FROM time to time in the print media, reports are carried about members of the LGBT community. LGBT is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. The overwhelming majority of such reports point to some involvement with the courts or police, and are generally unfriendly to LGBT people.

The underground of prejudice surfaces in the ways LGBT people are treated by the police and members of the public. Though we are in the 21st century, the treatment meted out to LGBT people is qualitatively a little different from the barbaric attitudes and hostilities of previous centuries.

There are several theories accounting for the origin of LGBT people. One theory is that one becomes an LGBT person because of social conditioning. The theory which has the most currency in Guyana is that the LGBT person is born with the sexual orientation he/she manifests in later life. In other words, their bodies are, in some ways different from heterosexuals who form the overwhelming majority of humankind. Accordingly, they are born physically as such and have not consciously adopted the LGBT orientation. This is an important concept as it would prevent some people from thinking that LGBT people are perverse or wicked.

If we know the root causes of the prejudice against LGBT persons, we may in time, be able to eliminate such prejudices.
In the Semitic faiths, LGBT persons are considered ungodly and are sinners who should be punished by Man just as they would be punished by God, and the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often cited as justification for the harsh and cruel treatment of LGBT persons. This has led to a great deal of physical violence against LGBT persons by members of the public throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds over the centuries.

Such violence was reflected in the legal systems of Islamic and Christian countries. In Guyana, for instance, there were laws affecting “cross-dressing” or private homosexual relationships. This attitude of discrimination contrasts with that of the East Asian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism and Confucianism where there is an acceptance of LGBTs for what they are and no attempt is made to single them out. Indeed, in the Hindu tradition, they are known as Hijirin and are usually engaged in performing arts such as singing, dancing and acting and have their own status in society. They are regarded almost as a third gender.

Though in modern Western Societies there are still vestiges of the older prejudices and harsh attitudes towards LGBT persons, mainstream Western thought and attitude towards LGBT persons have become very humane and civilised. The genesis of this new attitude is based on two factors: The first is the strong commitment to Human Rights by all Western States and second, with the advancement of Science and with the increasing knowledge of the human body and psychology, greater understanding of the LGBT community is fast becoming part of popular knowledge. It is now being recognised that the LGBT community should be left in peace.

Despite Guyana’s beginning to move in the direction of the full acceptance of the LGBT community, there is still a residuum of barbaric behaviour towards them at the lower levels of society. The Guyana Human Rights Institute has published a report which records a number of violent incidents against LGBT persons and of the reluctance of the police to act vigorously in such matters.

One horrible incident was reported from New Amsterdam, Berbice: A transgender man was murdered in 2013. He was tied up in his own house by a gang who then set the house on fire and he was burnt to death. Those in the vicinity did nothing to restrain the murderers and it was alleged that the police failed to do a proper investigation of the incident.

The distressing condition of this community is vividly described in the report: ” Pervasive levels of violence confront LGBT persons in Guyana, and limit their ability to exist freely in public spaces; violence and harassment against LGBT people are endemic in Guyanese society and jeopardise their security and ability to freely express their identity”.
The report sums up the LGBT condition: “LGBT individuals in Guyana experience violence and discrimination across all sectors of their lives, with instances combining and intersecting to create an existence in which LGBT persons are trapped in a life cycle of violence and discrimination”.

These injustices against LGBT persons could be ended if all discriminatory provisions against them are removed from the Laws of Guyana and the police are educated as to the truth of the LGBT condition. Such teaching will best occur at the Police Training School when police officers are first inducted into the Force. The public at large should also be educated through both print and electronic media so they could understand all facets of the LGBT condition and develop a civilised acceptance going beyond mere tolerance.