Jamaica: Man found dead in Montego Bay

Home was set on fire and car stolen


A Montego Bay man was found dead in the early hours of Aug 27, his body bearing stab wounds, Minority Insight reports.

It’s not known who is responsible for the death of Dean Moriah, 41, whom the report described as “an openly gay man.”

A Jamaica Observer report also says Moriah’s car was stolen.

Moriah’s death follows the murder of gender nonconforming teen Dwayne Jones, who was chased by a crowd from a Montego Bay party and later found dead on a roadway.

More than a month after Jones’s murder, police have yet to make an arrest.

In the UK, 30 people picketed the Jamaican High Commission in London Aug 28 to protest against the murders of Jones and Moriah, and urging tougher action by the Jamaican government against transphobic and homophobic hate crime.

“Jamaican authorities need to send an unequivocal message that there will be zero tolerance for violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT),” Human Right Watch’s LGBT rights program director Graeme Reid had said in response to the news of Jones’s murder. “The Jamaican government should be protecting everyone’s rights and safety, and that includes people who do not conform to society’s expectations of how each gender should behave.”

Just recently, police escorted five men out of a Manchester town after angry locals, who barricaded them and their car, alleged that one of the men had made unspecified comments that caused them to be concerned, especially for the area’s children.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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