be liable to be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for a term not exceeding ten years.
This section of the act defines buggery of a person or animal as an unnatural crime, and if convicted, the accused faces up to ten years in prison with hard labor.
Section 77: Attempt (to commit buggery)
Whosoever shall attempt to commit the said abominable crime, or shall be guilty of any assault with intent to commit the same, or of any indecent assault upon any male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding seven years, with or without hard labor.
This section is about attempting to commit buggery, which carries a seven-year prison sentence.
Section 79: Outrages on Decency
Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor.
The other "grossly indecent" sexual actions are covered in this section (male with male). Gross indecency was not specifically defined in the act, but in my opinion it refers to any sexual activity that is not buggery, such as kissing, touching, and so on.
Now lets define some terms before we move on.
Homosexuality is defined as having a sexual or romantic attraction to or engaging in sexual activity with another person who is of the same gender.
Buggery refers to anal intercourse between two humans or between a person and an animal. In traditional thinking, it is referred to as "sodomy" and is considered a "crime against nature."
Homophobia refers to negative feelings, discomfort, or suspicion toward lesbians, gay men, or bisexual people.
Jamaican law does not specifically address homosexuality, but it does make any sexual conduct between two men illegal. Except for a bisexual male who would be covered by the unnatural offences and outrages on decency portions of the Offenses Against the Person Act, there is nothing in the law that covers other groups in the LGBT+ community.
It's strange that sexual behavior between two females is not viewed by the law as an unnatural act or an outrage on decency.
JAMAICANS AND ANAL SEX: A BRIEF HISTORY
Jamaicans are descended from African slaves, and there are numerous stories about the evil and inhumane treatment that slaves endured. In this section of the article, I will concentrate on the term "Buck breaking" or "buck busting" and do my best to demonstrate how sexual violence was weaponized and used by slaveowners against slaves. Slaves, including men, were frequently sexually abused in order to keep them in line or as punishment for those who dared to rebel.
Buck Breaking
White slaveowners would commit the violent sexual act known as "buck breaking" on their male slaves. The slave master would first bend the victim over a tree stump before pulling his pants down, ensuring that the slave's buttocks were up in the air, before brutally beating him on his buttocks, rendering him defenseless against the ensuing rape. After that, the slave owner would brutally rape him in the anus. The humiliated slave would then be made to wear his pants without a belt until they sagged as evidence that, like branded cattle, the slave had been properly broken in. It goes without saying that it was the ultimate emasculation of the male African slave who had been rebelling against his white slave masters.
This horrific kind of punishment was commonly used by slave owners in the Caribbean and was typically used on the most disobedient Jamaican slaves. The situation was made worse by the fact that the beatings and rapes took place in full view of the other slaves on the plantation. So, in addition to a violent sexual attack, the slave also suffered public humiliation. The other slaves were terrified by this form of public punishment, which successfully stopped any further rebellion. The slaves who were subjected to this evil punishment would frequently flee the plantation or commit suicide, unable to cope with the humiliation they had endured. It was extremely difficult for them to reintegrate into society, after everyone, including their wives, children, and friends, witnessed them being raped in the anus.
Buck breaking gained popularity among Caribbean slave owners as a method of punishment. It was easy for White men to rape male slaves because they could travel between plantations. Buck breaking was so common that homosexual slaveowners may have exploited it to act out their fantasies on men without bringing attention to their orientation. At the time, homosexuality was illegal, but it was acceptable to rape male slaves as a means of punishment. Additionally, rape is often more than a physical act; it destroys a person's spirit and will to live. Furthermore, when rape happens in public, as was the case with buck breaking, it not only harms the immediate victim but also breaks down the entire community and renders it powerless to resist.
BUT DID BUCK BREAKING (BUTT BUSTING) REALLY HAPPEN, OR IS IT JUST A CONSIPRACY THEORY?
I'd be doing my readers a disservice if I didn't address the fact that historical accounts of "buck breaking" have been called into question. Many people are dismissing it as a hoax, the work of pro-Black, pseudo-historians. However, since Black history is written from the point of view of the oppressor, it stands to reason that some violent crimes will be "white washed" or completely overlooked.
