Cruising community challenges continue ............

The last time we looked at challenges facing this part of the men who have sex with men community we saw some issues in a particular geographical zone probably caused by changes by the authorities to those areas.


Please see: 


Some cruising challenges ..........

Once again the cruising community ofKingston proper has been hit by another series of issues within the last monthor so, mostly of their own population members making leading to some unraveling. In one instance a new comer asdescribed by one of the more elder statesmen of the lot that traverses a certainsection of downtown is up in arms as his regular taunt has been exposed wherethis “newcomer” to that strip was spotted cruising another male who wasurinating by a light post on the particular stretch, a popular way for Jamaicanmen to relieve themselves in public when nature calls is to urinate openly but carefully concealing their penises although some men do expose themselves in jest. Let us also bear in mind thatearlier this year we had issues within that same geographical zone of oldhunting spots and even a suspicious murder of a man in the area in February of this year who was foundnude in the newly refurbished Coronation market and who was buggered stillrests on the mind of many including the elder statesman of the bunch who Ispoke to, we happened to have ran into each other at a bar in Kingston lastevening. it is not yet known if the deceased was indeed a regular of the group or from the community at all but concerns have been raised as why would he have been left nude and buggered?

The questions still linger in my mind as tothe incessant need for cruisers to revisit old stomping grounds though even when major overhaul or changes have been effected in those locations. Historicallydowntown has been a major cruising ground from the early days of the sixties and seventies as oral histories validate and with the erectionof the new telecommunications giant Digicel fast rising headquarter towers, thebeautification of the pier and the clearing of the rear of the craft market,the reopening of the train station (a more successful spot for meeting andmaking hookups with trade boys (heaviots) or hypermasculine types) the erectionof the new rural bus terminus and taxi stand much to the dislike of commuters who have to use a shuttle service to get there with some safety concerns as thatarea has a stigma attached and the bulldozering and opening of a car park bythe old standpipe where men once openly bathed nude some veteran cruisers andeven exhibitionists (who masturbate openly) in the game still traverse thesespots.

 Arethese a sign of excessive compulsive behaviours ?

Are these signs of a type of paraphilia? -  a term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her. A paraphilia involves sexual arousal and gratification towards sexual behavior that is atypical or extreme. The term was coined by Wilhelm Stekel in the 1920s. Controversial sexologist John Money later popularized the term as a nonpejorative designation for unusual sexual interests. He described paraphilia as "a sexuoerotic embellishment of, or alternative to the official, ideological norm." In the current version of the DSM (DSM-IV-TR), a paraphilia is not diagnosable as a psychiatric disorder unless it causes distress to the individual or harm to others. The DSM-5 draft adds a terminology distinction between the two cases, stating that "paraphilias are not ipso facto psychiatric disorders", and defining paraphilic disorder as "a paraphilia that causes distress or impairment to the individual or harm to others". This will make a clear distinction between a healthy person with a non-normative sexual behavior and a person with a psychopathological non-normative sexual behavior.

Then again in discussing these mattersopenly our anti gay opponents might say yes, see that’s all gay men are just sex hungryfreaks but one can understand in a sense the need to seek sex outdoor or that proverbialquickie as it may not be convenient to do so in one’s own abode or residencygiven the sensitivities involved in the Jamaican homophobic climate and the lack of safe spaces or money to seek accommodation in hotels. The oldarea nearing a certain fish market is still active according to the veteran buthe is upset at the newcomer who spoiled it all, the newbie was chased by agroup of men who were passing the new bus terminus as indicated above. Thechase ended just by the old bookstore warehouse on Port Royal Street where thenewbie managed to dart between oncoming traffic heading westwards to elude his pursuers who were visibly upset they never caught the battyboi. Anotherallegation has come forth as well of a teenager in uniform who was also caughtwith another man performing oral sex in that same vicinity, that has not beenconfirmed but has been corroborated however. One of the issues in my mind alsois that this community is not exposed to the advocacy structure or even themore popular LGBT social scene as they tend to prefer remaining undergroundexcept the occasional appearances at freebie parties as they tend to lack thedisposable income to meet the gate receipt requirements. What is also uniqueabout this group is that they tend to be just in it for pure fun and sex anddespite their financial challenges at times or as is evidenced they do not forthe most part get involved in commercial sex work but seek that exhilaratingrelease but in a public space. Aphrodisiac? 

