KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- In front of wall murals preaching tolerance and black pride, Percival Cordwell proudly recounts how he helped drive two men from his shantytown because he thought they were gay. The two were lying side by side on a beach four blocks away, in their swimsuits, when a neighborhood man screamed "Batty boys!" -- Jamaican slang for homosexuals. Cordwell joined a stick-waving mob moving in on the two men. "These guys ran for their lives. Everybody wanted to get a lick," Cordwell, 47, a soccer coach for teen-agers, recalls. Despite the laid-back, anything-goes image propagated by tourist boards, gays and gay-bashers here agree on perhaps only one point: Jamaica is the most hostile island toward homosexuals in the Caribbean. Gays do visit Jamaica but generally stick to smaller resorts or guest houses away from main tourism areas. Gay tourists are told not to hold hands in hotel restaurants or outside resorts for fear of attacks. The anti-gay sentiment has become known worldwide through the increasing popularity of Jamaican "dancehall," a rap-reggae music hybrid that often has raunchy or violent themes. In slums like Cordwell's rough Southside neighborhood, the music has long been popular, as has gay-bashing. No homosexuals live here and none ever will, he declares. Cordwell, his long dreadlocks tucked under a multicolored knit cap, said he maintains the integrity of his soccer teams by never picking a player from outside the neighborhood. You never know, he says. Beside him, a half-dozen members of a neighborhood gang, the Superstuds, agree, competing to describe the violence they would administer if they found gays or lesbians. Examples of Jamaica's hostile attitudes toward gays abound: --An attempt to toughen Jamaica's rape law stalled last March because critics contended that allowing prosecution for the rape of one man by another would implicitly give legal acknowledgement to sex between two consenting adult men. An outpouring of angry public complaints forced the government to put aside the proposed amendment. --Reggae rappers often depend on gay-bashing themes to stir up concert-goers, as was done in August's Sunsplash music festival. The theme of Buju Banton's international hit "Boom Boom Bye" -- kill homosexuals -- has provoked criticism in the United States, but little in Jamaica. The tough talk comes as no surprise to Larry Chang, a restaurant owner and property manager who is one of the few gay Jamaicans who has gone public. He has lost work because of his beliefs, endured insults on the street and says neighbors have shunned him. Homosexuality provokes "a trigger response" among most Jamaicans, says Chang, who had been secretary of a now-disbanded gay rights group. The intolerance has something to do with the legacy of slavery and with the predominance of single-parent families, Chang speculates. "Most Jamaican men grow up without a father. They never felt affection from another man, any kind of affection, and they don't know how to deal with it," he says. Psychiatrist Aggrey Irons, who is host of Jamaican radio and television programs on human sexuality, adds that constant anti-gay messages by evangelical Protestant faiths may also play a role. He says Jamaica tolerates homosexuality as long as it is not advertised -- a tropical version of President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for the U.S. military. Irons says he has treated some men who "are afraid that the stigma may be attached to them, so their defense is to hit out rather than deal with their own insecurity."