This New Year, Florida began allowing gay couples to wed, and I was happy about it. I am an advocate of gay rights. Many from the Caribbean community are not. They might call me ungodly, I might call them bigoted. We would each wave the Bible in the other’s face, and then never relent on our point of view.

Growing up in Jamaica, and likely many Caribbean countries, you learn that God hates gays so you should hate gays. But I’ve always found it hypocritical for our community to react this way for a relationship format that is rarely mentioned in the Good Book, when we strongly advocate for adultery and fornication specifically by men, advocate for lynching when we find it appropriate, and allow lying politicians to buy our votes for a little asphalt and wall paint. We would rally and march in the streets to keep loving gays from marrying, but will turn a blind eye to wealthy older men who prey on young girls, and even laugh about men who beat their women. Sodom and Gomorrah occupied what, a few chapters of the Bible? Murder, adultery, lying and covetousness were etched in stone, yet we pass over them like they’re irrelevant in the scheme of our pious self-righteousness.

We class even the most loving as evil and ungodly because they do not conform to our version or normalcy, but think of ourselves as good and righteous even when mommy lives at church judging her neighbor while daddy lives at the rum bar judging short skirts.

In our community, it seems that when Jesus did away with the death and doom judgment of the Old Testament, he allowed a loophole for rampant discrimination against homosexuals in His holy name. Other Caribbean communities don’t seem to be as visceral in their hatred of the gay community, but Jamaica is still one of the least accepting communities worldwide. Fortunately, there are many of us who understand that whether you believe a person’s actions are sanctified or not, when they’re coming from a place of love, then you should probably leave it for God to judge.

Calibe Thompson is a personality, author and the producer of The Caribbean Diaspora Weekly. For your free preview of her 2015 collection of writings, Things I Probably Shouldn’t Say, visit www.calibe.net.