Homophobia has slowly become a hot topic among dancers in the dancehall. It seems the skin-tight pants, on the verge of becoming leotards, may be giving their fans the 'wrong' impression.

"As soon as you see a man in tight pants you think they are gay. Mi nuh like see man in 'spany' (name for tight pants). Mi nuh like see man inna di long boots dem either. I don't respect men who dress like that because I just think they are gay and using women as a front to prove they are not," says a dancehall follower, Denecia Williams.

How you dress, who you are

Another follower, Lee Swaby, says with confidence, "Dem queer! A their business still how they want to dress, but how you carry yourself have a lot to say about who you are. You may not be a gay; when you dress like that you give off the impression that you are gay. It's the same thing when they bleach out their face and cream out their hair. Might be they have feminine side that they want to come out and the way they dress is the way they choose to do it."

That may sound slightly comedic, but not to those on the circuit. Popular dancer Ice says, while there are dancers who are homosexuals and choose to wear tight pants to show off their assets, there are others who neither wear tight pants, nor are they gay and they are constantly taunted.

"Mi nuh wear tight pants. I always wear straight, not no tight pants like wha deh squeeze up some a dem egg yolk. I don't know if dem tek een the foot part, but it look like when my sister putting on her pants and she haffi deh use comb and pure tings fi try go een. I don't know if them get the style from di woman dem, but dem couldn't stop at the bleaching? Now them gone as far as fi go out and a wear dem sister tings. Me see and know that for myself. Sometimes you will deh pon an ends and a youth will come up and say 'a mi sister tings dis mi a buss a wear inna'. Bogle did say 'fashion over style', meaning to be creative with your style, not like how them dressing now," Ice said.

Ice continued: "It is giving dancers a bad name. I'm not saying that they can't wear slim pants, but they should be fitted pants, not the 'squeeze me' kind, but the kind whe dem can cover dem sneaker."

He said there has been at least one case where an alleged homosexual dancer was attacked. "Well mi hear of one case where (a dancer) who come from Montego Bay get beat, 'cause people a say him a b .... y man. Him wear tight pants and all that and the way him dutty wine, Shabada nuh have nothing pon him. One time people rush dat and him haffi lif outta dat," Ice said.

Another dancer, Kevin 'Taz' Giltress from the Timeless Dancers says he doesn't see how a dancer could do proper moves when his pants simply won't allow it. He says the members of his group prefer comfortable yet trendy clothes.

"As long as is a basic jeans and it have a pattern and style and you just have to go with the flow ... When (a selector) say 'hey tight pants bwoy, mi waah kill uno!' yuh haffi mek sure your ting (pants) straight. You have some dancers out there who wear di whole spandex jeans and capri and mi nuh know why," he said.

'Men in tights'

It's obvious through the comments that there is not only some level of discrimination that gays face in the wider society, but there is also some segregation between the 'men in tights' - whether they are gay or not - and those who prefer to dance freely.

Ice again makes his point by referring to the dancer from Montego Bay: "That is a youth that used to come around us and I used to show him some dance moves and him used to adopt it so fast, but everything change when him start act a way," he said.

"Dem just need fi set trends with dem clothes in another way. Bogle did skinny and him wear jeans that fit him just right, but dem never tight or nothing like that. Is just some a di young youth dem wha a come inna di ting. Dem nuh know how di ting run; everybody a dance, but a nuh everybody a dancer," he concluded.