'I'm heterosexual' - PM spurns 'wicked slurs' on his sexuality PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson charged yesterday that his character was being sullied by his political opponents in vulgar and wicked attacks on his sexuality. "My credentials as a lifelong heterosexual person are impeccable. Anybody who tries to say otherwise is not just in smearing, is not (just) in vulgar abuse, but when you talk about demonising, that is that. I want to put that on the table squarely," said Mr. Patterson, who described slurs against his sexuality as "wicked". In a radio interview he shot back at the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), accusing them of sustained attempts at demonising him, while flatly denying that the People's National Party (PNP) was on a mission to demonise Opposition Leader Edward Seaga. Speaking on Hot 102's current affairs programme, "The Breakfast Club", Mr. Patterson repeated de-nials that the ruling People's National Party initiated political violence in Mr. Seaga's West Kingston constituency in an attempt to demo-nise him and damage the JLP's chances of winning the next general election. "Nobody is trying to demonise Mr. Seaga. Mr. Seaga has a record during his years of service. Nobody is attributing any statement to Mr. Seaga which he has not at some point or the other made during his period of political service," Mr. Patterson told hosts Beverley Anderson-Manley and Anthony Abrahams. "Nobody is manufacturing anything about Mr. Seaga against him. Nobody is fabricating anything. Tell me what is it that the PNP has fabricated about Mr. Seaga, unlike what is being attempted against me," he challenged. It was at this point that he commented on what he called the character smears by his political opponents. Co-host of the programme Mr. Abrahams, suggested that, within the context of the Jamaican culture of homophobia, innuendo about homosexuality was a form of demonising. "If you're talking about demonising in the local culture, so depraved is the local culture that it is better to be a gunman than a homosexual. So that somebody going around the country beating drums talking about 'chi-chi man' is demonising," Mr. Abrahams commented. The reference to "chi-chi man" (homosexual) is from the TOK song of that name, which the JLP seems to have adopted as one of its signature tunes and which is played at its political rallies to wild cheers.
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