Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Click here to download the PDF version of the report Members of the religious fraternity, human rights activists, university students, transvestites and other members of the local community were recently told by parliamentarian Ravi Dev that Guyanese must work to prevent discrimination of every form. “ We have to put our will, hearts and minds to the construction of a society where there’s harmony and a lessening of disharmony…. all discrimination must go,” Dev who is leader of Rise Organise and Rebuild (ROAR) told the gathering at a recent symposium at Hotel Tower. The purpose of the meeting was to raise awareness about fundamental human rights and to give a space for views which would support the inclusion of sexual orientation as a fundamental right in the constitution. The organisers of the forum felt that the development of Guyana relied on all of its citizens enjoying their basic human rights. They felt that enough discussion and consultation was not held wit...

  Edited transcript of presentation made at a forum organised in Georgetown, Guyana on 27 April, 2003 to discuss “Sexual Orientation as a Fundamental Right”   Moderator : Now, I’d like to introduce our next speaker, he’s Mr. Sanjay Bavikatte. He’s from India, Bangalore, from the South of India and let me blow one immediate stereotype … when I met Sanjay today I said `Ah! You must be a Hindu then, right”. No, he’s a Muslim. So it’s very interesting that his background coming from India, that he’s coming from a Muslim background himself and he’s right now lecturing at the Law Faculty at UG and he will speak to us on the theme of Oppression of Sexual Minorities. So we’ll now have Sanjay. Sanjay Bavikatte Bangalore, India Oppression of Sexual Minorities Good afternoon. Before I begin, I must thank Vidya for organising this open forum and giving me an opportunity to speak. It’s an incredible act of courage amidst this amoun...

Transcripts of presentation made at a forum organised in Georgetown, Guyana on 27 April, 2003 to discuss “Sexual Orientation as a Fundamental Right” Moderator : So we now go on to have Dr. Julie Hando. She’s originally from Australia working in Guyana for the last two years as a United Nations volunteer in the Ministry of Health and now working in the psychological clinic at the Georgetown Public Hospital. Julie’s got a lot of experience in this area and working with people and I am sure her contribution on whether Homosexuality is a Mental Illness will be one that will be quite interesting for us and maybe will begin to address Ravi’s concern as well. I will be very interested to hear that. Thank you. Homosexuality a Mental Illness Dr Julie Hando Can I just first say how pleased I am that we have the opportunity for this kind of open forum here in Guyana which already occurs on a regular basis in many countries around the w...

Minority Rights in a Secular Democracy  Transcript of presentation made at a forum organised in Georgetown, Guyana on 27 April, 2003 to discuss “Sexual Orientation as a Fundamental Right”   "Well, I’d like to thank Mr. James for that introduction and to also thank Vidya for inviting me to this forum. While there is a lot of stereotyping in this world. I think ROAR is stereotyped also. So it’s good to be breaking out of whatever those stereotypes might be to be able to comment on some wider issues. I would also like to welcome this opportunity to be part of this project, so to speak. Where we as a people can begin to discuss and have discourses about our society and the nature of our society because ultimately a society has to have the willingness to be a community held together by common values. But values are a bit amorphous sometimes because values do change and that is one of the points I wish to make. But they change based on society grappli...