Queer Tourism: The Case of Jamaica

This study examines the challenges associated with the development of Queer tourism in the British Caribbean/ British West Indies. It illuminates the horrific state of homophobia that is tolerated, promoted and endorsed on several levels of British Caribbean society including the government and religious levels thus giving rise to staunch resistance to queer tourism. In a society whose notion of sexual normality is rooted in heterosexual hegemony, hatred towards gays is often openly and publicly expressed in the local newspapers. I argue that the British Caribbean is not a gay paradise and that ‘out’ Jamaican lesbians, transgendered people and gay men- “battyman” or “battyboye” as they are called in Jamaican language, are not only on the front lines targeted for repression and violence from the dancehalls and pulpits to the police stations, but they are not always welcomed in the vibrant tourist sector. Although more hotels are now willing to accommodate openly gay couples many are fearful of leaving the confines of the resort and in the community they are often discriminated against. The homophobic climate, official government warnings and press coverage combined with the lack of a formal queer tourist sector has caused many GLBT people from overseas to stay away.  Sexuality remains the least porous or perhaps the last frontier of civil and political rights in the British Caribbean only because it is fraught with such deeply imbedded cultural and religious taboos. The Jamaican government has failed to eliminate sexualized borders. I focus on Jamaica because currently it has the largest tourist industry in the British Caribbean surpassing the Bahamas in 2007 based on the number of rooms and landed visitors (Jamaica Tourist Board). Jamaica also has the worst record of violence against sexual minorities with in the region.