A study of the perceptions and attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) persons in Guy-ana, suggests that a majority of Guyana either accept or tolerate LGBTQ persons.
The findings, according to the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discri-mination (SASOD), which commissioned the study, is a tremendous improvement since the last study was done and shows that Guyanese are ready for the legislative and policy changes to better protect LGBTQ persons.
The 2013 study was conducted by Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) and this one was executed by RMK Consulting Enterprise.
RMK Director Dr Mark Kirton, who presented an overview of the methodology of the study at its launch at Herdmanston Lodge yesterday, said that some 1,070 persons were interviewed. He noted that the respondents were drawn from the coastal regions in Guyana but the results of the study represented a “national” survey.
Kirton said that the persons were interviewed between June 18 and July 1, 2022, during face-to-face interactions with researchers. A questionnaire, with at least five questions from the 2013 CADRES study, was prepared to track the changes in public opinion relating to LGBTQ persons in Guyana.
In presenting the findings, RMK’s Dr Marlon Anatol said that 1,070 out of a population of over 750,000 is more than enough adding that the researchers “did a little bit of oversampling”. He explained that there was an almost even distribution of the genders, with 50.9% males and 49.1% females. The respondents were separated into three age categories in an effort to group their responses. The categories were young (18-30 years), middle-aged (31-50 years) and old (51-70 years).
The acceptance and tolerance level of LGBTQ persons was touted as perhaps the most important finding of the study. According to the new information, respondents were asked to detail their attitude towards homosexuals and some 34.5% said they are accepting. The report informed that 37.9% of the 1,070 respondents told interviewers that they tolerate LGBTQ persons, while 12% reported that “hate” best describes their feelings towards the community. Additionally, 15.6% of the polled persons refused to express a feeling towards the LGBTQ community.
“Therefore, in total, almost three-quarters (72.4%) of the respondents indicate that they have positive attitudes towards persons who do not identify as heterosexual,” the report related.
Based on the 2013 study initiated by SASOD and conducted by CADRES, acceptance has increased from 19% to 34%, tolerance has dropped from 39% to 37.9% while hate went down from 25% to 12%.
According to RMK’s report, “It is critical to note that as positive attitudes have increased significantly, the registered level of hate also has been reduced by half. Considering these developments, a cumulative change (change in acceptance plus change in hate) of 28.5% is observed.”
The study found that persons in the “old” bracket were the least accepting and tolerant of LBGTQ persons, while middle-aged and young persons were most accepting and tolerant. In relation to indicating ‘hate’, the responses were comparable, with ‘young’ people indicating 10.9%, ‘middle-aged’
people 12.9% and ‘old’ people 11.9%.
Some 56% of the respondents indicate that they know someone from the LGBTQ community with some being family, friends or acquaintances. Interestingly, 39.4% indicate that they do not personally know anyone who is LGBT. The study found that persons who personally know LGBTQ persons are more than likely to have a positive attitude towards them.
The subjects were asked ‘Should the Guyanese Govern-ment legally protect the rights of persons who are gay, bisexual and transgender?’ to which 49.6% indicated that it should indeed be a priority for the government. However, 34.3% disagreed while 16.1% refused to express an opinion on the question. Interestingly, the study concluded that “a large portion of the population not only supports legal protection for LGBT people in Guyana but thinks it should be a government priority.”
With regards to the age cohorts, there is a generally consistent portion of respondents who believe it should be a priority of the government to protect the rights of LGBT persons; with 50.8% of the ‘young’, 50.5% of the ‘middle aged’, and 47.5% of the ‘old’, the report adds.
While presenting the findings, Dr Anatol said that they also took into consideration the level of religiosity of the respondents.
On the policy front, the study found that 37% of the subjects indicated that they are “not likely at all” to support the view that Guyana’s law criminalizing sex between two men should be eliminated. However, 53.9% of the respondents support the removal of the discriminatory law but with varying levels of commitment to the decriminalization.
“In response to the question on the extent their lives will be impacted if the law criminalizing relationships between two people of the same sex was overturned, just over a half of the respondents (56.9 per cent indicate that they would not be affected much, but interestingly, just under one forth (19.4 per cent) indicate that their lives would be positively affected, and 23.7 per cent indicate that they would be negatively affected. When aggregating the responses, 76.3 per cent agree it will have a positive or no impact on their lives, while only 23.7 per cent disagree,” the study found.
