IDAHOT Remarks from European Union Ambassador Jernej Videtič

Ambassador Jernej Videtič, Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Guyana (Neketa Forde Photo)

The Honourable Basil Williams, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs,

The Honourable Dr George Norton, Minister of Social Cohesion,

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Members of the Media,

Other Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good evening,

Together with millions of people around the world, the EU celebrates the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. On IDAHOT day itself, the EU Delegation in Guyana will proudly fly the rainbow flags which you see here [gesture left and right] on our office building, in a very public show of support for Guyanese people who are fighting for human rights for all. IDAHOT is a timely opportunity to remind Governments around the world of their obligation to promote the universality of human rights and ensure that everyone, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation, enjoys these rights without discrimination.

For the European Union, our position is that the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex, or LGBTI, persons are protected under existing international human rights law, and that LGBTI persons have the same rights as all other individuals — no new human rights are created for them; but neither should any be denied to them.

To be more specific: when speaking about the rights of LGBTI persons, we’ve always made it clear that it is not about introducing new or different rights for one group of people. It is about the same human rights being applied to every person everywhere without discrimination.

The EU, similarly to the United Nations, is committed to the principle of the universality of human rights and reaffirms that cultural, traditional or religious values do not justify any form of discrimination, including discrimination against LGBTI persons

In recent years, remarkable progress has been made around the world to advance the enjoyment of all human rights for LGBTI persons. Several countries have decriminalised homosexuality and others have enacted new statutes to protect individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. None of these changes could have happened without the dedication of courageous activists working to advance equal rights for LGBTI persons – activists such as many of you here this evening.

Great obstacles remain in many places around the globe. Discrimination and violence against LGBTI persons is still widespread, unfortunately including in Guyana. The EU condemns discrimination and violence against LGBTI individuals in the strongest possible terms. 

During Guyana's most recent Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations, it was recommended that Guyana change its laws in order to guarantee better protection LGBT persons; especially the laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy and cross-gender dressing which, are discriminatory. In response Guyana agreed “to strengthen the protection of LGBT individuals” and “to continue its effort in eliminating discrimination against LGBTI people starting with the review of its related legislation”.

The European Union therefore encourages the Government of Guyana to repeal the laws criminalising same-sex intimacy and cross-dressing. We fully support the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination - SASOD - and other Guyanese human rights activists in their efforts in this area.

The EU is funding projects worldwide aimed at improving LGBTI organisations’ visibility and acceptance, enhancing their dialogue with authorities to change laws, combating homophobia, and protecting LGBTI persons from violence. Support is also given to training, information and legal support to LGBTI persons and civil society organisations. Such projects have been funded here in Guyana, primarily in cooperation with SASOD. We worked together on very successful projects on combating discrimination through advocacy and strategic litigation, through empowering civil society to combat discrimination in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, and strengthening the public policy advocacy skills of Guyanese civil society organisations.
The EU will continue working with partners in Guyana and around the world to advance the human rights of all people regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Thank you.

IDAHOT Remarks by SWAG Member Akola Thompson

“Love makes a family”

by Akla Thompson, Member of SASOD Women's Arm Guyana (SWAG)

As a child, it seemed like everything had definitions. Not only definitions, but stringent ones; ones that you could not necessarily change because it did not seem to apply to you. Just like how I learnt that us humans are basically made up of stardust and I learnt how to differentiate between water type and grass type Pokemons, I also learnt that a family was made up of a man, a woman and their children. There were some slight deviations from this of course. We not only had the nuclear family, we also had the extended and single parent ones too. What all of these definitions had in common however, was that they were all centered on heterosexuality. There was not a hint of queerness to be found anywhere, but I never questioned it. I didn’t question the erasure of my people in the education that my family was paying for. I didn’t know how much I had been conditioned in the hetero-normativity of family until I saw depictions of queer families and felt like there was something wrong with it. It was quite an ironic but jarring experience because it made me realize that our entire system is based on these little oppressions of erasure.

We keep trying to wrap a neat little bow around the concept of family. But it is much too diverse, much too chaotic and full of hurt, pain and rejection at times. It is much too fulfilling and special to be tied down to just one meaning or subtle deviations of it. 

  

Akola Thompson, SWAG Member (Neketa Forde Photo)

Due to societal expectations of what normalcy is, I see so many LGBT persons being castigated and treated as unimportant by their families. As a mother and as a queer woman, I know it is my responsibility to untie and continue untying all the little bows that society tries to impose upon my daughter and me. She is turning five next month and some people find it weird that I have such in depth conversations with her. They believe children should not know certain things, but she asks questions. Just as I’m sure I might have asked questions or my brother and sister had asked questions that might not have been answered. We talk about how gender is a social construct, how everything really is a social construct. We talk about how LGBT persons, like her mother, are people deserving of respect and love. It is often hard to try to get her to unlearn everything she learns when she is not with me but occasionally there is a ray of sunlight. She no longer believes that clothes and colors are specified to gender and if she passes a trans person on the road, she does not bat an eyelash. If I ask who that person is she tells me that they are a person. She is only five, yet she understands these things. Why is it so hard for us a society to understand? Can it be because our parents believed that we should not know certain things?

