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The New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a report saying that Jamaican government efforts to fight HIV/AIDS are being hampered by discrimination and violence against gays and HIV-positive people.

Rebecca Schleifer is the author of the report, "Hated to Death: Homophobia, Violence and Jamaica's HIV/AIDS Epidemic." "Until Jamaica addresses the epidemic of homophobic violence, it will have no hope against this epidemic," she said. "If the Jamaican government is serious about fighting the country's AIDS epidemic, it should stop promoting brutality against gay men and lesbians and start protecting them from abuse."

Jamaican anti-sodomy laws, some believe, target gays specifically. Too many Jamaicans think HIV/AIDS is exclusively an affliction of gay men, Schleifer said, and approve of brutal attacks on gays. Some Jamaican musicians, such as the dancehall performer Beenie Man, have been criticized for lyrics that encourage violence against gay men.

Heterosexuals make up the majority of Jamaica's HIV/AIDS cases. An estimated 1.5 percent of the island nation's adults are HIV-infected.

Editor's Note: from the Miami Herald