Straight rights
Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernado, on their watch,
In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter’d.
— Shakespeare, Hamlet, I, 2
Hmm, two gentlemen spending two nights together… hmm, in the vast and middle of the night too… hmm, been thus encountered… hmm. The question looms, what were they doing on those two nights, were they lovers, or was it all innocent?
Hey, they could be on guard duty. But if they were accused of being gay, then the gay rights people would howl in protest. In all the years that I’ve been writing, I can safely say that no group takes as much offence to my stuff as the gay people when I write about them. Dare I mention anything about gays, and the letters I get from all over the world, cursing me, my origins, my ‘backward Third-World country’ and my ancestors, would make the faint-hearted quake.
It’s as if they are untouchable and have all the rights in the world. Interestingly, lesbians don’t react with this anger. But what about the rights of straight people? More on that soon, but first some feedback to Mothers can’t father.
Tony,
Your article resonates with me. I attempted to father my son, not by choice; my then husband, who is also his father, could not understand that money and things were not it. He was content being a workaholic and womaniser, so I thought I could pick up the slack, applying general parenting rules to both my son and daughter. My daughter is an A+ achiever in numerous areas and a well-balanced young adult. My son, who tests have shown to possess the higher IQ,, was a sullen non-performer at 24 years old, until I encouraged a mentoring arrangement with a male friend. It’s been just a year, but I’m beginning to see some positive signs. My 22-year-old daughter, who recently graduated medical school, posits that fathers should either be fully engaged in their children’s lives or not at all. Half-measured fathering has not worked for us. Ladies, try to empower your men in their fathering roles from day one. Moms with 26-year-old non-achieving sons at home, I know it’s hard, but not too late. Find him a mentor and STEP BACK.
Lowe
Mr Robinson,
For your information, I raised one son and two daughters by myself with the help of God. I kicked the no-good father to the kerb a long time ago, knowing fully well what was good for my children, which was not the example that he was setting. Now I am proud to say my children have all grown, leading very productive and successful lives, with none of the traits of the father. A mother who is going to stay with her sixth-former all day is not only an over-protective mother, but a psycho, she is a sicko. A father who sits by and lets a woman dictate how the children are to be raised has no gonads, he is only a sperm donor. A father should be a father whether he is at home constantly or periodically.
Val
Tony,
I was so amused, because everything you wrote was true. Not to mention the truth about children being so mean these days. Those who still live at home and are working contribute nothing, and there’s a growing number of parents who are milked out of their little old-age pension and die broken-hearted. These children leave them destitute. I know of someone right now who has made a will and has to hide it, for fear that the child may get hold of it and start making demands.
Sylvia
Now on to straight rights. What I find interesting is that so many areas of society have rights except straight people. You have child rights, disabled rights, women’s rights, senior citizens’ rights, Negro rights abroad, gay and lesbian rights… but no straight rights.
All those sectors have their lobby groups and they can petition, march, write letters and stand up for what they deem to be their rights. They can appear on TV shows and call the radio call-in shows at will. The gay rights people have even lobbied for equal rights and recognition in the US armed forces. No one dares say anything about gay people or you will be hounded and cursed for years.
Just look what they’re doing to our entertainers Buju Banton and Beenie Man, lobbying, sometimes successfully, to bar them from performing at shows. What if straight people were to lobby against gay people appearing on shows, how would they like that? Just now Beenie Man can’t perform in New Zealand because of them. What is ironic is that US rappers and singers who sing about them are not lobbied against, plus even though the gay rights movement is supposed to be so powerful, every US state has voted against gay marriage, so go figure that one out.
Just look what they’re doing to our entertainers Buju Banton and Beenie Man, lobbying, sometimes successfully, to bar them from performing at shows. What if straight people were to lobby against gay people appearing on shows, how would they like that? Just now Beenie Man can’t perform in New Zealand because of them. What is ironic is that US rappers and singers who sing about them are not lobbied against, plus even though the gay rights movement is supposed to be so powerful, every US state has voted against gay marriage, so go figure that one out.
But we are small, so they can box food out of our people’s mouths. What about straight rights? It’s said that Jamaica is homophobic, yet the tolerance to gays here is astounding. They can walk the streets or openly assemble in our parks and titter away without being confronted, and that’s a fact. True, a few have been accosted when they were caught having sex in public bathrooms or open spaces, but the same fate would befall a heterosexual couple who dared to do that.
