If only Jamaicans had as much passion for local politics as they do for Barack Obama, perhaps Jamaica would be a better place today.

Why? Because it would mean that our lawmakers would be doing something to inspire the nation to greater things, and Jamaica would not in be the mess it finds itself in today.

I mean, I have never seen such outpouring of passion from people for a leader who is not their own. In the yearlong tedious build-up to last Tuesday's election in the United States, Jamaicans from all walks of life seemed transfixed with everything that Obama said and did. They wanted to see what his wife Michelle was wearing and what his daughters look like now, four years after they were first thrust into the global consciousness when their dad became the first black man to become president of the 'most powerful nation on earth'.

On a night when I was at the Carib cinema watching the latest James Bond flick, it seemed the rest of Jamaica was totally tuned in to every vote that was counted in every state in the United States. My BlackBerry buzzed minutely. Jamaicans were tweeting the latest results as fast as they could get them to put them up. Some even became political analysts, projecting a win for Obama in one state even as they offered up prayers hoping that he won in states where he was behind in the vote count. I sat inside that cinema and 'saw' everything that was developing on election night in the United States.

There were even victory parties here in Jamaica; for the American president. Can you believe that? It is incredible.

What I find interesting about Jamaicans and their general love affair with American Democrats, especially Bill Clinton and Obama, occurs notwithstanding that their party supports rights for gays, something that, based on a recent incident, many of us are still unwilling to embrace.

The recent incident at the University of Technology, during which a young man accused of engaging in homosexual activity in a restroom on campus was beaten by security guards, demonstrates that we have not grown that much in terms of accepting people for who they are, or being more tolerant of people who are different from who we are.

What is even more disappointing was that the people egging on the security guards to beat the young man and urging them to release him to them so they could beat him are supposed to be brighter than this. These students are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow. What then does this say about our future in this country when we refuse to be tolerant, and when our focus is on things that really have no bearing on what drives success and prosperity in this nation?.

I heard people saying the day after how dare the men accused of participating in homosexual activity used the men's room, they shouldn't be doing that. Here's my question, though: had this been a heterosexual couple, would this have been an issue?

Aren't we tired of being ignorant? Maybe we should start a public education campaign on homosexuality so people can understand that true gays are born that way. It's something we have to come to accept whether we like it or not. This is just another truth that in this country is being obscured by religion and ignorance. They use the Bible to justify their savagery but I find that we conveniently take what we want from the Bible to justify our actions, but here's a little reality. In the story of Lot, gays were not the only people who were making Sodom and Gomorrah a den of sin and iniquity. There were men sleeping with children, adulterers, gamblers, and all kinds of sinning going on there, but we choose to get on the case of the gays.

It's not fair and it's not right. We have been around long enough to know how not to act like savages. For all the love we have for Obama, I am sure he would not like to lead people like us.

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