–organisation’s head says

GIVEN the low score for education in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Inclusion Index in Guyana Report, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) plans to engage Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, on a range of issues.

This is according to SASOD’s founder, Joel Sampson, who on Monday emphasised the importance of addressing hate crimes and the bullying of LGBTI persons in schools.

At the time, he was speaking at the launch of the report which showed an overall score in 2022 of 0.241.

The coalition comprises SASOD, Guyana Trans United and SASOD Women’s Arm (SWAG).

The LGBTI Inclusion Index measures the levels of inclusion of LGBTI people in five strategic areas: health, education, political and civil participation, economic empowerment, and security and violence. It was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the World Bank and other international development partners.

In January 2022, SASOD Guyana participated in a global training programme hosted by the UNDP on how to pilot the index. The body then subsequently decided to pilot the index in Guyana, using independent national consultant, Kesaundra Alves.

While there are 51 indicators in total in the index for the pilot phase, less than half of those were used in this inclusion index.

Founder of SASOD, Joel Simpson said that they plan to re-engage the Minister of Education, because according to the inclusion report, in the area of education, there is an overall score of zero.

It was explained that on the scale, which runs from zero to one, one represents the greatest inclusion for LGBTI persons, and zero represents no inclusion for LGBTI persons or the existence of laws that harm LGBTI persons.

“We want to re-engage her (Minister Manickchand) on some of those issues, which never got any real attraction… so, I think 2023 is the year we want to see action, particularly on policies to address these issues of inclusion, so that we have a basis for dealing with the homophobic violence and bullying in schools,” he said.

Simpson noted that they will focus on violence and safety, which scored zero just like education when it came to policy advocacy.

“There is nothing there when it comes to inclusion (in the Violence and Safety and Education areas). So, dealing with hate crimes is particularly important and dealing with this growing epidemic of anti-LGBTI bullying in schools… very, very important,” he said.

Simpson added: “We need to deal with those issues from a policy and a legal perspective.”

Additionally, the overall scores for the other aspects of LGBTI inclusion are political and civic participation, 0.426; economic well-being, 0.11; and health, 0.67.

Moreover, Simpson related that the pilot study is very important because it gives them a baseline and quantitative measure when it comes to the issue of LGBTI inclusion.

“All the research that previously existed on this issue is very qualitative in nature, which is good, which is important, but I think a quantitative methodology like this gives us a baseline to be able to measure where we go from here,” he noted.

ONGOING CONVERSATIONS
Concerning engagements on specific issues with the relevant authorities, he said that at the end of 2021, they were meeting with several sectoral ministers, along with the Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira.

“That was a very fruitful discussion on the issue of the Prevention of Discrimination Act 1997. We discussed what would be an appropriate strategy for advancing an amendment to that legislation,” he explained.

Further, he shared that they met with the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and have been trying to continue said engagements.

Simpson noted that two key sectoral ministers whom they would need to have direct one-on-one engagements with, in 2023, are the Minister of Labour, Joseph Hamilton for the amending of the Prevention of Discrimination Act 1997 as well as the Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud.

He also said that they will be sharing the report with the government, to give them a comprehensive overview and fact-based research which they can use as a baseline as well.

He added that the 2032 census should ask people about their sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics, the same way their race and other information are collected.

A few recommendations to improve LGBTI inclusion in Guyana are to amend the legal framework to prohibit sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC)-related discrimination against students in educational settings and instituting concrete mechanisms for reporting cases of SOGIESC-related discrimination, violence, and bullying towards students, including incidents perpetrated by representatives of the education sector.

Some further recommendations are the decriminalisation of private consensual same-sex activity between adults.

“This recommendation relates specifically to gross indecency in Section 351 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, Cap. 8:01; and attempted buggery and buggery in Sections 352 and 353 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, Cap. 8:01, respectively,” the report stated.

Others include the overhauling and modernising of the pension system to provide the same benefits to same-sex partners as provided to different-sex spouses.