The Abominable Crime

The Abominable Crime gives voice to gay Jamaicans who, in the face of endemic anti-gay violence, are forced to flee their homeland. Simone is a young lesbian single mother who has survived a brutal hate shooting. Now she must choose between hiding with her daughter in Jamaica in constant fear for their lives or escaping to seek safety and asylum abroad. Maurice, Jamaica's leading human-rights activist, is outed shortly after filing a lawsuit challenging his country’s anti-sodomy law. After receiving a flood of death threats, he escapes to Canada, and then risks everything to return to continue his activism. Told first hand as they unfold, these personal accounts take the audience on an emotionally gripping journey traversing four years and five countries. Their stories expose the roots of homophobia in Jamaican society, reveal the deep psychological and social impacts of discrimination on the lives of gays and lesbians, and offer an intimate first-person perspective on the risks and challenges of seeking asylum abroad.

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