CARIMAC Times 2016: The JREAM Edition Journalists Reviving Awareness of what Matters | Page 98

“Even though you’re alive and outside and you’re
supposed to be able to roam free; it’s like you’re
in a country within a prison.”
People branded Burton with scorn and contempt.
She said she tried to ask others for help, but
often they paid her with only harsh words.
“Even now when you go on the road and see a
young guy begging somebody, they say, ‘Gwaan
a yuh yaad. All you want do a dress up inna
woman clothes and ketch man’,” she said bitterly.
Her voice darkened as she added, “I decided
in myself I will never stretch a palm again.”
Over time, Burton realised the LGBTQ community
offered little support as well.
“When I was homeless, I thought the community
would be ‘one’. But it’s not, because you have
layers of stigma and discrimination. You get
it from the wider society, but then in the
community, they look at you and say, ‘you’re
nasty, you’re a virus’... They call you all kinds
of names and they look down at you.”
Burton explained that most of the discrimination
within the community stemmed from classism.
“If you[‘re] gay and uptown, you[‘re] okay. If
you’re gay and downtown, and on the street,
it’s a battering.”
Lewis agreed that transgender individuals
also experience extreme discrimination from
within the LGBTQ community, mostly due to
Jamaica’s classist environment. For those who
are homeless, the stigma is worse.
“We see how people treat guys who wipe [car]

windows; there’s that added layer of discrimination
because people know that they’re homeless.
So certainly for those who are homeless, they
face more than just homophobia; they face
added layers of discrimination because of their
status,” he said.
With the lack of support from society and
the LGBTQ community, Burton’s situation
darkened. She said things became so serious
that she became involved in sex work.
“It wasn’t a choice, like I wanted to go and do that,
but circumstances put you in that direction,”
she insisted.
The job added its own challenges. Burton noted
that there were many “imposters”, people who
feigned interest in paying for sex, but robbed
or assaulted her instead. Others demanded
unprotected sex. But it was a demand she was
forced to supply.
“Hunger can be a very, very, very, cruel thing.
Hunger would let you can’t think. So if someone
comes and they say they want to go unprotected
with you, and you think about safer sex, it
would be a secondary option… Primary option
is money and food and clothes, and maybe a
place to stay, but protecting yourself from HIV…
that would be the last.”
Burton said, it was not only the hunger that
impacted her decisions, bu t the negative energy
thrown at her by society, and her own lack of
self-esteem.
“Men might say ‘After you nuh good’ [But you’re
not good at this], kiss dem [their] teeth, and go
down the road and get it [sex] at a cheaper price.

94