Brian Williamson (4 September 1945 – 9 June 2004) was a Jamaican gay rights activist who co-founded the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG). He was known for being one of the earliest openly gay men in Jamaican society and one of its best known gay rights activists.
Born to an upper-middle-class family in Saint Ann Parish, Williamson initially considered a life in the Roman Catholic clergy before deciding to devote himself to the cause of gay rights in Jamaica. In the 1990s, he purchased an apartment building in the New Kingston area of Kingston, in which he established a gay nightclub, which remained open for two years despite opposition from police. In 1998, he co-founded J-FLAG with other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activists, soon becoming the public face of the organisation. As J-FLAG's representative, he argued in favour of LGBT rights during appearances on Jamaican television and radio programs. This attracted great hostility within Jamaica – a country with particularly high rates of anti-gay prejudice – with J-FLAG members receiving death threats and Williamson surviving a knife attack. For a time he left Jamaica, living in Canada and England for several years, before returning to Kingston in 2002.
In June 2004, Williamson was murdered in his apartment by an acquaintance, Dwight Hayden, whom he had been aiding with financial handouts. Police believed that Hayden's motive was robbery, although J-FLAG also suggested that homophobia may have played a part in the killing. Hayden was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Upon learning of the murder, a crowd assembled in New Kingston to celebrate Williamson's death, chanting homophobic slogans and lyrics. Conversely, the Jamaican LGBT community held a secret memorial for him, while protests against the killing were held by LGBT rights groups in the United Kingdom.
Biography
Williamson was born to an upper-middle-class family in the rural Saint Ann Parish. He initially considered joining the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, studying for this position in Montego Bay, but eventually decided against this. Schleifer publicly stated that it is "really important to investigate [the crime] thoroughly. Because there are really strong indications that it might have been a homophobic attack".
Reaction
After his death, the Jamaica Observer described Williamson as "Jamaica's most prominent gay rights activist", while both the BBC and The Independent called him the country's "best-known gay rights activist", and Gary Younge of The Guardian termed him "the public face of gay rights in the country".
Tony Hadn, a volunteer for J-FLAG, stated that Williamson was "so courageous. He never stopped to think, 'oh, I might get in trouble for this,' so in that sense he was very selfless." One member of J-FLAG stated that "Brian Williamson is our Martin Luther King". OutRage! leader Peter Tatchell attended the vigil, there proclaiming that the Jamaican Prime Minister, P. J. Patterson, "shares responsibility for the wave of homophobic violence, culminating in the murder of Brian Williamson" because he had failed to decriminalize same-sex sexual activity and clamp down on homophobic violence in Jamaican society.