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Jones' murder made headline news across Jamaica.<ref name="McFadden"/> Jamaica's Justice Minister, Senator [[Mark Golding]], condemned the killing and called for an end to "depraved acts of violence" in Jamaica.<ref name="JamaicaObserver"/> He added that "all well-thinking Jamaicans" should embrace "the principle of respect for the basic human rights of all persons" and express tolerance towards minority groups such as the LGBT community.<ref name="IBTimes">{{cite news|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/boom-bye-bye-murder-cross-dresser-lifts-lid-jamaicas-violent-homophobia-1370173 |title=Boom Bye Bye: Murder Of Cross-Dresser Lifts Lid On Jamaica's Violent Homophobia |newspaper=International Business Times |author=Ghosh, Palash |accessdate=14 August 2013 | date=2 August 2013}}</ref> Annie Paul, the Publications Officer of the Jamaican campus of the [[University of the West Indies]] (UWI), stated that on the basis of comments provided on [[social media]], she thought that most Jamaicans believed that Jones provoked his own murder by cross-dressing within a society that did not tolerate such behaviour.<ref name="McFadden"/><ref name="Roberts"/> Newton D. Duncan, the UWI Professor of Paediatric Surgery, similarly noted that the "overwhelming majority" of Jamaicans believed that cross-dressers are homosexuals and deserve punishment. He added that this was a common misconception, because the majority of cross-dressers were heterosexual. He condemned the attack and compared it to the lynching of an African-American man in [[Harper Lee]]'s novel ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', drawing links between the anti-LGBT violence of Jamaica and the anti-black violence of the mid-20th century United States.<ref name="Duncan">{{cite news|url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130901/focus/focus4.html |title=To Kill A Cross-Dresser - Jamaica Flirts With Jim Crow |newspaper=The Gleaner |author=Duncan, Newton D. |accessdate=11 October 2013 |date=1 September 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705230144/http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130901/focus/focus4.html |archivedate= July 2015}}</ref>
[[File:Portia Miller Shoot.Jpeg|left|thumb|150px|Domestic and foreign human rights organisations called on Prime Minister [[Portia Simpson-Miller]] to improve LGBT rights in Jamaica, as she had promised during her election campaign.<ref name="
Writing in the Jamaican broadsheet ''[[Gleaner Company|The Gleaner]]'', Carolyn Cooper, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at UWI, condemned the group who committed Jones' murder. She blamed their behaviour on the selective use of the [[Bible]], noting that while many Jamaicans embrace those Biblical passages which [[The Bible and homosexuality|condemn same-sex sexual activity and cross-dressing]], they are themselves typically guilty of many other Biblical sins, such as [[adultery]] and murder.<ref name="Cooper">{{cite news|url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130804/cleisure/cleisure3.html |title=Dressed for Murder |newspaper=The Gleaner |author=Cooper, Carolyn |accessdate=14 August 2013 |date=4 August 2013}}</ref> She commented that Jones had been killed just for being himself and expressed the hope that his killers face legal prosecution for their crime.<ref name="Cooper"/> The following week she published a follow-up article in which she responded to several emails that she had received which claimed that the real victims of the scenario were the men whom Jones deceived when he was dancing with them. She reiterated her condemnation of Jones' killers, remarking that rather than retaliating violently, they should have brushed it off with a humorous comment.<ref name="Cooper2">{{cite news|url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130811/cleisure/cleisure3.html |title=Sexual Falsehood Top To Bottom |newspaper=The Gleaner |author=Cooper, Carolyn |accessdate=14 August 2013 |date=11 August 2013}}</ref>
