No Gays Allowed!

Jamaica has been called the most homophobic place on earth. Jamaica’s Dancehall culture has been accused of producing “murder music” and advocacy aimed at harming gays. In actuality, though, Jamaica and Dancehall have also produced some of the most complex, layered, and quietly subversive expressions of gender and sexuality in the African diaspora. Both sides of the issue have truths and misinterpretations — and understanding the historical and cultural dynamics of the debate require more than outrage, more than condemnation, and far more than the comfortable distance of outsider judgment.