Last year, actress Ellen Page visited Jamaica for its first-ever Pride parade. She tweeted an image from the celebration and it seemed like her visit was just random. However, she was apparently working on a documentary for Vice. It has just been released. It is a 45 minute piece on living as a member of the LGBTQ community in Jamaica. It is a good journalistic piece, balanced and fair, but unfortunately does not uncover much new information. She talks to the “gully queens”, the Minister of Justice, advocates and Beenie Man (who apparently still has very strong feelings on the subject). As a public relations professional, I usually say that any publicity is good in terms of raising awareness. However, it seems the international media has visited many times since I’ve been here to do documentaries. They talk to the “gully queens”, produce a piece and nothing changes. They are still living on the streets, still getting shot and at least three of them have immigrated in the past few months. The piece does adequately convey the point that things are improving, however, and that there is more than one narrative- i.e. members of the LGBTQ community are not all “gully queens” and victims.
Jamaican Journal 