Jamaica urged to tackle anti-gay violence

Campaigners have urged Jamaican authorities to stamp out anti-gay violence after one man disappeared and another was severely injured in a recent mob attack.

A group of about 20 people in the central mountain town of Mandeville threw bottles at the men’s home, broke down the door and attacked them on January 29.

The group chased one man while the other had his left ear severed, his arm broken in two places and his spine possibly damaged.

The man is hospitalised in serious condition, while the other one has not been found, said police spokeswoman Camika Parker.

Several gay activists have been killed in Jamaica, which still has a colonial-era law on the books that bans sex between men.

Human Rights Watch noted two high-profile attacks on gays last year, including one in which someone was clubbed with a manhole cover.

In another incident, a crowd of about 200 people surrounded four men, including the co-chairman of Jamaica’s Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, and said they should be beaten to death.

“While Jamaican police have begun to reach out to gay and lesbian communities, this change hasn’t reached many police stations where protection remains an illusion,” Rebecca Schleifer, HIV/AIDS advocate at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Ms Parker denied that gays and lesbians do not receive the same level of police protection.