Murder of Dwayne Jones

Murder of Dwayne Jones
Born	Dwayne Jones Jamaica
Died	22 July 2013 Montego Bay, Jamaica
Cause of death	Homicide

Dwayne Jones was a Jamaican teenager who was murdered in an anti-LGBT motivated attack on 22 July 2013. His killing attracted both national and international media attention, and brought increased scrutiny on the status of LGBT rights in Jamaica.

As a result of his perceived effeminacy, Jones was bullied in school and then made homeless by his father at age 14. He subsequently moved into a derelict house in Montego Bay with transgender friends. On the evening of 21 July 2013, they went to the Irwin area of the city and attended a dance party, where Jones wore female clothing.^{[lower-alpha 1]} Others at the dance discovered his gender and attacked him. After being beaten, stabbed, shot, and run over by a car, he died in the early hours of the morning. Police launched an investigation into the murder, but did not charge anyone.

The event made newspaper headlines in Jamaica, and was picked up by media in the United Kingdom and United States. Jamaican LGBT rights and human rights organisations as well as the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch condemned the attack and called on Jamaica's authorities to ensure that the case was properly investigated.

Early life

Raised in a poverty-stricken slum in Montego Bay, Jones faced bullying at high school as a result of his effeminate behavior.^[2][5] When he was aged 14, Jones was ejected from his family home by his father, who encouraged neighbors to chase him out of the neighborhood.^[2][5] After a period sleeping in bushes and on beaches, he began squatting in a derelict house in the hills above Montego Bay with two transgender friends, Keke and Khloe, both of whom were 23 at the time of Jones' death.^[2][5] Jones was known locally as "Gully Queen" among friends, and he won a local dancing competition.^[2] Friends noted that Jones' desire was to become a teacher or to work in the tourist industry,^[6] although he also dreamed of becoming a performer like Lady Gaga.^[2] Khloe described him as "a diva" who was "always very feisty and joking around."^[2]

Murder

View of Montego Bay from the hillside, where Jones was squatting

On the evening of 21 July 2013, when Jones was aged 16, he dressed as a girl and with Keke and Khloe attended the "Henessey Sundays" dance party at a bar in the Irwin area.^[2][5][7][8] He danced with various males there, who believed Jones to be biologically female.^[2][5] Although he initially kept his biological sex a secret from the others at the party, fearing homophobic persecution, he saw a girl whom he had formerly attended church with, and revealed his identity to her.^[2][5] The girl proceeded to inform her male friends of Jones' biological sex, following which they accosted him outside the venue, demanding to know "Are you a woman or a man?"^[2][5] Discovering his sex, they proceeded to insult him with homophobic epithets, such as "batty boy".^[2] Khloe tried to get him to avoid confrontation, whispering in his ear "Walk with me, walk with me", but he refused, instead insisting to those assembled that he was female.^[2][5]

When someone pulled on Jones' bra strap, he decided to run away, at which the crowd pursued and attacked him further down the road. He was beaten, stabbed, shot, and run over by a car. He slipped in and out of consciousness for two hours before another attack finally killed him.^[2][5] There were no reports of anyone trying to help him during the altercation.^[8] Khloe was also attacked and almost raped, but escaped by hiding first in a church and then in neighboring woods.^[2][5] Khloe commented that "When I saw Dwayne's body, I started shaking and crying. It was horrible. It was so, so painful to see him like that."^[2] Police arrived at the scene at 5am, to find the body dumped in bushes along the Orange Main Road.^[7][8][9] They launched an investigation into the homicide, inviting friends and family of the victim to contact them.^[10] However, Jones' family refused to claim the body, and his father refused to talk to press about the incident.^[2][5]

On 14 August Deputy Superintendent of Police Steve Brown announced that fourteen statements had been collected and that the investigation was progressing.^[11] However, as of May 2014, no one had been arrested or charged.^[12] In October 2013, a group of men set fire to the squat where Jones had lived, forcing its four occupants to flee, in what was also believed to be an anti-LGBT hate crime.^[13] Everald Morgan, an officer at the St James Public Health Department, requested that police provide protection for the four homeless youths, but they declined to do so.^[13] Meanwhile, a charity named Dwayne's House was set up in Jones' memory to aid homeless LGBT youth in Jamaica.^[12]

