The ban against Jamaican singers Bounty Killer and Mavado constitutes an important move in recognizing the link between violent lewdness and sexual violence against women as well as hatred of gays and lesbians, the National AIDS Committee (NAC) said yesterday.
In a statement which said the committee welcomed the announcement by Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, NAC stated that it constitutes the first step in a policy to tackle homophobia in the society in general, adding that the move brings Guyana in line with a growing number of countries regionally and internationally that are unwilling to tolerate the promotion of violent and homophobic lyrics in their concert halls and theatres.
NAC noted that while Minister Rohee refrained from reference to homophobia directly in his published comments about the ban, he should be able to expect more explicit support from other leaders.
“Leadership on confronting homophobic stigma and discrimination has been assigned the highest priority in the fight against the HIV virus. Yet, unfortunately, to date the international, private and public conglomerate of agencies active in the HIV field in Guyana are still to publicly address this problem,” the statement said.
The reports of two recent murders suggest a possible homophobic motive, NAC said, noting that even if this is not the case, there is enough evidence in the English-speaking Caribbean to make credible links between stigma and lethal violence against people of different sexual orientation.
According to the NAC, action by the political leadership on the homophobic issue would no doubt be more forthcoming, if the society in general and the religious community in Guyana in particular would adopt more enlightened attitudes to violence and homophobic discrimination.
“Predictably, the reactions to the ban by the promoters of concerts reflect a woeful inability to get over their narrow self-interest. Hopefully, the religious community will find the courage to explicitly support the move as a step towards bringing Guyanese culture a little closer to reflecting peace and respect for all Guyanese,” the NAC added.
Rohee had on Monday stated that the singers were banned for security reasons, noting too that the ministry had exercised a lot of patience with entertainment organisers over the types of show they hold here. He said that not too long ago authorities had sat down with some of the organisers to draft a set of conditions by which shows would be guided. Unfortunately, he said, these conditions had not being upheld and so his ministry had to blacklist the singers from entering Guyana.
