A new video that shows a mob of people barricading five gay men inside of their home in a Jamaican village is currently making the rounds on the Internet.
According to the video, residents became riled up when an "alleged homosexual man... made statements that made them gravely concerned." Jamaica LGBT News, an online project sponsored by the National Anti-Discrimination Alliance, initially broke the story.
Reporters in the video interview one of the infuriated participants, who states, "We have young youth growing up and what they [gay people] want to do is take them and put them in a different direction. When we can bear the hunger and don't stoop to certain level, the youth really cannot do that. That is what really started all of this."
The men were reportedly trapped in their home by the crowd until police arrived and escorted them to safety.
Jamaica has an international reputation for its homophobic climate and anti-sodomy laws -- legislation that defines same-sex attraction as an "abominable crime" and punishes violators of the law with a maximum of ten years of hard labor.
Recently, a gender-nonconforming 17-year-old, Dwayne Jones, was brutally attacked and stabbed to death at a party by a mob after they discovered that Jones was biologically male.
While incidents like this are devastatingly frequent, there are many groups and initiatives pushing for institutional reform regarding Jamaica's anti-sodomy laws and anti-gay discrimination.
Following the brutal murder of Jones, some are even calling for a boycott of the country until Jamaica's culture of fear and violence surrounding LGBT individuals is addressed.
(h/t Towleroad)