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Sex work on the rise in Jamaica
Pushing the barriers

By Andrea Downer

Diamond, the main attraction at one of the rising number of clubs offering live sex shows in Jamaica. Clubs like these are unregulated and in many instances condoms are not used in the sex acts, putting participants at risk of contracting STIs and or HIV.

LIKE MOST businesses, the sex industry in Jamaica has been changing to accommodate the demands of its clients. Sex workers and club owners who continue to offer the traditional menu of girls dancing around poles only, may find themselves out of business.

With access to information regarding sex industries in other countries, those in the business are finding it necessary to come up with new and exciting means of keeping and attracting clients. This has given rise to a burgeoning male sex industry resulting in more female clients, massage parlours, movie deals and the newest addition, live sex on stage.

MORE MALES SELLING SEX

The 2004 'Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Behaviour Survey', commissioned by the Ministry of Health, showed a significant increase in males who sell sex. In 2000, males in the age group 15-24 years accounted for two per cent of the sex worker population. This increased to six per cent in 2004. The increase in males aged 25-49 was even more significant, moving from a low of 1.2 per cent in 2000 to 15 per cent of the sex worker population.

"This is most worrying among males 25-49 years and here, one is forced to reflect on the phenomenal growth in advertised massage parlours in recent years," the report stated.

GROWING INDUSTRY

"The (adult entertainment business) is recognised as a growing industry and like any other business, there is competition. Freaky Nights are a feature in almost all the nightclubs, pushing at the barriers and boundaries. It is a marketplace where people buy sex and the service," Boris Bloomfield, Prevention Coordinator for Vulnerable Populations, at the Ministry of Health, explained.

He said the Ministry of Health is aware that live sex on stage is part of the activities at some nightclubs.

SELLING SEX FOR A LIVING

Diamond, 33 years old, sells sex for a living. He claims he is one of five 'professional' male sex workers in Jamaica who perform sexual acts on stage. Once per week, on Friday nights, he works at a nightclub in the Corporate Area. He earns up to $10,000 for performing sex on stage. If he has sex with one woman, he earns $5,000. However, that figure is doubled if he participates in a threesome, that is, has sexual intercourse with two women during the same session. The live sex sessions last for one hour.

Diamond says he started having sex in front of an audience in 1988 at a club in Spanish Town. He boasted that he was the first man to have done so in Jamaica. In 1989, he stopped performing on the request of his son's mother, whom he met at a dance. He said their relationship lasted until 2000, when she walked out on him. Left on his own, with his young son who was three years old at the time, he returned to the nightclub circuit and has not looked back. Since 2000, he has worked at several clubs in Clarendon, Kingston and St. Andrew. He claimed he turned down an invitation to perform at a nightclub in Ocho Rios on Tuesday nights, as he wants to be home that night in St. Catherine with his son, who is now nine years old.

"I have to get him ready for school in the mornings, so if I worked on Tuesday nights, he would miss school on Wednesdays and I don't want him to miss school," he explained.

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