One might ask or a that thrill ofbeing close to danger but far from harm theory, that sometimes to hidesomething one can out the issue or item right under the noses of who one doesnot want to see. The more open stomping grounds are still active like in morepublic spaces for the initial hookup then deciding where to go afterwards butthe more surgical and spontaneous cruiser activities seem to be getting more difficultor boxed in as uninhabited spaces and buildings becomes less available or populated thus causing the occasionalexposure.  We have seen other issuesbefore over the years in that part of town such as the murder of a once popularcruiser who was also a fixture on the LGBT party scene one of the few knownbrothers who dabbled in the main LGBT population social scenes while engagingin contact with the cult underground was stabbed several times and his bodydumped wrapped with barbed wires on the controversial imaginary political linesof West Kingston, his death at that time sent shock waves and raised concernsabout downlow activity in the controversial don political culture as thedeceased was accused of blabbing on a figure who resided there at the time.Just recently who can forget a certain key gangster figure who also was chargedfor murder of a man whose body was dumped in a barrel and left on a handcart,testimony in that case also revealed that the deceased was performing oral sexon the said key gangster when he was killed as he had disobeyed ab edict laiddown by the figure at the time and so he met his punishment. 

The links must bemade when these matters are brought to the fore, downlow sex whether bycruisers or otherwise has to be brought in the mix of general LGBT agitationsfor rights as this invisible group is overlooked as they do not create the buzzneeded as lightening rods for attention.

Some sort of intervention is needed I feelbut if we can’t even get any honest moves to deal with issues directly infront ofour eyes especially with the least amongst us that being the homeless msms then how are we going to deal with apopulation that is for the most part clandestine even to the rest of the LGBTcommunity’s eyes. My few interactions with these men has also revealed thatthese aren’t the typically profiled brothers but are men who sometimes arebisexual or have the occasional female partner or that male from the lowereconomic strata who uses the Kingston proper region to earn a living near themarket district but are same gender loving or willing to practice some sort ofsexual contact with other men. Stealth is a crucial tool in this game as thesebrothers are mostly very masculine and it may not be known how they are intheir natural state in a few instances. 

Certainly let us have this group of men also in our thoughts although at some point in our own comings and goings we have engaged in some sort of cruising if truth be told but maybe not to the extent to which our brothers in this cohort may want to go or have gone. Fortunately the newbie made good his escape and as the veteran said he hopes he has learnt from that episode.

Peace and tolerance

H

Doing 'business' in New Kingston ... Jamaica Observer on MSM Homelessness ..... JFLAG should be ashamed

Homeless male prostitutes draw the ire of residents

BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE



THEY are anything but subtle, the group of about 30 males who gather regularly by the side of the road in the heart of New Kingston on Friday and Saturday nights, their voices as loud as their thick make-up, wigs, tight jeans, 'belly-skin' baby tees and body suits.

Ignoring the stares from shocked and, in some cases, disgusted passersby, the 'girls' — as they call themselves — are playfully affectionate, laughing as they make frequent, lewd references. Vehicles slow as drivers try to get a closer look, while passing pedestrians fix their gazes on the odd gathering until they move out of sight.



Some of these men are cross-dressers — commonly referred to as drag queens. They are homosexuals and they are prostitutes, and this — the capital city's economic hub — is their stomping ground.



Their presence has aroused fear, rage and disgust among some residents of the upscale community.



"Over the last 12 months, the number of men and young boys gathering at the park across from the former SuperPlus store on Trafalgar Road has grown. We believe that certain elements of the society are taking a stand to exercise their rights to be naked and carry on with other activities in public," wrote one such resident on August 1, who asked that his name not be used for this publication.