Reason 1: Lack of Historical Account and the Illegality of Homosexuality.
Many people believe that "buck breaking" was fabricated by Black nationalists as a kind of anti-white propaganda. They contend that:
It never happened because there are no reliable historical records that mentioned buck breaking.
The reports of the buck breaking come from dubious sources such as Afrocentric pseudo-historical and revisionist websites, which provide no evidence for the practice other than to allude to one another as supporting evidence.
Homosexuality was a criminal offence, in the late 19th century, punishable by death.
It is silly to suggest that White men sexually molested Black male slaves because buggery was a serious crime that could result in hanging, regardless of the victim's race or social standing.
In order to keep this short, I won't go into great detail about each point, but suffice it to say that none of them can withstand close examination. White people committed the most heinous crimes against Black people, yet White people get to present their side of the story and are the "legitimate" sources of knowledge on Black history. Furthermore, it was acceptable to commit major crimes such as murder and rape against Black people during slavery. Why is it silly to accept that Black male slaves were raped by their oppressors? There were no laws protecting Black people from cruel treatment, and most reports of buck busting came from Jamaica and the Caribbean. Who is telling the story of Black people?
The sexual exploitation of male slaves has gone uninvestigated for a variety of reasons. One reason is that male rape victims did not produce evidence of their assault in the form of children. Another reason is that there are so few accounts of sexually abused male slaves that it is difficult to write about and shed light on the situation. People are typically educated about rape in the context of female victims, and the rape of enslaved women is widely documented, but there is almost no documentation of male victims. Furthermore, the rape of enslaved men is thought to have gone unnoticed due to the current historical tendency to define rape along gendered lines, making both victims and perpetrators reluctant to discuss male rape.
Reason 2: Murder (of male slaves) was considered more acceptable than homosexuality.
It fascinates me that people believe the law was ever concerned with the well-being of slaves. Opponents of historical accounts of buck breaking argue that:
Although there is a ton of historical evidence and reports of female slaves being raped, neither of these things implies nor proves that male slaves were also raped.
While raping female slaves was a non-criminal act that was often implicitly permitted, "buck busting" would have resulted in death by hanging.
Raping a male slave, if it ever happened, would have been a very rare, isolated act, and it wouldn't have been done as a means of public punishment.
It is very stupid to think that White slaveowners would sodomize their Black male slaves in public as a spectacle during a time when doing so would result in hanging.
Who, though, is more detached from reality? In the late 19th century, would a Whiteman who had raped a Black male slave be publicly executed? Is there any report of this happening? Is it more plausible to think that Black male slaves who instigated rebellion were raped by White slaveowners than to think that this never happened because the perpetrators would face the full weight of the law? If we accept the detractors' argument that a White man who raped a Black male slave as punishment for wrongdoing could be hanged by his peers, what message would that send to the slaves?
I believe it is reasonable to accept that public beatings and sexual degradation of a Black male were used by White slaveowners to discourage enslaved Black people from revolting. It is unreasonable to expect a male rape victim to come forward and speak out about his trauma, and it is equally unreasonable to expect White historians to investigate and expound on this evil practice in their writings.
Buck breaking, also known as "busting the butt," was said to be most common in Jamaica. Many Black historians believe that Jamaicans are so violently opposed to homosexuality because of the widespread practice of homosexual degradation ( of Black male slaves) that happened during slavery. They argued that Jamaicans do not hate people because of their sexual orientation, but that they have been traumatized by acts of buggery (during slavery), and that these traumatic experiences have created a culture of extreme intolerance for homosexuals that has been carried forward from slavery to present day Jamaica.
However , while there are still residues of homophobia in Jamaica today, I contend that they are mostly superficial. Jamaicans are much more tolerant of LGBT+ individuals than the international community is led to believe, and the recorded acts of violence against "gays" are very rare incidents that occasionally resulted from "extreme provocation." Do Jamaicans really dislike homosexual people, then, as the article's title questions? The short answer is that most Jamaicans do not, despite the fact that gay behavior is still frowned upon.