Whether its domestic disputes between lovers including a third party or the rumoured illegal sweepstakes fraudulent activity where persons employ all sorts of weaponry and devices (including obeah/vodoo) I am told, gay on gay violence in rearing it’s ugly head again in public. A lesbian couple recently had an appointment at a police station where one accused the other of a harsh beating. Fights were predominantly known to happen at parties hence the careful selection by some gays of events they attend as certain gay venues have been known to have sporadic breakouts of fights or outright brawls in the past as lovers or sweethearts “fight ova man” or woman as the case may be.
Lesbians are not exempt as female get togethers have seen some increase in this kind of antisocial behaviour as well, the Jamaican lesbian community was once heralded at the benchmark for gays to learn from in terms of public behaviour, now they have similar issues as gay men.
There are several complaints from ordinary citizens as well of fights in public spaces by gays and lesbians including a very public one on a JUTC bus recently, the bus was stopped and the girls removed by security personnel who apparently saw the exchange via the security cameras on board.
What are the causes of the increase and how can we begin to address it?
It’s bad that we have a reputation already as nasty people by John public but to see us fighting and quarrelling in public what good will that do us?
Some time ago there was a suggestion in the now defunct GLABCOM meetings that an anger management course or seminar be established permanently to deal with issues faced by us, to this day nothing yet.
The sad part about it as well is that these bouts of rage is not limited to fist fights but knives and guns have been known or alleged to be employed as well in some instances.
Boi it bad fi true.
Where do we begin folks?
Lata
H
Gay Lesbian Bisexual Trans-gender & Queer Jamaica 
The gay community in Jamaica, certainly does not stand in isolation to the rest of the society. The problem is that the country as a whole has a serious problem with violence and anger management. Invariably that will be manifested in all segments of society, including the GLBT community. Unfortunately I have no idea what the solution would be.
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This is a disappointing reality for sure. I have been hearing it a lot lately, that gays are more aggressive, jealous and violent than any heterosexual. I thought, well, duh- if you only ever become aware of gay people when they get seriously hurt by their "close friend"/ partner, then of course you will make a connection between homosexuality and violence. I'm not sure how valid that is however.
Though I do have a gay friend who periodically lashes out at his boyfriend- with knives, fists and slaps to the face- I'm more likely to attribute this behavioural disfunction to anger management problems, and not some increased proclivity of people in the gay community to perpetuate violence against each other.
I definitely agree with Ric.
Jamaicans are an aggressive set of people, in general. I'm not sure if the violence you speak of is more prevalent in the gay community. It might just seem that way because gay people are just becoming more visible, and sparring matches between gay partners hasn't yet been normalized (Probably wont be anytime soon. I wont elaborate, but it's sad that violence and aggression could ever be normalized the way it is in Jamaica).
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