“Say what, dem catch a man and a woman having sex in the toilet at the plaza? Come mek we drop lick pon dem…damn nasty.” Hey, steal a goat and get caught and see what happens to you. Pretty soon the goat people will call that a hate crime too. The gay rights people have this perception that when a gay is assaulted it’s a hate crime against gays committed by a straight person. But we all know how wrong that is, as in most cases it’s gays themselves who commit these heinous acts.
That most recent one where a gay lover gouged out another’s eyes because he dared to sleep out, made even seasoned policemen shake. One senior doctor, commenting on the case, said that homosexuals are to blame for most of the violent attacks that they face. It doesn’t take a forensic expert to see the pattern of gay-on-gay crime.
“Man found dead, lying face down, naked with multiple stab wounds.” In some cases they are strangled or bludgeoned, and never is there any sign of forced entry. The fact is, all murder is a hate crime against humanity, all murder is cruel and wicked, and all murder should be spoken against by all people.
Last Sunday’s Observer had a chilling report by H G Helps that told the story of gay lovers killing each other so viciously. It’s a startling and most revealing report with tales of multiple stab wounds, heads being severed and bashed in, yet gays have the nerve to accuse straight people of fighting against them.
Professor Carolyn Cooper also wrote about it in her column titled, Blind Vengeance. “Jamaica has an undeservedly bad reputation as the most homophobic place on Earth. But I suspect that most crimes of abuse committed against homosexuals are perpetrated by their own lovers. Sexual jealousy seems to be particularly acute in this subculture.”
How come when a straight man is abused by his woman, no straight rights group marches in his defence and calls it a crime against straight men? It’s about time straight men form their own lobby group to level the playing field. Maybe one of the worst names that you can call a straight man is a b…y man. Yet I guarantee that if anyone was to openly call another man that, even if he was the king… make that queen of all gays, it would not go down lightly.
“A who you a call b…y man? B…y man like yu puppa.” Yet, if a gay man cursed a straight man saying, “Go away, yu damn straight man, you love woman too much,” that straight man could take no legal or civil action against him. Where are the straight rights? “You mean to say that gay man call you straight and yu just take it so?”
When a gay man curses a straight man it’s an unfair fight, for no straight man can curse and trace like a gay man. Yet, the straight man has to just take it, for there are no straight rights. But let a gay man be cursed and the howls of protest begin. When a straight man walks into a gay bar in the USA (yes, they do have openly gay bars there) and he’s cursed and heckled for being straight, what rights does he have?
A gay man told me once that he’s sorry for straight people because their sexuality is so limited, whereas his lifestyle explores all avenues of sexuality. On an even more serious note, what rights do straight men have against infection? A new study has revealed that HIV/AIDS infection is growing in the gay community.
And we are not alone. Recent research on HIV rates in gay communities around the world has found high concentrated infection rates. Recent testing in Mumbai, India, found a 17 per cent infection rate and 20 per cent in Bogota, Colombia. Mexico reported a 15 per cent infection rate, and Trinidad reported an infection rate of more than 30 per cent in the local gay communities.
Now, what rights do straight men have against this sort of biological invasion? Unfortunately for straight men, some gays cross over, deal with women, and that’s where straight men become vulnerable. Shouldn’t there be a straight rights group to protest, lobby and file suit against that? Hey, it’s about time straight rights become as powerful as all those other rights, gay and otherwise.
Footnote: Our moniker of land of wood and water is a sick joke. I fail to understand how a country so rich in aquifers, wells, and an abundance of rivers can have this perennial water problem. Black River, Rio Cobre, Wag Water, Rio Grande, Dunn’s River, never stop flowing, never dry yet, but every year we have water lock-offs. This has been going on for decades. From my parents were children we have just two reservoirs — Mona and Hermitage dams. We now have almost three million people living here, yet we still have just those two dams, which are half-full of silt, plus leakage through the system is massive. It’s inevitable that we have water lock-offs. We don’t have a water problem, we have a water management problem. Last month it rained every single afternoon with flooding in many areas, yet now we’re having lock-offs. Water, water everywhere except in the pipes. It’s a sad joke.
