Comments on: Q&A with Lisa Biagiotti on Homophobia and HIV in Jamaica http://www.thirteen.org/insidethirteen/2009/06/29/qa-with-lisa-biagotti-of-worldfocus-on-homophobia-and-hiv-in-jamaica/ What's going on at Thirteen and WNET.ORG Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:58:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Colin http://www.thirteen.org/insidethirteen/2009/06/29/qa-with-lisa-biagotti-of-worldfocus-on-homophobia-and-hiv-in-jamaica/#comment-950 Colin Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:57:39 +0000 http://www.thirteen.org/insidethirteen/?p=322#comment-950 I find it really interesting that with all the care you take towards treating homophobia in jamaican from a non-western standpoint, you seem to be falling into homophobic pitfalls in your own reporting. Men in the closet, what you identify here as the "glass closet," (although personally I'd hesitate to use that term in this situation since it tends to be more of a term reserved for celebrities like Anderson Cooper and Queen Latifah), do often have a much higher rate of HIV. In studies within the US, these groups are identified as MSM (Men who had sex with Men) instead of "gay" as gay connotes a certain type of cultural identity. I tend to find that notions that these men will somehow cause a widespread epidemic within straight populations to be based in a type of unspoken homophobic attitude that somehow all gay men are disease carriers, disease prone, and dangerous to the "mainstream world." You might remember dialogues in the US a couple years ago about men of color on the D/L, people within the MSM community. These men at the time were being blamed for rising infection rates within the African American communities in the U.S. A really interesting article was just published that debunks that myth... It can be seen here: http://www.poz.com/articles/down_low_study_hiv_401_16864.shtml The question is how much are fears of a more widespread epidemic due to the actually sexual behavior and interaction across different communities based on the actual behavior of the MSM community in Jamaica and how much is it rooted in the cultures fear of homosexuality and gay men? I find it really interesting that with all the care you take towards treating homophobia in jamaican from a non-western standpoint, you seem to be falling into homophobic pitfalls in your own reporting.

Men in the closet, what you identify here as the “glass closet,” (although personally I’d hesitate to use that term in this situation since it tends to be more of a term reserved for celebrities like Anderson Cooper and Queen Latifah), do often have a much higher rate of HIV. In studies within the US, these groups are identified as MSM (Men who had sex with Men) instead of “gay” as gay connotes a certain type of cultural identity. I tend to find that notions that these men will somehow cause a widespread epidemic within straight populations to be based in a type of unspoken homophobic attitude that somehow all gay men are disease carriers, disease prone, and dangerous to the “mainstream world.”

You might remember dialogues in the US a couple years ago about men of color on the D/L, people within the MSM community. These men at the time were being blamed for rising infection rates within the African American communities in the U.S. A really interesting article was just published that debunks that myth… It can be seen here: http://www.poz.com/articles/down_low_study_hiv_401_16864.shtml

The question is how much are fears of a more widespread epidemic due to the actually sexual behavior and interaction across different communities based on the actual behavior of the MSM community in Jamaica and how much is it rooted in the cultures fear of homosexuality and gay men?

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