God and gays on NCN TV

Janelle the producer called one hour before the recording is scheduled to start. Yes, she said, we still on. We going to record a Roundtable discussion on 'Gay Rights in Guyana' or something like that.

The programme is scheduled to be aired on NCN Channel 11 on Sunday 3 June, 2012 at 7pm - yeah I know, same time like 60 minutes - and broadcast on Wednesdays at 4pm.


I ask Janelle who else coming. Janelle said.. she did not get any policy maker, but she confirmed Pastor Loris Heywood.  Pastor Heywood is a member of the Georgetown Minister's Fellowship (GMF) and will represent the Church. The GMF plans to have a campaign against homosexuality.

I know Loris long too.. tall, neat, with a nice smile,  with a deep authoritative voice.. when he talk I does think of the Christian God some people used to tell me about. This not going to be easy.

What to wear?
How can I represent SASOD best on this show? Joel and Namela have set examples which are hard to follow.
I look at the long sleeve shirts.. thinking of Joel the last time, nice sober long sleeve shirt. But then I would have to wear shoes and I aint wearing no shoes unless I have to , gay rights or gay wrongs.

Part of me think.. hell, where is your spirit.. why don't you wear a sari.. a nice hot red sari.. but then sari does trip up and I dont want to fall flat on my face while representing SASOD.

What then.. some tight red top.. with hairy belly outside - I mean.. what worse fears can there be for the Church than me dressed in outfit that will not get me in to the National Cultural Centre or any public office and appearing in public? but then.. is NCN, and they have dress code..

 I had lil hair on me face and thought heck.. .it too late to shave..
. then my mother ask me where I going, if i not going to brush my hair.. I forgot.. shoots - this time I did take her on..  usually as a form of teenage rebellion when they ask me where I going looking like dat, with the crush shirt and the untidy hair i ignore them

(Nothing to make you feel young like teenage rebellion - when people tell you fuh do one ting and you do another)


So   I settle for a nice brown shirt with short sleeves.

When Loris arrive, I see Loris also wearing a nice brown shirt - with long sleeves.

And the studio cold.. and I should have worn the long sleeve shirt as well. And shoes.

So some of the things which struck me in the conversation in no particular order.


Family values, Truth, God
The Church is concerned about the homosexualisation of law and public policy. The social fabric of Guyana is under threat by homosexuals. We do not legalise give into drug addictions and violence, so why should we give into homosexuality.

I said SASOD is not into changing anybody's religious belief.  In the early days, SASOD used to go back and forth on Biblical scholarship on what Leviticus, and Romans and so on really said, and whether there are bigger sins and lesser sins and so on.  But.. SASOD is more interested in asserting equality.




All religious scriptures say male and female
Loris said that the religions here believe in the existence of male and female. I know this is true,  because Hindu narratives have been suppressed. I talked about Lord Rama, in the Ramayana saying that he made man, woman and napumsuk. Not many Pandits and others know this. The work has to be done to let Hindus and others know that the Hindu scriptures speak to more than two gender possibilities and that Victorian moral codes are not all the same as the Hindu ones.




Moses tablets around the lawyers necks
The issue of our colonial christian legal system was reinforced by a quotation from Fenton Ramsahoye.. the two white things around the lawyers necks everywhere except Guyana, is a reference to Moses Tablets. I talked again, yep.. but we living in a plural society now and not by Christian law.


No discrimination really, homosexuals in high places
Loris posited that there was no discrimination against LGBT (he did say LGBT - I was glad he did because naming people as they want to be named is a sign of recognition) people because we know persons who are in high places.  I said yep. but the fact that they cannot be named shows the levels of discrimination. I talked about the Collateral Damage report and the other issues of violence.


The small march in the safe route..
The marchers would not have walked if they seriously feared violence and discrimination. The fact that nobody bothered with attacking the march, then there is no discrimination according to some of the Church.

Sexual exploitation of children, recruitment
Loris continually referred to child sexual abuse and grooming and recruitment. I was saddened by this.. I wanted to , since we both wore brown shirts , ask him whether the GMF plans to travel in minibuses around 3pm and 6pm .. when the bus drivers change the music to the ugliest ones for the school children. I wanted to ask Loris whether he and the GMF were going to be in the buses as the conductors bought liquor and gave the children.

But then.. I remember when I talked about this one time, I was told I am anti-working class and also racial.. that black people must be allowed to dance and express themselves freely. (Indian minibus drivers play the music too for Indian schoolchildren) So who the hell tells the GMF and the Church about the exploitation of girl children, that the reason many LBGT youth end up vulnerable to exploitation is because they are kicked out of their homes and communities.

I talked that it is wrong to diminish the horror of child sexual abuse and exploitation  by trying to link it to equality for gay and lesbian people.



Onward , upward, Mary had a goat
Janelle read some Facebook comments from different people, most of which seemed to be about.. "I do not like gay people but once they not in my face then let them me kind of thing."
 Loris' quoted the last two verses of the Song of Guyana's Children - for one wild moment I thought we would all be singing the chorus.. Janelle said what I felt .. that we were back in school and singing . Me in my almost copycat brown shirt - I said yep, SASOD is interested in the same thing, to bring Guyana forward, to ensure equality for all of its citizens.


Dialogue, consultations, bridging divides, going the same way
We had last words and comments. The GMF plans to hold workshops, and bring in people who have recovered from the LGBT lifestyle. ( I did say what is this LGBT lifestyle yall friken. I mean, many LGBT people do live mundane lives like straight people and in my head I wondered whether I should talk of how some LGBT activists say that this fight for equality must not mean a fight to become as boring as straight people and stuck in dead end marriages with mortgages and health problems and debt and kids  until death or divorce or bruk up do them part)

We finished. There were other things which  I am sure are important.

Loris offered me a lift home. We were going the same way. I remember a long time ago when Mr Edghill had given me a lift as well, when he used to drive an old car. This song.. came to my mind.. about giving kindness.



  But in both cases I was going the same way as the gentleman, so maybe the wrong song , well.. and in my head.. I thought of the other Christian with the contradictions who I had fled  from earlier in the week.