The writer said that the males were engaging in lewd sexual activity in public and that his entreaties to the police to put an end to it had borne no fruit. He reported that he and others had been harassed by these men.

"This morning (August 1), upon driving with my sons (past the area), we were flagged down by these men and boys. Ten minutes ago, I called the police who informed me that since 8:00 am (it is now 10:06 am) they have been receiving calls about these activities. Since it is a holiday, the police officer explained that it is just an extension of the activities that take place every month-end weekend over the last year."

"Apparently, there are a number of abandoned homes in New Kingston/Trafalgar Park where these men have captured and live. They then simply walk down the street and frolic naked in the park," he complained.

Another frequent hang-out spot for the male prostitutes is this park. (Photos: Garfield Robinson



Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Doing--business--in-New-Kingston_9445796#ixzz1V6aRdBcQ

The Sunday Observer recently made several Friday night trips to this popular haunt where we found these societal outcasts surprisingly willing to talk about their lifestyles and how they wound up on the streets.

While the only names we were given were pseudonyms, such as 'Nicky' and 'Angel', they had no problem preening for this reporter's benefit as they transformed themselves from male to pseudo-female right there on the side of the street.

Their dainty gestures defied the traditional definition of masculinity as they applied each others' make-up. Most of them said they were hairstylists and manicurists and had obviously thought out their wardrobes, down to the handbags swinging from their arms, giving the impression, certainly from a distance, that they were females.

While the Sunday Observer watched, the 'girls' waited for willing buyers — eager to make a 'sale'.

They claimed their clientele was wide and varied, and included "the same policeman dem who come a run wi dung and a beat wi".

"You have all sort a big people — lawyer, doctor, all sort of man who come here. Nuff married man come, too," one of them, dressed in a close-fitting T-shirt and super-tight jeans, said.



One teenage boy told of his experience of being picked up one night by a man and his wife, who took him to the couple's uptown home.

Another interjected, "Listen carefully! A lot of thugs are homosexuals and a lot of (con)ductor boy a gay. Them come up here and deh wid the whole a di boy dem and then you see when dem same one see wi on the road, dem start shout out 'bullet, bullet!' and we can't open our mouth and say anything."

While some said they were just out to hang out with their friends of like persuasion, this was no social gathering for others; it was a place of work. For some of these male prostitutes, the 'clients' they picked up on this corner were their only means of survival, and the streets, in some cases, a home for the homeless among them.

"They have been chased from their homes, chased from their communities and so they see no way to eat," volunteered one man, who was appointed group spokesperson, when asked why they chose to live this way.



"Hungry not easy, and some will do anything to eat. They can't get any work 'cause nobody not employing them and they don't have any family, so what they going to do? Some just see the 'b' business as their only way out."

They said for days some members of the group are on the street without food, unless they make a 'sale' or have a friend willing to share with them.

"Some 'gyal' out here prostitute themselves fi all $30. Some for $100 or for $200. Some, is not want they want to do it, but dem family put dem out an' dem have to do it," one of them declared.

They said not everyone among them benefits from the illicit trade.

One of the male prostitutes’ New Kingston haunts by day.



Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Doing--business--in-New-Kingston_9445796#ixzz1V6abZClx

"Some of us out here have it hard, hard, hard. Some persons might get to stay with friends and so forth, but some of the friends dem, if they not having sex with you, or if you not cleaning their house or do things like those, you can't stay with them. So, for you (some males) now who use to live wid you mother and (then) come on the road, you not going to agree with the lifestyle, you understand? So certain people not going to stoop to that. So it very struggling," said one of them.

Pointing towards the large group chatting gaily and laughing raucously nearby, one young man said that most were living on the streets and had nowhere to go. Some of them were under the legal age of consent.



"The youngest one out here is 15 years old. She (he) go school, but because is holiday now she just come out here. She have her family. You see because she small in body, them (family) don't really pay it nuh mind, but you see as she grow up now and so forth, she soon have to leave the community.

