Nicholas Peters is a writer and human rights activist. He was the winner of the University of Guyana’s Walter Rodney Award for Creative Writing in the short fiction category, and has read his work in Guyana and Trinidad at the 2017 Bocas Literary Festival. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature and Linguistics from the University of Guyana; is a Chevening scholar with Masters of Arts in Human Rights from the University of Sussex and a Trustee of the Chevening Alumni Association of Guyana.
December 10 marked International Human Rights Day, a day that commemorates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a document which enshrines the principal rights that each of us has as human beings. Wars, dictatorships and empires were fought to reach a global consensus where nations recognise that each of us, both as individuals and communities, have always had rights from the moment we are born. Countries like Guyana, with its relatively recent colonial past, have always possessed a very intimate understanding of this fact. Events such as the 1763 rebellion of enslaved Africans; the 1948 industrial action of the Enmore Martyrs; and the contribution of Amerindian leader Stephen Campbell towards the incorporation of indigenous rights into our constitution, are testimony to how integral human rights are in the formation of our society. And while there have been significant achievements in recognising platforms such as workers’, women’s and children’s rights, there are still insufficiencies in recognising those rights as well as the rights of other vulnerable groups. This column will focus on the rights of sexual and gender minorities, a group that has within the last two decades come to face its own struggles and achievements.
Sexual and gender minorities are better known as those persons whose sexual identity is in relation to the gender they are attracted to. Meanwhile gender identity (which is different from sexual orientation) refers to someone’s perception of having a particular gender that might not correspond with their sex or social norms. Since the turn of the century, several groups in Guyana began advocating for the rights of these minorities, better known as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) community. Guyana’s Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD Guyana), which is leading this charge, celebrated the 16th anniversary of its formation on June 7 this year. Over the years, SASOD Guyana has been responsible for programmes that address issues of homophobia(s), aided in the decriminalisation of public cross-dressing, helped persons seeking legal assistance and healthcare, and organised the first LGBTQI+ Pride Parade in the English-speaking Caribbean. These are not small feats of achievement, but it might not seem obvious how such projects relate to human rights.
To understand this connection, we must understand the challenges that the LGBTQ+ people face in completely realising human rights in Guyana. The biggest obstacle for these minority groups is homophobia(s). Homophobia(s)(s) is being used here as an umbrella term to refer to a strong personal prejudice against people who are not heterosexual and/or cisgender, and includes lesbophobia, biphobia and transphobia. Homophobia(s) are manifested in a variety of ways that are meant to harm someone who is perceived to be queer. This harm can be anything from verbal harassment, physical/emotional abuse, bullying a student, denying service to someone and several actions intended to cause someone harm or distress because of their assumed sexual orientation or gender identity.
Homophobias also go beyond an individual’s own feelings as it is embodied in structural and social forms that continue to affect LGBTQ+ people in Guyana. This latter form is more difficult to spot but can include such acts like a landlord denying tenancy to a same-sex couple because of their relationship or the unjustified arrest of someone who defies socially-policed gender norms. In fact, a case of the latter type was highly publicised in Guyana when four transgender persons were arrested for “crossdressing” under the Summary Jurisdiction (Offenses) Act 1894, which made such acts “for improper purpose” illegal. The case was taken all the way to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), with the support of the SASOD, where the judges ruled that the law violated the individuals’ right to equality and freedom of expression guaranteed by Guyana’s Constitution and so was struck out of the country’s law books.
The history of such laws stems from a colonial system that sought to suppress, monitor and police the bodies of a society entering a new phase of its existence in a post-emancipation world. In fact, the CCJ acknowledged that the anti-crossdressing law was part of a suite of laws from that period which sought to regulate movement of formerly enslaved African peoples and the newly arrived indentured Indian population so that they remained on the plantations to work. As a society we must come to terms with the fact that that colonial laws were not enacted in the interests of Guyanese people but for the purpose of our continued exploitation. Other laws from that time include the anti-buggery law which violates the right to privacy, not just for homosexual persons’ but all Guyanese. These laws have historically contributed to a structure of homophobia(s) that continue to exist in our public institutions, the places we work, the music we listen to, the streets we walk and places we live. There is no single cause of homophobia(s), but the burden of a colonial system that despised the freedoms of people in our pre-independent past is still felt by our peoples today, queer or not.