Reaction

In Jamaica

Jones' murder made headline news across Jamaica.^[2] Jamaica's Justice Minister, Senator Mark Golding, condemned the killing, stating that such "depraved acts of violence against individuals" must "cease".^[11] He added that "Given our country's history of brutality and the pluralistic nature of our society, all well-thinking Jamaicans must embrace the principle of respect for the basic human rights of all persons... This principle requires tolerance towards minority groups, and non-violence in our dealings with those who manifest a lifestyle that differs from the majority of us."^[14] Annie Paul, the Publications Officer of the Jamaican campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), stated that on the basis of comments provided on social media, "most Jamaicans think Dwayne Jones brought his death on himself for wearing a dress and dancing in a society that has made it abundantly clear that homosexuals are neither to be seen nor heard."^[2][15] Newton D. Duncan, the UWI Professor of Paediatric Surgery, similarly noted that the "overwhelming majority" of Jamaicans believed that "cross-dressers are homosexuals who deserve the full wrath of the righteous". He added, however, that this was a common misconception, because the majority of cross-dressers were heterosexual. He condemned the attack and compared it to the lynching of an African-American man in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, remarking that "Lee's reflective line to each reader, 'Remember it is a sin to kill a mockingbird', is as apt for bloodthirsty Jamaica as it was for Jim Crow USA."^[16]

Domestic and foreign human rights organisations called on Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to improve LGBT rights in Jamaica, as she had promised during her election campaign.^[13][14][17]

Writing in Jamaican broadsheet The Gleaner, Carolyn Cooper, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at UWI, condemned the "abominable mob" who committed Jones' murder. She blamed their behaviour on the selective use of the Bible, noting that while many Jamaicans embrace those Biblical passages which condemn same-sex sexual activity and cross-dressing, they are themselves typically guilty of many other Biblical sins, such as adultery and murder.^[18] She commented that Jones had been killed because "he was only trying to play himself" and that his killers must be "brought to justice."^[18] The following week she published a follow-up article in which she responded to several emails that she had received which claimed that the real victims of the scenario were the men whom Jones deceived when he was dancing with them. She reiterated her condemnation of Jones' killers, remarking that rather than retaliating violently, they should have brushed it off with a comment like "BC, Di bwoy good! Im ketch mi fi true!" ("Bc, the boy good! I'm catch me for true").^[19]

Jaevion Nelson, an HIV/AIDS campaigner and human rights advocate, also published an article on the subject in The Gleaner, noting his initial reaction was to question why Jones had gone to the dance party and why he wasn't satisfied in attending Jamaica's underground gay parties. However, he came to recognize that this reaction was rooted in "the culture of violence where we blame the victim or survivor of injustice, abuse or violence for what happened to them." He called on Jamaicans to be more tolerant of LGBT individuals, and "commit to rebuilding this great nation on the principles of inclusivity, love, equality and respect with no distinctions whatsoever."^[20] Also in The Gleaner, the University of Pittsburgh's Professor of Law Sheila Veléz Martínez condemned the "savage" murder as "alarming evidence" of the high rates of homophobia in Jamaican society.^[17]

On 25 July the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays (J-FLAG), the country's only LGBT rights organisation, issued a public statement expressing their "deep concern" regarding the case, and offering their condolences to Jones' friends and family. They encouraged local people to aid the police in locating the perpetrators of the attack, which they claimed was an affront to Jamaica's democracy.^[4][9][21] J-FLAG's director Dane Lewis later commented that despite an increase in homophobic violence, Jamaican society was becoming "more tolerant. And thankfully that's because of people like Dwayne who have helped push the envelope."^[15] Human rights organisation Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) called on Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and religious leaders to condemn the murder, also commenting that "there has been little sense of outrage, little media coverage, and only a few voices speaking up and out about this killing. We must ask ourselves what this says about us as a people."^[17] Another human rights organisation, Quality of Citizenship Jamaica (QCJ), issued a press release calling for the government and churches to engage in dialogue with LGBT organisations in order to "find a common ground undergirded by the principles espoused in our National Anthem, "teach us true respect for all" and National Pledge"."^[22]

Internationally

News of Jones' murder attracted international media attention, resulting in condemnation by human rights groups.^[11] Graeme Reid, the LGBT Rights Program director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), issued a statement proclaiming that the Jamaican government should send an "unequivocal message" that there would be "zero tolerance" of anti-LGBT violence.^[14][23] Reid noted that Jamaica's Prime Minister had vowed to decriminalize same-sex sexual activity in her 2011 election campaign but had yet to implement that promise, adding "Prompt action to investigate Jones' murder and, more broadly, to promote respect for LGBT people, is critical if all Jamaicans are to enjoy equality under the law, as well as lives free from violence and discrimination."^[14]

In the United Kingdom, a black LGBT organization, the Out and Proud Diamond Group (OPDG), in association with the Peter Tatchell Foundation, organised a protest outside Jamaica's London embassy on 28 August.^[1][3] Talking to press, the OPDG's Marvin Kibuuka stated that "It is a tragedy to lose a life because of someone's gender. Dwayne Jones' brutal murder is highly condemned in the strongest terms... Let's stand up and fight persecution of LGBT/Q people in Jamaica and all over the world."^[1] Tatchell later asserted that Simpson-Miller and the police's lack of action on the issue was tantamount to colluding with those guilty of anti-LGBT hate crime.^[13]

Notes

References

External links

• GLBTQ Report on Jones, including footage of his dancing
• Official website of the Dwayne's House charity