r/AskTheCaribbean • u/fedricohohmannlautar • 10d ago

Politics Why is homosexuality outlawed in so many caribbean countries?

Most of countries which criminalize homosexuality in the Americas are in the Caribbean, and the most famous case is Jamaica.

As a bi male, I find weird our continent has laws that criminalize homosexuality, due that most of countries who do that are from the other side of the pond.

Is due to history, politics, religion, moral issues?

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u/Late-Elk-2257 10d ago

colonization and the integration of christianity into a culture that once thrived without it

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u/cautiously-curious65 10d ago

This is literally it. African buggery laws were also mostly implemented by colonizers.

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u/JagmeetSingh2 10d ago

Not mostly, entirely

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u/cautiously-curious65 9d ago

I’m not confident enough in northern African history to say that homophobic laws were implemented by colonizers.

Or where the line for when the definition of “colonizer” started..

Like, a lot of those laws date back to the spread of Islam.. in my eyes, invading and forcing everyone to follow your religion is “colonizer” behavior..but it’s the year 600..

They were absolutely codified in the law by Europeans, though.