It’s quite a distinction to hold, but Time Magazine describes Jamaica is the most homophobic place on earth, due in large part to the recent melding of reggae music with gangsta/thug street culture:

Though familiar to Americans primarily as a laid-back beach destination, Jamaica is hardly idyllic. The country has the world’s highest murder rate. And its rampant violence against gays and lesbians has prompted human-rights groups to confer another ugly distinction: the most homophobic place on earth. . . . Jamaica may be the worst offender, but much of the rest of the Caribbean also has a long history of intense homophobia. . . .

Gay-rights activists attribute the scourge of homophobia in Jamaica largely to the country’s increasingly thuggish reggae music scene. . . . Reggae’s anti-gay rhetoric has seeped into the country’s politics. Jamaica’s major political parties have passed some of the world’s toughest antisodomy laws and regularly incorporate homophobic music in their campaigns.

I was quite surprised to learn that much of reggae music has apparently turned into a such a pseudo-extremist form, much like that of gangsta culture. What ever happened to the legacy of songs such as Bob Marley’s anthem “One Love?” I hope this serves as useful information for progressives out there who were considering vacationing in the Caribbean.