"Her family don't really know about her lifestyle yet because she little bit and real (masculine) and so, they still look at her as a child. And you see because she can't express herself at her home, she really come out and hang out with her friends dem," the young man said.



While some said they had been forced out of their homes by disapproving families and communities for being gay, others told stories of being indoctrinated into the lifestyle by 'dons' and thugs from their inner-city neighbourhoods.

Others said they ended up prostituting themselves on the streets of Kingston because they had no one to turn to for financial support. Some said they had been involved in gay unions but had to flee their homes for fear of their lives after violent break-ups with their partners. Some of them claimed to be high school graduates with passes in a number of subjects, and some even had jobs at one time.

Some of the male prostitutes in the New Kingston area say they have been forced to live on the streets after being thrown out by their families and communities.



Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Doing--business--in-New-Kingston_9445796#ixzz1V6ajMc4O

"You have people out here who have to leave them good, good job. You have nuff teenage gays, 19 and 20 years old with them subjects and can't get nuh work because of the (gay) lifestyle. You know how much people up dere so have six and seven subjects?" one member of the group said.

Their trade is a growing one.

"Me new to the business," one teenager declared, laughing. "Ah just April me come in it." His laughter belied his painful past. He explained that he was put out by his family when they found out he was gay.



"Being on the road is not nice," another declared.

"Being homeless in Jamaica, an anti-gay country, puts a whole lot of pressure on us. Some of them stress out," he said, pointing towards the gradually expanding group of young men who had gathered that Friday night.

Another, who said he was 27 years old, told the newspaper: "We stress out, 'cause sometimes when we haffi walk from here so to downtown, (when) man run wi down."

In fact, this was later said to be the reason that they often acted boisterously and lashed out at strangers and passersby; because they feel that anyone who stares at them is a potential threat, so they strike first and take comfort in strength in numbers.

They admitted that they were often chased, not just because they were gay prostitutes, but because they had taken to dressing as women; some with the deliberate intention of fooling their 'clients' into thinking they are of the feminine sex.

"We haffi a drag and a dress up like girls fi ketch man fi get money to eat. We haffi a do a lot of things," one cross-dresser said. Another very outspoken drag queen who was skilfully applying make-up explained that on a good night he can make up to $16,000.



During the interview, a heavily tinted vehicle pulled up alongside a group of the cross-dressers who were standing a short distance away.

"You see what a telling you 'bout the lifestyle, now?" asked one of the young men in the group who consented to speak with the Sunday Observer.

"The car come pick them up, them go do prostitution and then come back. Sometimes, they will stop and eat on the road, and so forth."

Senior Superintendent Derrick Knight, who is in charge of the Half-Way-Tree police, told the Sunday Observer that he has received complaints about the men and their behaviour and his team is actively pursuing the matter. "We keep running them away from the location but they keep returning," he said.

"We have made arrests and we are using our moral persuasion to get them to comply (with the law). But if they are not committing an offence there is nothing that the police can do," he added.



He said some have been arrested for loitering, causing public disturbances, and disorderly conduct. He urged that any assault on a citizen by these men be reported as this would allow the offenders to be prosecuted.

However, he was very aware that the matter is a very sensitive one, given that many of these males are street people.

The fact that they squat in abandoned buildings in the commercial and residential district does nothing to dampen one New Kingston resident's fury. He complained that petty theft is on the rise in the communities surrounding the area and linked it to them.

"Anything that can be sold is removed. Plants, male undergarments left on the clothes line, construction materials, garden furniture, etc," the Sunday Observer reader said.

He said he, his family and his neighbours are angry that they are made to contend with these males and their lifestyle.



"The way I see it is a matter of rights. When you choose to take drugs or engage in an alternative lifestyle, why must others suffer? These people are human, yes. So are the hard-working people who live in the areas. So are the helpers, gardeners, children, students of Ardenne High School, patients of the doctors on Trafalgar Road, workers of JMMB, NCB, RBC, New Kingston Shopping Centre. So are the people who walk to Emancipation Park," he argued.

