Brian Williamson
| Brian Williamson | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Brian Bernard Ribton Williamson 4 September 1945 Saint Ann Parish |
| Died | 9 June 2004 (aged 58) New Kingston |
| Occupation | LGBT rights activist |
Brian Williamson (4 September 1945 – 9 June 2004) was a Jamaican gay rights activist who co-founded the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG). He was known for being one of the earliest openly gay men in Jamaican society and for being one of its best known gay rights activists.
Born to an upper-middle-class family in Saint Ann Parish, Williamson initially considered a life in the Roman Catholic clergy before deciding to devote himself to the cause of gay rights in Jamaica. In the 1990s, he purchased an apartment building in the New Kingston area of Kingston, in which he established a gay nightclub, which remained open for two years despite opposition from police. In 1998, he co-founded J-FLAG with other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activists, soon becoming the public face of the organisation. As J-FLAG's representative, he argued in favour of LGBT rights during appearances on Jamaican television and radio programs. This attracted great hostility within Jamaica – a country with particularly high rates of anti-gay prejudice – with J-FLAG members receiving death threats and Williamson surviving a knife attack. For a time he left Jamaica, living in Canada and England for several years, before returning to Kingston in 2002.
In June 2004, Williamson was murdered in his apartment by an acquaintance, Dwight Hayden, whom he had been aiding with financial handouts. Police believed that Hayden's motive was robbery, although J-FLAG also suggested that homophobia may have played a part in the killing. Hayden was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Upon learning of the murder, a crowd assembled in New Kingston to celebrate Williamson's death, chanting homophobic slogans and lyrics. Conversely, the Jamaican LGBT community held a secret memorial for him, while protests against the killing were held by LGBT rights groups in the United Kingdom.
Williamson was born to an upper-middle-class family in the rural Saint Ann Parish. He initially considered joining the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, studying for this position in Montego Bay, but eventually decided against this. In 1979, he began to devote himself to the cause of gay rights in Jamaica, becoming the first individual to do so in such a public manner. Jamaica had a reputation for its widespread anti-gay prejudice, an attitude that pervaded public discourse at all levels of society, with a number of popular Jamaican musicians inciting violence against gay men in their lyrics. Initially, Williamson offered his apartment in Kingston as a space in which gay Jamaicans could meet roughly every fortnight. In the early 1990s he purchased a large property on New Kingston's gentrified Haughton Street, converting part of this building into a gay nightclub that he called Entourage. Many of those who attended the club worked in the city's foreign embassies. Although the police tried to close it down, the club remained open for two years until Williamson was attacked by a patron carrying a knife, which was used to slash Williamson's arm. Although same-sex sexual relations between men were illegal in Jamaica, Williamson was openly gay.
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