What we end up with here is a culture in which any deviation from normalcy is punished. We have queer men and women afraid to be themselves because they want to remain a part of a traditional family. Or they want to remain protected from the violence society will mete out against them. Often, we get a bit of hope that our identity will someday not be attacked when we hear the words of the leaders we elected to represent us tell us that they will respect our right to exist. Instead, what we get are threats of a referendum that is set up to further marginalize us, and commendable but still empty, unfulfilled promises to recognize our rights.

I know it can be hard to be disowned or despised for who you are by the people who surround you, but just know that you have an entire community behind you. We are here to support and love and annoy the daylights out of you. I know I am.

I’m not that little child struggling to understand definitions that seemed right but felt wrong. I am relatively, a big woman now, even though that in its self is up for debate. I know now that often when definitions do not paint the entire picture, we might have to make our own definitions. So if someone were to ask me, what is a family, my thoughts I hope should not go towards hetero, homo or asexuals but towards collectives. Because family is not about your gender or sexuality. Family is about love, acceptance and support. Family is about waking up every morning, or if you’re like me, sometimes in the afternoon, and knowing that there are people out there who care deeply for you and will do all that is in their power to protect you. The sooner we stop letting stoic definitions define our love, we’d all be better off.

“Women, Wine & Words” – The Launch of SWAG

On Friday, March 10, 2017, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) hosted the fourth women’s empowerment session, titled “Women, Wine & Words”, in celebration of International Women’s Day and to officially launch the SASOD Women’s Arm at its 203 Duncan Street, Lamaha Gardens location.

The women’s empowerment series was birthed as a collaboration between SASOD and the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA). The intention of the series is to educate and empower lesbian, bisexual (LB) women and women allies about issues related to their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Previous sessions have focused on the basics of SRHR, self-care, wellness, body image, gender-based violence and rape culture.The women empowerment sessions are intended to create a safe space for women to ventilate pertinent women and gender issues and to share their own lived-experiences or observations. The sessions also serve to give women the information needed to make informed decisions about their own sexual and reproductive health and their own rights.

Run, Hide, Fight

They coming for me!

I got to run I got to hide I got to—

I got to— I got—

No. I don't got nothing but me two bare hand.

I got what inside me and I can't change that.

They coming for me?

They life so perfect they coming to fix how I live?

How I love? Who I love?

I gon learn to walk straight if you shoot me?

I gon learn to pray great if you prey on me?

They coming for me. Ha.

To take me where? To do me what?

You can't erase me, I always been here.

I gon always be standing here, fighting

here, and you can't change that.

- Anonymous

N.B: "Run, Hide, Fight' is the shorthand American school children are taught for what to do if there's an active shooter. i.e. Try to run away. If you can't run, find a hiding place. If you can't hide, fight back with whatever you have.

Cross-dressing Case Likely Heading to the CCJ

(Georgetown, Guyana) The Court of Appeal today in an oral decision delivered by the acting Chancellor, the Honourable Carl Singh, confirmed the ruling of the then acting Chief Justice Ian Chang in the High Court that the expression of one’s gender identity as a trans person is not in and of itself a crime. However, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeal, rejecting the appellants’ arguments that the law in question discriminates based on gender and violates multiple equality provisions in the Constitution. The appellants confirmed that they intend to appeal this ruling to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

In 2010 four trans women and one of Guyana’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisations brought an action challenging the constitutionality of an 1893 colonial vagrancy law found in the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act which makes it an offence for a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ to cross-dress in public ‘for any improper purpose’. The essence of the case brought by Gulliver McEwan, Angel Clarke, Peaches Fraser and Isabella Persaud and the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) was that this 19th century vagrancy law is hopeless vague, amounts to sex/gender discrimination because it is based on sex-role stereotyping and has a disproportionate impact on trans persons.

New Social Cohesion Minister Commits to Leading Anti-discrimination Law Reform

On Thursday, January 9, a team from the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) met with the new Minister of Social Cohesion, Honourable Dr. George Norton, M.P. and his Technical Officer, Pamela Nauth, at his Ministry of the Presidency office.

SASOD’s Managing Director, Joel Simpson, Social Change Coordinator, Jairo Rodrigues and Advocacy and Communications Officer, Schemel Patrick attended the meeting to discuss their partnership with the Ministry of Social Cohesion and the Ministry’s public education work which is pivotal in the prevention of violence and discrimination and is at the heart of SASOD’s work with sexual and gender minorities. 

Opening the meeting, Simpson outlined SASOD’s approach to social cohesion. He discussed a combination approach which give a “sandwich effect” to achieve social cohesion.  Simpson described the top-down approach which includes law and policy reform, especially constitutional reform to protect minority groups from discrimination. He stated that constitutional reform is paramount to sanction discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He then described the bottom-up approach which engages communities and educates citizens to curtail their prejudices. “SASOD believes that both approaches need to be taken together to achieve social cohesion in Guyana,” Simpson said.

