Caribbean news media based in New York and the Caribbean allows migrants to continue to stay in touch with their country or region of origins. The stories focused on by these news outlets may be stories that would not get substantial or any coverage on American or international outlets. In this way, it provides a voice for the Caribbean experience while also giving a tether for migrants back to their home. In fact, the phrase “Bridging the Gap” can be found on the Haitian Times.

An important issue to investigate, was how gay rights were covered in Caribbean new outlets. Gay rights in the Caribbean is a very complicated issue and one that is different depending on what nation or region you are looking out. Some Caribbean nations have criminalized homosexuality and others have deep social stigmas about it. When researching how LGBT rights were reported it was found that the issue was heavily debated, not just in the articles themselves but also in the comment sections. It was clear that no matter whether the news was coming for there were divides

Map depicting the discrimination of gay people in the Caribbean

An issue of tension that was came across was people claiming natural disaster as divine punishments for homosexuality. For example, in an article called “Stop Condemning Haiti!” by Star Publishing a Saint Lucia based news outlet, the author addresses people who have stated that the natural disasters Haitians have experienced are punishments from God.

Aftermath of 2010 Haiti Earthquake

Haiti experiences quite a number of earthquakes and hurricanes due to its location. Some non-Haitians believe this to be divine punishment because of some Haitians practice of voodoo and or homosexuality, as Haiti does not criminalize homosexuality (however there exists social stigma surrounding it). In the United States people, people  may view people from the Caribbean as one race or ethnicity who would stand in solidarity together in the aftermath of such a horrific event, but articles like this show how relations between different Caribbean ethnicities are more complicated than this. What was surprising was how the author actually debated this topic. It was surprising because priests have claimed natural disasters as divine punishments in the United States in the past as well but usually they are just written off as bigots if any attention is given to them at all, but the author actually wanted to address this and change some minds. They referenced Bible verses and also said how Haiti’s location makes disasters unavoidable. This suggests this belief may be more common in the Caribbean requiring these debates to take place. The article amongst others demonstrates how religion is such a significant aspect of life in the Caribbean and how it is propelling anti-gay sentiment.

Dominica News Online, a new source based in Dominica has many article about homosexuality and whether it should be tolerated or not. Currently homosexuality is illegal in Dominica, largely due to religious and moral concerns, as a result the website provides a clear look into the divide between supporters and opposes of gay rights.

Bishop Gabriel Malzaire

The website has had religious figure such as Bishop Gabriel Malzaire write commentaries about the criminalization and morality of homosexuality. As expected he used the church’s and Bible’s opinion on gay rights to support his argument as to why homosexuality is morally wrong. A similar sentiment seen in the comments, which was overwhelmingly in support of the Reverend’s viewpoint.  Most of the articles on the site would usually get one

Comment section of Dominica New Online

to ten comments, but articles about homosexuality had comment sections turn into battle grounds with comments rising to the hundreds. Another Caribbean new site the Trinidad Express had practically contradictorily article titles ranging from “Time for us to get more tolerant” and “Ignorance, not homosexuality, is the problem” to “Why should we legalize a problem?” and “The big gay lie”. Now of course all of those articles were written by different people but, it goes to shows how divided the Caribbean communities are on homosexuality. When looking into Caribbean news outlets based in New York a difference can be seen with how LGBT rights are viewed. New York based outlets were more usually either in support of gay rights or neutral compared to. Caribbean Life showed support by writing articles about gay pride parades and linking the Facebook of the Caribbean Equality Project, a non-profit organization

The Caribbean Equality Project

based in New York that seeks to promote LGBT rights in the Caribbean community. Though, Caribbean News Now! Another New York based outlet did have more writers with controversial opinions. So, some migrants may still carry with them anti-gay sentiment. Caribbean migrants may be more accepting of LGBT rights than those that remain in the Caribbean but divides still exists. This may be due to the fact that New York is much more progressive with gay rights than places like Dominica as well as the government being more secular. As well authors writing on the New York based news outlets supporting gay rights appear to be younger which may also explain the difference as younger generations are more accepting of gay rights since they growing up in an environment that is more progressive. With all of this in mind it can be seen that religion, geographic area and age all can affect how Caribbean people view homosexuality, although this is not exclusive to them. The environments the articles are written heavily account for how gay rights are viewed despite people of the same national or geographic origin writing them.

The state of LGBT rights in the Caribbean is a complex issue and one that has a lot of debate. Many countries currently treat homosexuality as a crime and even those that do not may still have social stigma and prejudice against it. When viewing different news outlet for Caribbean people based in either the Caribbean or New York where migrants live, heavy divides on the gay rights issue emerge. Outlets in the Caribbean tend to report negatively on gay rights, while outlets in New York usually are more progressive with how they view gay rights. The environment the writers are in are different which transcends the fact they are writing for an audience that shares an ethnicity or geographic origin.