Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 23 Issue 3

During the interview with Tracy, she mentioned that when she is in public, she usually gets an awkward stare from people; she went on to say that the stare comes off as a scornful look at times. She stated: “Ok, being in public spaces with the woman that you love can be awkward at times because if you are out there and people can readily identify you as a lesbian, you normally get the awkward stare, you know…people just start staring at you. Or, you get this scornful look.” This revealed that women who love women in Jamaica are sometimes treated as if they have a horrible disease where they must be scorned, ostracized, and cordoned off from the general public. V. D iscussion The research question I investigated for this paper is - how does societal homonegativity shape the lived experiences of a young woman who loves women in Jamaica? Based on the data collected and through thorough analysis, glimpses of the lived experience of a young woman who loves women were captured through her written memory, semi-structured interviews, and examination of Jamaican artifacts, such as Dancehall lyrics. The answers to the research question can be viewed as tentative manifestations of Tracy’s life. Four salient yet tentative manifestations showed up in the data: fear, care, hopefulness and wishful thinking, and diseased. These are glimpses into Tracy’s life that bubbled up throughout the data. Therefore, it can be inferred that Tracy lives with these feelings because of her sexual orientation, and this impacts how she is treated by society. The review of literature corroborates the results of glimpses into Tracy’s life; therefore, the findings of this study fit relative to the existing body of knowledge on the topic of how societal homonegativity shapes the lived experiences of one young woman who loves women. For example, fear came up in Tracy’s lived experience and literature. Clemencia (1996) documented employers firing female workers because of their sexual orientation and their non-gender- conforming ways of being. Implying that this female non-gender conforming employees were feared; therefore, they were discriminated against. Fear also came up in Charle’s (2011) research when he discussed the reluctance of healthcare workers to look after LGBTQI people due to fear; this suggests that fear and being feared are part of the lived experiences of non- heterosexuals and non-gender-conforming youths. Another example of fear in the literature surfaced when West and Cowell (2014) cited evidence to show that Christians feared homosexuals will be condemned by God because their sexual preference does not align with the Christian religion. The data showed that care was evident in Tracy’s daily life through her communication with her family. Scholars such as West and Cowell (2014) reported that Christians in their study cared for homosexuals. They care for them as people, and their mantra is “love the sinner and hate the sin” this suggests that there is some level of affection that is portrayed toward people who adopt non-heterosexual ways of being. Tracy's life has glimpses of care from her family toward her; however, there is not much evidence from the literature that exemplifies that society as a whole cares for non-heterosexual and non-gender- conforming people. Perhaps Christians care because that is the Christ-like thing to do - care for others. The lack of society’s absence of concern for and affection toward non-heterosexuals and non-gender-conforming people in the literature is probably a connotation to their lived reality. There was a lot of hopefulness and wishful thinking that was captured in the lived experiences of Tracy. Unfortunately, none of the literature reviewed cited any form of hope for LGBTQI people in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean in countries that still criminalize homosexuals and discriminate against LGBTQI people. However, there is hope because some Caribbean countries, such as Curacao and Suriname, do not have laws that punish non-heterosexuals. Therefore, there is hope that more Caribbean countries will recede the law that criminalizes homosexuals. Even though there are no anti-discriminatory laws again LGBTQI people in Curacao and Suriname, these two countries are moving in the right direction and toward a place of hope. LGBTQI people wish other countries will move to decriminalize homosexuality. Tracy was viewed as diseased through the eyes of her mother and sister. They mentioned HIV when talking to Tracy about non-heterosexuality. This is a fallacy that permeates the Jamaican culture as it relates to LGBTQI people; they are seen as synonymous with HIV. Charles (2011) and White and Carr (2015) wrote about the discrimination that homosexuals face among healthcare workers because of the fear that they have HIV. They are also discriminated against in the wider society because of the perceived association placed on them as being sick with the illness of non- heterosexuality that can be cured. LGBTQI people are not only viewed as having a disease such as HIV, but at times viewed as having mental illnesses that lead to the disease of non-gender conforming and non- heterosexuality. Societal homonegativity shapes Tracy’s life as she experiences fear, care, hope, and wishful thinking, feeling diseased through her encounter with heterosexual people in her surroundings. These feelings, excepting hope, were supported in the literature reviewed. Knowing that Tracy experienced hope is a positive emotion that might now be added to the body of knowledge relating to the lived experiences of women who love women in Jamaica. Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 46 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 G © 2023 Global Journals A Post-Intentional Phenomenological Study of a Queer Identified Youth in Jamaica