The Right to Life

On July 20, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) published a documentary on their YouTube channel entitled “Thin Slice: embracing the past and moving forward” which details the experience of a male-to-female transgender Guyanese youth who was involved in sex work and almost murdered by her paramour.

The documentary, which is widely available on social media, purports to tell the story of 23-year-old Romario Lovell who is popularly known as “Thin Slice” and the amount of abuse she endured from her partner who committed suicide after brutally hacking to death two other transgender youth, who were Lovell’s friends.

Other documentaries are available from the LGBT human rights advocacy body telling the stories of countless Guyanese and the abuse that they endure at the hands of their families, partners and society as a whole because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Some of these individuals are forced underground because of the fear that they live in and because of the amount of torment that they suffer if they implicitly or explicitly declare that they are homosexual, bisexual or transgender.

While the levels of tolerance in Guyana have increased over the years for the LGBT people, there are sections of the society that refuse to even allow the members of that community the right to enjoy life or peaceful coexistence. As a result, people who have a different sexual orientation or gender identity from what is ‘religiously accepted’ are denied employment at various levels of the public and private sector; treated with scorn and resentment; mocked and beaten; and condemned to a life of unimaginable levels of physical and psychological torment.

The ruling of the US Supreme Court, though a major step in the fight for equal rights and human rights for this global community, has not made it any easier for LGBT people residing in Caribbean countries with similar demographics like Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti.

The truth is, that as sections of the society harden their resolve not to at least end the discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation, the underground LBGT community is flourishing and expanding to the point where it can be argued that every community has a group.

A worrying trend is also developing, which sociologists and behavioural scientists need to pay attention to, if they are to understand how the continued rejection and increasing homophobia in certain parts of this country is undermining the ‘perfect and religiously correct society’ that anti-LGBT activists are seeking to create or maintain.

The LGBT community is fighting back, becoming more visible with more young people between the ages of 14 to 35, claiming that they were either born that way or grew to a level of comfort with themselves despite the constant beating and psychological pain endured to “change”.

The community is also producing more influential blue and white collar persons who are, by their own resilience, breaking barriers in business, media and government to take on serious roles which could alter public policy, opinion and the status quo in the not so distant future.

Guyanese must end the double standards on this issue. It is not acceptable that on one hand, these individuals are used for good entertainment and good laughs because of their flamboyance but are rejected whenever they try to live peacefully and respectfully.

The argument is not being made for anyone to abandon their beliefs, religious or otherwise, or for anyone to accept the LGBT community with open arms. It is however being argued that these individuals must be guaranteed the basic human right of living and expressing themselves without having to worry about being killed, stabbed, beaten, discriminated against and resented.

Just as Guyanese do not murder adulterers, fornicators and others who breach strongly held ‘religious views’, members of the LGBT community who are not guilty of crimes should be allowed to enjoy the benefits of their human rights. If sections of the society understandably prefer not to condone the acts of members of the LGBT community then research, studies and other introspective forms of investigations must be done to solve the ‘problem’. Sending them to an island as one politician and former Government Minister endorsed is certainly not the answer and in any case, it would be interesting to see what yardsticks are used to identify and authenticate LGBT Guyanese.

There is need for more tolerance and a society where discrimination is frowned upon; a society where ignorance gives way to education and informed, intelligent decision-making; a country where to be multi-cultural includes sexual and gender diversity; a society which allows its citizens to live in decency and to tap into all of their productive abilities; a society built on the precepts of respect, equality and justice.