Abstract
This chapter investigates the work of Jamaica’s Gay Freedom Movement (GFM), the first self-proclaimed gay activist organization of the English-speaking Caribbean, established in 1977. In this era, Jamaicans experienced a sense of political possibility that they could challenge various forms of national and international inequality. The island occupied a position of leadership in contesting unequal arrangements of power on the global stage while the flourishing of social movements in Jamaica indexed an intensive participation in local public life. By closely attending to GFM’s work, this chapter argues that this small grassroots organization positioned same-gender erotic autonomy as a defining feature of Jamaican cultural identity and situated the island as a key node of international gay activism. In so doing, it offers a narrative that expands existing accounts of the period in which heterosexuality marked the limits of Jamaican struggles to transform national and international relations around gender and sexual inequality.