Dear Editor,
In a letter in the Stabroek News of October 23, 2024 Dr. Jerry Jailall wrote “We noticed your article yesterday, ‘Education Ministry probing allegations of sexual assault at St. Joseph High,’ (SN, Oct. 22, 2024) where it was mentioned that 6 boys sexually assaulted 2 boys and ‘homosexual slurs were hurled at them.’ Based on what was reported, the school should ensure these students face the full brunt of the law to send a strong message across our schools in Guyana that such behaviour will not be tolerated”. I agree with Dr. Jailall’s view that “these students (the perpetrators) should face the full brunt of the law”. However, I believe Dr. Jailall should reflect on what he wrote two years ago and whether such views foster the kind of behaviour of the six bullies at St Joseph High. In a letter captioned “Sexual Deviance Movement in Guyana pushing hard to promote agenda” (Kaieteur News, October 01, 2022) he wrote “The sexual deviance lobby in Guyana is well funded and active to promote its cause with lots of support from the ABC/EU countries. So, a pro-gay outfit from the UK called the Human Dignity Trust that focuses on strategic litigation challenging the criminalisation of homosexuality around the world, provided US$31,000 for this “flawdulent” study that wants to make the public feel there is widespread support for buggery and sexual deviant practices. The sexual deviance movement (SDM) is working hard at promoting its sexual deviance agenda, and wants to change our laws to give legal protection to deviant behaviours that destroy the traditional marriage and family values”.
I hold no brief for the LGBTQ community but as someone who is a student of the biological sciences and who believes in the human and civil rights of every person, I was disappointed that a scholar of such repute, who was/is a teacher, held such views.
In the 2011 book, The Biology of Homosexuality, author Jacques Balthazart, using decades of scientific studies, argues that “sexual orientation, both homosexual and heterosexual, is under the control of embryonic endocrine and genetic phenomena in which there is little room for individual choice.”
And in a 2019 article “Stop calling it a choice: Biological factors drive homosexuality”, Bill Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Indiana University School of Medicine, writes “In a 2019 issue of Science magazine, geneticist Andrea Ganna at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and colleagues, described the largest survey to date for genes associated with same-sex behaviour. By analyzing the DNA of nearly half a million people from the U.S. and the U.K., they concluded that genes account for between 8% and 25% of same-sex behaviour.”
I hope the situation at St Joseph High provides a learning experience to all of the consequences of prejudicial thinking in the society.
Sincerely,
Harry Hergash
