Jamaican
religious leaders gripe about Brokeback

Despite homosexuality still being illegal in Jamaica, the Caribbean nation decided not to ban Brokeback Mountain from general release. But that hasn't stopped religious leaders from speaking out against the film, reports London's Guardian newspaper. "I'm very distressed about it," said Major Neil Lewis of the Family Life Ministries. "We are allowing Hollywood to swamp us with the wrong things. It is dragging us down into the maelstrom of immorality." Elder Allan Russell of the Emmanuel Apostolic Church called the Oscar-nominated romance an attempt to "indoctrinate the world to a most sinful act" and called for a ban "before any further damage can be done to the minds of our young people."

Opening this week in one theater in Kingston and another in Montego Bay, the film is expected to draw protests, according to exhibitor Palace Amusement Ltd. Nonetheless, a company spokeswoman on Tuesday defended screening Brokeback. "I think that we are living in an open society," Melanie Graham, marketing manager at Palace, told the Jamaican paper The Gleaner. "No one is being forced to see it." (Advocate.com)