Guyana Equality Forum Hosts “Orange Walk” to Close 16 Days of Activism on Gender Violence

Last Saturday, December 10, Human Rights Day, the Guyana Equality Forum (GEF) hosted its “Orange” Walk to commemorate Human Rights Day 2016 and close the 16 Days of Activism Campaign, which is held annually to galvanize action to end gender-based violence.

SASOD’s Joel Simpson led the marchers as they chanted “Equal Rights! Equal Love! Equal People!” and “Break the Silence, End Gender-Based Violence.”

At the end of the walk, brief remarks were shared by Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence and keynote speaker Dr. Dawn Stewart. Dr. Stewart is the civil society representative to Guyana’s Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) and founder and Chief Executive Officer of CPIC’s Monique’s Caring Hands - a leading, local grassroots women's rights group. 

Dr. Stewart commenced her remarks by expressing, “It is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights in the world, one of the least prosecuted crimes, and one of the greatest threats to lasting peace and development. I am talking about violence against women and children. I am honoured to be here, at your request, to address this urgent matter as we join together to advance human rights, and the common values of humanity.” 

Cross-Dressing Appeal Case for Judgment in 2017

The case McEwan, Clarke, Fraser, Persaud and SASOD versus Attorney General of Guyana was heard on Friday, November 18, 2016 before Guyana’s Court of Appeal. The hearing was presided over by Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh, Chief Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justice Brassington Reynolds. Gulliver McEwan, the first-named appellant, other representatives of the Guyana Trans United (GTU) and the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) were also present at the hearing.

The Chancellor noted that the Court had received extensive submissions from both the appellants and the state, which did not require rehashing orally. However, Dr Bulkan, counsel for the appellants, noted that there were two issues in the state’s submissions that were raised for the first time and to which he would like to respond. He was permitted to address these issues, but after doing so the Court indicated that these new submissions should be recorded in writing, and both parties were given four weeks to present their further written submissions to the court.

The Court questioned counsel for the appellants on their contention that the law was uncertain, asking whether it was not possible for a Magistrate to define the term ‘improper purposes’ on a case by case basis by reference to its dictionary meaning. Dr Bulkan responded that permitting this would offend the requirement of the rule of law, since penal statutes had to be defined with sufficient clarity to give citizens prospective notice of how to conduct themselves. He pointed out that even if a person was eventually acquitted by a Magistrate, the fact of being charged and subjected to the state’s coercive powers would have already resulted in violations of their fundamental rights. He added that the term ‘improper purpose’ had no boundaries whatever, and thus gave police unfettered discretion in enforcing the law.

Cross-Dressing Suit Set for Appeal Hearing Tomorrow Friday November 18

As the Guyana Trans United (GTU) and the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) join the global observances of November as Trans Awareness Month, Guyana’s Court of Appeal is expected to hear the case McEwan and others versus Attorney General of Guyana tomorrow, Friday, November 18, 2016 at 9:00 hrs at the Court of Appeal, 60 High Street, Kingston.  The Chancellor of the Judiciary, the Hon. Justice Carl Singh, is expected to preside over the hearing with a panel of appellate judges.

The appeal was previously fixed for hearing on Wednesday July 13 at 9 am before Guyana’s Court of Appeal. Gulliver McEwan, the first-named appellant, and representatives of the GTU and SASOD were present in a completely full courtroom.  At this hearing, the appellants filed their skeleton arguments in accordance with the rules of the Court. The arguments of the State were yet to be filed. The Court of Appeal noted that the arguments filed by counsel for the appellants were extensive and that it wished some time to fully review them and to receive the arguments from the State.

The case was initially filed in February 2010, following the widely reported arrests and convictions of seven trans persons for the 1893 summary offence of ‘being a man’ and wearing ‘female’ attire in a public way or public place, for an improper purpose.’ Four of the convicted persons filed this action, along with SASOD, which approached the Faculty of Law UWI Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP). Thereafter, with the assistance of U-RAP and local counsel, a constitutional challenge to the cross-dressing law was filed.

The McEwan case argues that the archaic cross-dressing law, found in section 153 (1) (xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act 1893, is inconsistent with the Constitution of Guyana. It also argues that the conduct of the Chief Magistrate, who told the individual appellants that they were confused about their sexuality and should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, was also not consistent with the Guyana Constitution.

In September, 2013, then Chief Justice, Ian Chang, heard the case and ruled that cross-dressing per se is not a crime, unless done for an “improper purpose.” The parties appealed this ruling, in part because of the inherent uncertainty in the terminology employed in the statute. With that uncertainty, state officials have virtually unlimited discretion in applying the law.

The entire legal team includes Mr. Miles Fitzpatrick SC, Mr. Nigel Hughes, Dr. Arif Bulkan, and Mr. Gino Persaud.