Does God love gays in Guyana?

My first instinct was to giggle hysterically and then I felt a deep sense of sadness. I heard the nice woman, personification of decent Christian Guyanese woman,  upstanding with her moral authority saying 'Do you know know buggery is destructive? That structurally buggery is not good.. that buggery kills homosexuals .. that Men who have sex with men have the highest HIV infection rates.. I imagined her telling Christ he must not mingle with the riff raff.. and he must look after his robes and make sure that they don't get dirty. ..  I could imagine her and me telling minibus drivers to turn off the dirty music...

The nice upstanding Christian woman was the first person to talk about ..er buggery.. in the National Library conference room.

The National Library was the venue of  another attempt by LGBT activists to deal with God's love of homosexual which seemed to drive the public policy of discrimination
 The first attempts were way back in 2003

The National Library is a fitting venue. They don't exclude. Bishop Edghill and the others who love Christ and love homosexuals but not well.. you know.. 'homosexuality' had launched their 2003 homophobic campaign at the National Library too.

But the National Library gives space to the holy and the unholy, the righteous and the unrighteous.. I could imagine a loving Jesus Christ doing the same but then I only know Jesus from what some of his followers post on Facebook .

The rainbow flag was tucked above the door of the conference room. 

 There was a panel discussion. Wazir Baksh, a Muslim, said that Muslims should not be causing violence to any LGBTQ person. He spoke about there being worse sins that homosexuality.  Bishop Alleyne apologised to the LGBTQ community for the damage caused by Christians. He talked about love and understanding. Swami Aksharananda talked about the Hindu view of doing no harm to others, the fundamentals of ahimsa. He talked about God being everything and not separate .

It was all very peaceful and loving even if the love seemed to be in the vein of love the sinner, not stone, kill, fire from jobs, put out of the house, and exclude from health services.

The Q& A started and it seemed to be come an inter-faith dialogue.. it wasn't about loving homosexuals but about perceptions of God and so on.  Then the nice lady could not wait anymore and started talking even though it was not her turn.

Buggery. I winced at the word. The nice Christian lady , in her faith had reduced same sex loving to buggery. She had reduced all the desires of LGBTQ people for family and love to sex. She was like some of the gay men/men who have sex with men I know.. it was just about sex.

I wondered how she knew so much and felt sad that she must have had to look at videos and so.  And the woman with her morality and so, was talking of the evils of buggery instead of the love of her God.

It was tiring.  There were some white people from America in the audience, though not pastors or so,  human rights people.  Some Christians from Guyana  and other places had written to Donald Trump asking him to stop exporting these kinds of human rights to Guyana and maybe the people will go back with more information to the United States about how American values are preventing Chrsitan Guyanese from not discriminating against LGBTQ citizens.

And about representation.. as one of the Christian men said that the three men at the head table did not represent the majority of the views. 

"I am lesbian and I am Chrstian" a young woman said  . "So when I am with my girlfriend I am sinning like a murderer?"she asked. She was not asking for permission though, to be Christian or be loving to her son and others.

Another woman stood up to challenge the versions of God. I was scared a bit, because I didn't want anybody to turn on anyone else.  It is easy to be distracted by quarrels with people whose ignorance will not change.

The quarrel has to be with the decision makers and policy makers who are afraid that God will punish them if they treat LGBTQ citizens as equal. 

It doesn't matter to me how much God loves gays in Guyana, the important thing is how the State ensures that LGBTQ citizens are treated as equal.

The mantra Swami Aksharananda referred to is in my head.

Do no harm. Cause no suffering. 

I think of the Christian woman and her friends who have had to develop bizarre arguments to defend their faith. I do not defend my faith, I state it as it is and make my choices accordingly. I do not expect the State to choose between faiths when deciding on any one's human rights.

I feel sad about the Christians who have  resorted to Donald Trump in their fear of homosexuals and of becoming homosexual. It must be some desperation which is based on an idealogy of division and othering. like the desperation of the Director of Public Information's whose absurd postulations about the coolie conspiracies with the Government of India to overthrow the Government.

In the end it seems as though different Guyanese will decide if their  God loves Gays or if God's chosen loves gays or any other Guyanese or human.

The mantra in my head  tells me to Do no Harm and Cause No Suffering, and I could imagine that means to those who will also cause suffering to others as part of their faith.





Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah
Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah |
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu
Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Om, May All become Happy,
May All be Free from Illness.
May All See what is Auspicious,
May no one Suffer.
Peace, Peace, Peace.

Check the Guyana Chronicle article here.