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Jaevion Nelson, an [[HIV/AIDS]] campaigner and human rights advocate, also published an article on the subject in ''The Gleaner'', noting his initial reaction was to question why Jones had gone to the dance party and why he wasn't satisfied in attending Jamaica's [[Underground culture|underground]] gay parties. However, he added that he had subsequently realised that doing so was rooted in "the culture of violence" by which [[Victim blaming|a victim is blamed]] for what happened to them. He called on Jamaicans to be tolerant of LGBT individuals, and to focus on "rebuilding this great nation on the principles of inclusivity, love, equality and respect with no distinctions whatsoever".<ref name="Nelson">{{cite news|url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130801/cleisure/cleisure3.html |title=Make Space For Pariahs |newspaper=The Gleaner |author=Nelson, Jaevion |accessdate=14 August 2013 |date=1 August 2013}}</ref> Also in ''The Gleaner'', Sheila Veléz Martínez, a law professor at the [[University of Pittsburgh]], condemned the murder as "alarming evidence" of the high rates of homophobia in Jamaican society.<ref name="Martinez2">{{cite news|url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130813/cleisure/cleisure3.html |title=Gov't Shouldn't Let Dwayne Jones' Death Go in Vain |newspaper=The Gleaner |author=Veléz Martínez, Sheila |accessdate=14 August 2013 |date=13 August 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705231423/http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130727/news/news3.html |archivedate=6 July 2015}}</ref>
On 25 July, the [[J-FLAG|Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays]] (J-FLAG), an LGBT rights organisation, issued a public statement expressing their "deep concern" regarding the case, and offering their condolences to Jones' friends and family. They encouraged local people to aid the police in locating the perpetrators of the attack, which they asserted was an affront to Jamaica's democracy.<ref name="J-FLAG">{{cite news|url=http://www.jflag.org/2013/07/violence-against-lgbt-people-is-an-affront-to-democracy/ |title=Violence is an Affront to Democracy |publisher=Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays |accessdate=14 August 2013 |date=23 July 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6LCeQaWv7 |archivedate=17 November 2013 }}</ref><ref name="Gleaner24">{{cite news|url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/latest/article.php?id=46697 |title=J-FLAG Condemns Mob Killing of Alleged MoBay Cross-Dresser |newspaper=The Gleaner |accessdate=14 August 2013 | date=24 July 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6ZnuEKr1x |archivedate=5 July 2015 }}</ref><ref name="Sieczkowski">{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/dwayne-jones-cross-dressing-jamaican-stabbed_n_3652665.html |title=Dwayne Jones, 'Cross-Dressing' Jamaican Teen, Allegedly 'Chopped And Stabbed' To Death By Mob |newspaper=The Huffington Post |author=Sieczkowski, Cavan |accessdate=14 August 2013 | date=25 July 2013}}</ref> J-FLAG's director Dane Lewis later commented that despite an increase in homophobic violence, Jamaican society was becoming more tolerant toward LGBT people; he attributed this to the actions of individuals like Jones, who have helped improve the public visibility of LGBT people in Jamaican society.<ref name="Roberts">{{cite news|url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/12/murdered-jamaican-trans-teenager-dwayne-jones-suffered-bullying-from-father-and-at-school/ |title=Murdered Jamaican trans teenager Dwayne Jones suffered bullying from father and at school |publisher=Pink News |author=Roberts, Scott |accessdate=14 August 2013 |date=12 August 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705225641/http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/12/murdered-jamaican-trans-teenager-dwayne-jones-suffered-bullying-from-father-and-at-school/ |archivedate=5 July 2015}}</ref> Another LGBT rights organisation, [[Quality of Citizenship Jamaica]], issued a press release calling for the government and churches to engage in dialogue with LGBT organisations in order to establish common ground which could be undergirded by the principle of "true respect for all" which is found in the nation's [[Jamaica, Land We Love|National Anthem]].<ref name="QCJ">{{cite news|url=http://qcjm.org/press-release-murder-of-17yr-old-irwin-st-james/ |title=Press Release – Murder of 17yr old, Irwin St. James |publisher=Quality of Citizenship Jamaica |accessdate=15 October 2013 | date=23 July 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705225243/http://qcjm.org/press-release-murder-of-17yr-old-irwin-st-james/ |archivedate=5 July 2015 }}</ref> Human rights organisation [[Jamaicans for Justice]] called on Prime Minister [[Portia Simpson
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