The LGBTIQ struggle for citizenship in Guyana and the Caribbean

(This is the interactive version of an article which appeared in Diaspora Times International March 2017 Vol 3 Issue 1 , edited by  Rtd Colonel Desmond Roberts.

(LGBTIQ – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer)

On Monday 27 February 2017 Georgetown Magistrate Dylon Bess shut Ronnel Trotman out of the Courtroom. Ronnel Trotman, called Petronella, is a transgender Guyanese citizen and was the complainant in an assault case.

Less than a week after Guyanese celebrated Mashramani with 'dignity, liberty and greater Unity”, citizen Petronella and other LGBTIQ citizens were reminded that Guyana's Unity excludes them.

Magistrate Dylon Bess was not sanctioned by those responsible for the Justice system. The Magistrate is working in a cultural and legal context which says that human beings are born either male or female and that normal is heterosexual. Citizens who did not find themselves in these two categories are born into a State which does not punish public officials who discriminate against them.

The laws against consensual same-sex activity and against cross-dressing for an 'improper purpose' give permission for homophobia in Guyana.

Punishment of LGBTIQ citizens is the reason for some of the records of LGBTIQ life in British Guiana.

Blistering the penis, psychiatric treatment

In 1898, the authorities on the Mersey punished Mohangoo and Nobibux for sodomy. The two men were on their way to British Guiana to work on the sugar plantations. Nobibux was put in irons and the authorities blistered Mohangoo's penis and put him to scrub the decks.

In 1903, the authorities recorded Rukmini as Hermaphrodite on the Clyde. In 1959, the Guiana Graphic wrote about an all-male 'Wedding of the Year' in Charlestown, Georgetown. In 1996, there was a report about a post-mortem in New Amsterdam which revealed that Caroline Vaughn was “half man, half woman”. In 1968, Magistrate Keith Massiah sent Compton Bowen for psychiatric treatment. The police arrested and charged Christopher Bowen for wearing a miniskirt and “twisting his waist from side to side like a female.” In 1978, there was some acknowledgement that sexuality and gender identity are fluid: a 'sex-change' operation was done at the Public Hospital Georgetown.  In 1979, the police arrested Wendell Brotherson and another man and charged them with buggery. The defence lawyer, Stanley Moore argued that “it was wrong for the law to seek to suppress the natural sexual urgings of individuals with homosexual tendencies.”

Constitutional challenges and legal change
In 2001, the first attempts were made to address Constitutional and legal change. President Jagdeo refused to assent to the Constitution Amendment bills which would include sexual orientation as grounds for protection against discrimination.

In 2010, Quincy McEwan, Seon Clarke, Joseph Fraser and Seyon Persaud and SASOD filed a Constitutional challenge against the 'cross-dressing laws'. Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang ruled that cross-dressing was illegal only for 'an improper purpose' but that did not stop Magistrate Bess from closing the Court door on Petronella.

Other cases in the Caribbean have been filed. Caleb Orozco challenged the sodomy laws in Belize. Maurice Tomlinson challenged the laws in Belize and Trinidad which state that homosexuals could not enter those countries.
Maurice Tomlinson has also filed a case against the Jamaican sodomy laws.

In Trinidad and Tobago, Jason Jones has also filed a case against the sodomy laws.

The political parties in the May 2015 elections in Guyana promised to address discrimination against LGBTIQ citizens. This inclusion of LGBTIQ citizens as a manifesto promise was probably a first for Caribbean elections.

The political parties, though, have remained silent about the closing of the Court door on Petronella.

Despite the strong activism of organisations and individuals in Guyana, there have been no serious moves by the State to recognise LGBTIQ citizens as equal to any other Guyanese.