A SAD END TO A LIFE WITH GREAT POTENTIAL
The death of a smart young man has unveiled the sometimes grimy life of gay male sex in The Bahamas.
Omar Davis Jr was a smart young man. In 2017, there was not a dry eye in the room when he obtained his public scholars scholarship from The Bahamas government. He told the story of how he lived in the home of his father who was a drug dealer, with the threat of police breaking down the door on a regular basis, and ultimately watching the father die after being shot. He said his father told him: “ Short man do not be like me.”
Omar Davis Jr told the crowd there gathered that he determined that he would take another course in life and that would be the route of education. He went to Central State University in Ohio on the scholarship. He graduated with a degree in Finance. He was headed to Atlanta, Georgia on 28 August 2022 to start his year of practical , headed to being an accountant. Sadly all of that came to an end when his body was discovered in his car on Tuesday 16 August 2022. He had been missing since Monday 15 August 2022.
He had been bludgeoned to death in what the police described it as a “ crime of passion”; the injuries brutal and horrific; that it was clear that he had fought desperately to save his own life. Four men were arrested in this “ crime of passion” to assist the police with their inquiries.
After he was killed, he was tied up, packed in bag and put in his car and left on the side of the street to be discovered.
As is the fashion in our country, the social media started in overdrive to fill in the blanks about what the crime of passion meant.
We too have to be careful because the issue is not what this young man’s private and sexual life and identity were but his death in horrific violence which is almost certainly a crime and for which those who did it ought to be punished. But the commentary bears repeating which we have said before that in this country men who are killed in these circumstances can never get justice for themselves or their families because the suspicion is they are homosexual. That is a crime worse than being dark skinned in The Bahamas. The list is long of the men killed in these circumstances and the juries just let them go.
However this is also a time to speak to the educated straight community in this country who often have a “speak no, hear no evil” philosophy over a phenomenon which is redolent in The Bahams, as it is everywhere. The straight community including the church gains from the talents of gay men and women but ignores what they really are. It is a naturally occurring phenomenon in every human population on earth but given our social mores and false propriety is driven underground, even as the educated say: this is their life, once they do not bother me.
The thought here is that the contradiction which young men find between their education as straight people and the expectation to behave in that way, against how they actually feel, causes the inner feelings to be driven underground and therefore into the more sordid acts and dangerous situations which often lands into this mess which we now report.
So a perfectly fine young man, smart, intelligent sociable, good image, could very well at night or day be driven to excesses which can cause trouble but which if it were possible to have a sensible conversation with a mature adult might lead to controlling the demons, so to speak. And we are not talking about conversion therapy and other such nonsense but just to be able to show younger men that it is possible to live a life in this country within the space of your natural inclinations, without engaging in behaviour which might lead to injury and death.
In this age of social media, there is the phenomenon of catfishing which lures men to meet other men under the false pretense that they are women. There is also the blackmail phenomenon where you meet someone on the internet. You exchange nude photos. You sleep together. You record the event and then you threaten to out the person, particularly if they have family and friends who believe that they are straight and not gay.
Often in these situations as panic hits, violence ensues.
We do not know the facts of what happened in this case of Mr. Davis. All we know is that social media has caused the discussion.
Whatever the facts, however, Mr. Davis did not deserve to die. It is sad that a young life is gone and wasted with so much potential.
We just wish that the community at large will concentrate on that. Let’s leave the rest to the courts and the police. Until we meet again, the Christians say “ Rest in peace Omar.” Our country is all the poorer because you are no longer with us.
Number of hits for the week ending Saturday, 20th August , 2022 up to midnight: 573,740;
Number of hits for the month of August up to Saturday, 20th August, 2022 up to midnight: 1,173,309;
Number of hits for the year 2022 up to Saturday, 20th August, 2022 up to midnight: 10,436,897.