Addressing this form of systemic suppression that denies our constitutional rights as citizens and people must happen on multiple fronts. For its part, SASOD Guyana has developed a Homophobia(s) Education Programme, which aims to sensitise the public sector and to record instances of homophobia. LGBTQ+ people are particularly vulnerable to this form of discrimination since sexual orientation and gender identity are usually not explicitly protected under mechanisms designed to end discrimination. It is for that reason that the work of SASOD Guyana and other rights groups, is important for raising awareness on the issues and injustices that queer individuals experience. According to UNAIDS, researchers have found that “countries with higher levels of homophobia were the same countries that face higher levels of gender inequality, human rights abuses, low health expenditures and low life satisfaction.” Additionally, increases in a country’s Homophobic Climate Index were found to correlate with a loss of male life expectancy and lower economic output. Therefore, sensitising the general public on the adverse effects of homophobia(s) on themselves, in addition to recording these instances, are helpful in monitoring the barriers that limit the economic and social wellbeing of our citizens.
On top of challenging legal obstacles to LGBTQ+ rights recognition, strides have also been made to challenge the social prejudices which exist in very public ways. In 2018, the Guyana LGBTQ Coalition, which consists of Guyana Trans United (GTU), Guyana Rainbow Foundation (GuyBow) and SASOD Guyana, organised the country’s first LGBTQ+ Pride Parade, in Georgetown. I wrote about the significance of the parade in a previous article for this column, as an event that was both a celebration and protest designed to raise public awareness about LGBTQ+ people in Guyana. The parade was a symbol of freedom, safety, community and love. Freedom because it was a time and place where people, queer or not, could feel free to express themselves in a society where we are instilled a sense of conformity because ‘we neighbuh gon talk.’ Safety because queer people are so rarely allowed the opportunity to feel secure in public. Community because it gave queer people a chance to connect and organise, not just with one another but with the Guyanese community at large. Love remains a core element of the parade and its activities because the basis of our discrimination is about who we love, as well as how we love ourselves. Pride acts as a performative form of protest that is meant to create the world that we want to live in, that is free of the stares, fears and insecurities that plague the LGBTQ+ community, if only for a couple of hours in the afternoon.
Unfortunately, the world that queer people must navigate is one where we are targets of hate crimes, face higher rates of unemployment and homelessness, and have difficulty accessing public services like healthcare. No one entity cannot tackle these and the many other challenges that queer individuals are vulnerable to. However, for its part, SASOD Guyana has implemented programmes which help persons deal with cases of workplace discrimination and has provided counselling to persons in need of it. Access to healthcare remains a difficult topic for the LGBTQ+ Guyanese since a combination of discriminatory laws, social prejudice and the relative lack of friendly services for queers block people from accessing medical treatment when it comes to HIV and other STIs. This point serves to illustrate one of the many multi-layered ways in which homophobia(s) affects the lives and rights of LGBTQ+ people.
As Guyana enters a new period of economic exploration, the country is poised to transform the lives of its citizens. This can prove to be an era that will benefit every Guyanese. However, economic development does not guarantee the recognition of everyone’s human rights. In the case of LGBTQ+ people, the advancement of their rights has been a centuries old struggle that has had to contend with the political, social and cultural power structures that continue to marginalise its constituents. Addressing the homophobia and transphobia that have been instilled in the minds and institutions of the country will continue to be a difficult uphill battle, but groups like SASOD Guyana are proving that it is possible to overcome. In preparation for the next chapter of Guyana’s story, we must always remember that human rights are paramount and that we will remain underdeveloped if everyone’s rights are not fulfilled.