"J-FLAG and all the others are doing their job to speak out about abuse. Yet, no one speaks for the innocent victims of drug addicts and of persons who want to carry on naked in public. If it were men and women or men and young girls in the parks and gullies of New Kingston, you would see everyone speaking out about loose morals," he wrote.

ENDS

my audio response:

MSM Homelessness 2011 ...my two cents by glbtqja1

Some cruising challenges ..........

A repost from GLBTQ Jamaica (The WordPress Edition)

So on Saturday last January 8th a report that a man had to beat a hasty retreat in the downtown Kingston area after a cruising attempt went wrong as the intended target turned out to be not as he anticipated was true I have since gathered that a small mob was hastily put together by the man (the target of the cruiser) from the nearby rural municipal bus park as there are major works being done in that section of downtown Kingston with the new bus park being hastily put together beyond the old park.

The downtown area like most other urban centers is a haven for "catching something" for a quickie or some outdoor action for the more daring MSMs around. Sadly many of these cruisers are not your average gays who frequent gay parties, clubs, interested, exposed or involved in advocacy typed activities or issues hence the actions go unnoticed or grossly underreported as incidents as the persons involved simply move on.

Between Sunday afternoon and up to last evening some of the guys were sufficiently upset at the news of this near miss in downtown that they decided to link all the known cruisers across the downtown and uptown regions and those they could identify to alert them to be cautious, I was quite pleased by this action towards preservation of self showing us that there can be on the ground networking outside of us worrying about persons putting themselves at risk. It is the heightened sense of awareness of their surroundings that was the reason where a recently murdered cross dresser in Kingston ignored when warned by the more experienced heads in the business, bearing in mind this set of cruisers are of a different identity as they operate in stealth and are not easily identifiable as gay as they bear no characteristics of the stereotypes to those of their cross dressing counterparts, for sure some formal work however is needed to engage this mostly invisible group that is not to say other gay and bisexual men do not employ cruising especially given our starchy homo negative environment towards open displays of same sex affection. This particular group of cruisers though that I write of are the more daring and brazen ones who go to the weirdest of spots for hookups and are not into other ways of same sex attracted social behaviours.

The population to my surprise consists of not only MSMs mostly from the lower socio economic levels as is widely assumed but also professionals who prefer a mobile way of "working" for a hookup. Somehow the classes do meet sometimes in a commercial sexual transaction set up, that could probably explain the reasons why the homeless MSMs do indeed garner "business" from not just others at their social standing but way above.

There are some who literally park their vehicles and do enter the "fieldwork" as the others on foot do. One particular mobile individual I am personally familiar with says he prefers cruising than engaging someone in any long introductions or fancy fake chat as a way to impress someone before bedding them. He is just out for fun he would park at a safe distance and space and then work his layout he maps in his head or anywhere is leads to. His success rate is fair he concludes as but he complains he wants to see more "new faces" which suggest repetitive sexual contact with the same targets as they all work within or cross territories. One thing is a common thread amongst those persons I was able to talk to they all suggest there are new faces around who are more open and bold in their approach.

This group is also not to be confused with gay persons who practice exhibitionism or open masturbation in public spaces. That population not only consists of gay and bisexual men but also heterosexuals most of whom know each other and the various spots where the practice is carried out.

Maybe there is some hypocrisy to this on one hand seeing that some persons of an uptown persuasion (in mind but not physical address) are very selective about who they knowingly socialize with I assume peers and the intelligencia who on the face of it seem quite far removed from such decadence yet on the other hand they engage in cruising activities outside their comfort zone albeit the danger and the thrills are usually driving factors for a cruiser coupled with the satisfaction of making the hookup that successful in the middle of danger. That could also explain the reasons why so many high profile cases of gay and bisexual Jamaicans of prominence are found dead in the threshold of their own homes. The issues overlap and one post won't be enough to cover all of it but the Downlow Lifestyles tab as this post is tagged to can begin to help us to unearth some of those concerns.

Certainly this is just touching the surface and we must also realize that not all the information can be shared via the posts on such matters.

Peace and tolerance

H