I was reading in the Star the other day about the discovery of a body of a man believed to be gay or involved with gays, with multiple stab wounds at the premises once owned by the now infamous and late Ambassador Peter King, and it struck me that I could not remember a single time when a squabble between gay men that ended violently, was not settled with a cutting implement of some kind.

As a former crime reporter who has covered quite a few gay-related killings I could not recall any. I am not saying there was never an instance when another implement was used, but more often than not gay lovers seem to settle their differences with knives. It's almost as if they belonged to some 'brotherhood' whose members are only allowed to use certain types of weapons - a Brotherhood of the Knife' if you will.

And when these stabbings or chops go down, it's never like one or two, it's multiples of two. Never mess with an angry gay man, I say, or he'll stab the crap out of you - literally. I always imagine the killer with knife in hand, the other wrist as limp as wet tissue, running tippy-toe up to the victim and lashing out "I told you once, I've told you a thousand times don't you ever sleep with that bitch, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever! You hear me?" with each of those words accompanied by a stab or chop.

It's the only way I can see that going down and what explains why there are so many wounds. That, and the belief that gay people are so passionate about their relationships that all that passion comes out whenever one of these crimes are going down.

It's got to a point now where you can almost profile a gay killing. In any case where there is a naked man found dead with multiple stab wounds there is like a ninety per cent chance he was gay or was killed by a gay person.

Settling disputes

Despite the 'brotherhood' theory, though, I am still forced to ask why always a knife, why not a gun? Is there some unwritten rule within the Jamaican gay community that dictates that no guns shall be used when settling disputes, especially when said dispute has a fair chance of ending fatally? Because, I doubt that gay men would somehow be prevented from being legal firearm holders. Even if the people issuing gun licences were major homophobes, there is always a crooked cop available who can be bought for the right price and gay people, we all know, have their resources.

But why does there even have to be a violent outcome? I mean, even though the gay community seems to be growing daily, it is still largely a secret society so when a member gets killed, that's one member fewer. Some lonely gay man gets short-changed.

Why can't they just have lover's spats where they slap each other around for a bit and then get it over with? I suppose that would be unrealistic. After all they're in Jamaica, a land where every dispute it seems has a fatal ending these days. I guess in that one way they are all just like the rest of us.

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