No Pride in Genocide; and (أمل) Amal .. Guyana 2026

Pride 

 "Nah, dem gun be talking about antiman and lesbian and dem ting" the young man said as I was passing after a woman asked him if he was not going to the gender-based violence workshop. 

I told him to come and find out what we will be planning to talk about. He laughed. 

Another young man in the workshop was concerned about only two genders. He said homosexuality is a mental illness. Hands across chest , defending his masculinity and maleness and his normalness.

Another woman in the workshop said something different - everybody is human, June is Pride month. 

Workshop has an uneasy consensus that while we might not agree with everyone's way of being human, everyone deserves a right to a life free from violence.

Conversation in my head driving me to the Guyana screening of the Queer Cinema for Palestine

No Pride in Genocide

Walk into the yard and see all the Pride flags decorating the place. Sijan tree provides shade.. Moringa used by many for various health benefits. Not sure if Sijan is on the menu offerings.

Air is humid and still. 

Ganja and then tobacco smoke come in my nose. I feel a bit sick. Man offers me a flyer about the drive to collect food support for Cuban people in Cuba. 

Seems the 'Guerilla' space which has given space to the queer cinema screening and  to solidarity with Cuba  is kind of lax about the 2017 laws in Guyana which ban smoking in 'any place for the commercial service of food or drink'.  But what the hell are laws anyway, when people use laws to kill children.  

Palestinian woman on the screen talks about not having her cigarette in front of her mother. Woman with cigarette tells me about a relative who died recently in an accident 'she never smoke.. so lef me alone'

Smoke from bombs on the screen next to images and sounds of the young Luna playing violin. 

Israeli bombs killed Luna. And her music.  

At a recent music event, I asked an Israeli man if he was in Guyana looking for children to kill. He said 'that is not funny' and walked away. I texted an apology to the woman who had introduced us. I do not ask every American in Guyana the same question I asked the Israeli. The woman has not responded. 

I could leave the place, with the smoke, if I want.

Driver in a recent minibus playing a DJ who talking about 'f..ing' women and 'b..ches' and 'no chichi man'. I asked the driver to change the music. He tell me 'relax' and left it on. I could have left the bus,  but I 'relaxed'.  

 Relaxing was not going to happen though under the Sijan tree. 

First film , a Palestinian dancer invited us to dance with him. Other films took us into the lives of queer - transgender, lesbian, gay , bisexual Palestinians and their opposition to apartheid. Thinking of the young man with the hands across his chest who think they are all mentally ill. Does he think that the soldiers - LGBT and otherwise - who are bombing them sane?

Yes, Israel is big on gay rights, even if they don't think Palestinians deserve to live. No Pride in Genocide is the reminder, as Candacy McEwan of Guyana Trans United quoted "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".  

Because there are LGBT folks around the world, like the man who came to Guyana to lay ground for US's exploitation of Guyana''s minerals.. the man and his husband are against those who are against Israel. 

Guyana is for Palestine but not against Israel it seems.

 Guyana 2026 

Next door is a Mexican inspired place doing world cup football. Football , next to the genocide and resistance to the genocide. 

Like in the world really. 

I come out to get some fresh air. 

Opposite, some of the Spanish-speaking migrants around a black box with blue and red flashing circles and Spanish language music. 

And I see another yard, covered minibus, packing bags with airline tags on top. No music or football here. Hearing some other language, another time I heard Kweyol. 

A man had told me about how a Cuban woman told him she plans to go to Brazil.  Are there others like her on the bus? 

Come back in. Films are over. 

I was talking some of the time with a historian who reminded me about colonialism which drove Guyana's ethnic conflict in the 1960s and beyond, and which Israel sustains.  

Two Guyanese read brilliant poems they wrote for the event. 

(أمل) Amal 

Sherlina wrote out some poems which we could read. I chose Amal by Yaffa AS. Yaffa AS is a transgender Palestinian poet.  I hear some of the people who are against Israel's war on Palestine and elsewhere would want nothing to do with any of the creatives like Yaffa.  They don't approve of genocide against Palestinians or of homosexuality.

Audience turns there eyes to a cat on a tree behind me. Cats are revered in parts of the Middle East. Cat is hissing at something. I give pause for the people to watch the Cat to do its thing.  

Yaffa, wrote in Amal (a word in Arabic which means hope among other things) about the sun setting in one world and rising in another world, and of a world in which indigenous sovereignty exists and in which transness and queerness does not have to exist (because all are considered 'normal')

Amal as I think of the young man removing his hands from across his chest and body,  moving from defence agaist and unseen enemy and maybe embracing LGBTIQA+ people in his community.

Amal as I imagine Guyana 2026 healing from colonialism and the trauma which has the DJ and minibus driver engaging in their violent fantasies about women while I , and others 'relax'.