Notably, 71.9% of the respondents expressed their support for legislation that would protect LGBTQ persons from discrimination in the workplace.
All of the data that informed the findings of the study was collected over a one-month period and RMK had a team of 40 interviewers and eight supervisors. The report explained that the team underwent intense training and that methodology employed in collecting data was a multi-stage cluster sampling using a combination of proportional representation as well as a stratified random sample. It added that cluster sampling involved dividing the population of interest into groups or clusters and then selecting, through a random process, a number of these groups or clusters.
A disaggregation of the age requirements for the respondents showed that 35.2% fell within the young bracket while 34.8% and 30% accounted for middle-aged and old, respectively. The report also informed that the ethnic makeup of the respondents also mirrored that of the national population of Guyana with the majority being Indo and Afro-Guyanese. Some 18.5% of the respondents represented the mixed population and 3.6% accounted for the indigenous population.
Quality of study
At yesterday’s launch of the report, RMK was asked whether its report painted a comprehensive picture of the reality of LGBTQ persons in Guyana with the small sample size. However, Dr Kirton defended the sample size, arguing that 1,070 persons out of a population of 700,000 plus is enough to draw a “national” conclusion. He said that had they gone beyond that number then a lot of repetition would have been recorded which would have made the findings even tougher to determine.
When asked which communities and regions were sampled, Dr Kirton related that just the coastal regions were sampled. That means that the hinterland regions – 1, 7, 8 and 9 – were excluded from the study but Dr Kirton maintained that the study was representative of the national population and paints an accurate picture of the situation of LGBTQ persons.
Commenting on the study, Managing Director of SASOD Joel Simpson said that it was made possible through funding from the Human Dignity Trust. The cost of the study is pegged at US$31,000.
Simpson also said that it “really wasn’t worth” going into the hinterland regions to sample the population there. He explained that the sample used by RMK was reflective of the 2012 census and the demographic of the country covered.
“If we were to go to the hinterland regions…the sample size of those regions were so small because when we look at the percentage of the population that resides in those regions and you apply that percentage to 1000 respondents, in some of the regions, we were going for double digits. You’re going all the way to Region Nine to maybe interview 17 people, right?
“So we decided that it isn’t worth the cost for just a slight bit more information that you might receive. So what we did is in the regions that we did sample, we actually went to indigenous communities and ensure that we had indigenous representation in those regions,” he explained.
Simpson added that they are confident that the scientific methodology and the rigour that was applied to the study is sound.
“So there’s no issues, this is a national representative sample and in a big country like Guyana, where half the population is in Region Four and then another maybe three quarters is on the coast, you don’t have to go to every single region to get a national representative sample. You could go to six of the 10 regions and sample in such a way so that you have the different demographics of race, gender, ethnicity, and so on, and still arrive at a national representative sample.
“So it was just a kind of a cost-benefit analysis that we had to do because I looked at the numbers myself and I said, you know, it really isn’t worth going into like Region Eight for single digits right,” he further stated.
Public education and action
Simpson said that while the study was done to inform their public education activities, its findings should also be on the desk of every policymaker.
“I think this data, this information needs to be on the desk of every parliamentarian. All 65 members of parliament and we are going to continue our advocacy to bring this to the attention of the policymakers because we really want to see action,” he said.
He added that the findings put SASOD in a better position to press for greater action. Simpson said that they have been advocating for the amendment of the Prevention of Discrimination Act to have sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression included but have had no success. Now with this study, he is of the opinion that they can now press the government for action in that regard.
“Now we have a statistic to prove it – 72% of the population supports that [amendment]. So we think that’s the place to start. And that’s a priority issue for us and we’re continuing to engage with the government and engage with the Parliament on these issues. The government has not tabled any new legislation to advance the rights of LGBTQ persons and that’s what we want to see starting with this amendment to the Prevention of Discrimination Act 1997. And we say to the government that 72% of the population is behind you, not that you need popular support, but you have it anyway. So for us, that’s where we’re going with this advocacy.
“Also, of course, this report this research is a resource for civil society, for international organizations for development partners who want to do public education programs in Guyana on LGBTQ issues,” he added.
