Gay haitian
Transnational Social Space and Homosexuality: How gay men in Haiti get committed in intimate relationships with migrant partners across the Haitian diaspora
Since the beginning of their migration to the Americas and Europe in the 1950s, Haitian transnational migrants contain ensured the socio-economic survival of non-migrants in Haiti. They have done so by sending over three billion US dollars annually to their families and friends back home. While Haitian migrants are often perceived as having a positive economic impact on the country, some are criticized for engaging in sexual behaviours, such as homosexuality, seemingly infringing on ‘traditional’ Haitian family standards in a largely conservative ‘Christian’ society. This revives old debates about migrants’ role in using their money to normalize gay relationships and pervert sexual morality and acceptable gender norms among non-migrants in Haiti. According to these debates, local men in Haiti are involved in intimate relationships with Haitian gay migrants because of their precarious socioeconomic status on the Caribbean Island and not necessarily because they may be queer . Although homosexuality has always existed in
Haiti
Consensual same-sex actions is not criminalized in Haiti. However, there own been attempts to roll back the rights of LGBTIQ people. In 2017, the Senate passed a bill to ban gay marriage and public demonstration of support for LGBTIQ people’s human rights. It also passed laws to allow government officials to deny LGBTIQ Haitians a Certificate of Good Existence and Morals, which many employers and universities necessitate. These bills were not signed into law, so they remain unenforceable but are still indicative of widespread political antipathy toward LGBTIQ people.
In 2020, the president decreed an amendment to Haiti’s Criminal Code seeking to increase the penalties for crimes motivated by bias against the victim’s sexual orientation (Article 248) and to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation (Article 362). These provisions were met with significant pushback from religious organizations, and the government has repeatedly postponed the enforcement of the fresh code, most recently delaying it to June 2025.
LGBTIQ organizations have developed and grown in visibility in recent years, working toward greater legal and social protection. However, ongoing poli
(Updated July 2006)
(1) A Check in to an Exotic and Troubled Land
I think any story about Haiti—political, social, medical or gay—is forcefully dominated by the major player in Haitian daily life: the specter of poverty.
Some of the pictures in these four stories make this point quite visible. But wherever the squalor—Rio, Buenos Aires, Mexico City or Port au Prince—such humiliation of humanity throttles a visitor’s attention and distracts appreciation from other more refined aspects of a country.
My hour in Haiti was limited to Port au Prince and a countryside bus ride to the south coast town of Jacmel. My purpose was to inquire about lesbigay being in Haiti. There is some, of course, but I felt this center, this small frame, was overwhelmed by an immense tattered tapestry of Haiti’s recent and distant past, a history of mysterious spirituality, cruel politics and widespread deprivation.
Haiti has a vibrant colorful soul singular in the Caribbean. But as a brief visitor to this half-island nation, I write from the impression I felt stepping into the bowels of the teeming congested Port au Prince.
I walked throughout the city by myself, from the grand cemetery to the
As I celebrate Black History Month, I’d like to recognize one of my indigenous West African ancestral religions that’s not homophobic, even if some of its practitioners are. Perhaps to the disbelief of many, it’s Vodun. Haitian Vodou, a descendant of Vodun, is a folk religion whose tenets possess always been queer-friendly, accepting people of all sexual orientations and gender expressions. Vodun is just one of the African religions that were exported throughout the African diaspora and merged with Christianity to give rise to modern syncretic religions across the New World, but there is no such religion that frightens and fascinates the world over as much as Vodou.
Vodou is a persecuted and widely misunderstood religion, largely thanks to racist images of zombies rising from the grave, jungle drums, cannibalism and orgiastic ceremonies ritualizing malevolent powers and ebony magic, stereotypes often perpetuated by Hollywood and the New Orleans tourism industry. The Catholic Church demonized Vodou during the age of slavery, and it was also vilified by Haiti’s political ruling elite, who feared its revolutionary potential.
As a monotheistic religion, Vodou holds that there is one Go
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