Guyana might free South America of its last anti-LGBT law
Guyana, the only country in South America with a law against homosexual activity, has taken a step that could lead to repeal of that law.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds asked parliament to name a special committee to consider repeal of the laws against sodomy and cross-dressing, along with possible abolition of corporal punishment in the schools and the death penalty, Kaieteur News reports.
He also asked parliament to study a proposed prohibition on discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender persons.
He said a special select committee of parliament should seek comments from the public about each of those issues. Public discussions of those issues have been under way in Guyana for several months.
Hinds noted that, after discussions with the United Nations Human Rights Council in May 2010 and September 2010, Guyana had committed to review those issues, which “may be considered controversial in Guyanese society.”
The motion from Hinds is labeled “Guyana’s follow-up to commitments made to the United Nations Human Rights Council with regard to holding consultations on matters (the abolition of corporal punishment in the schools, the abolition of the death penalty and the decriminalization of consensual adult same sex relations and discrimination against lesbians, gays, bi-sexual and transgender persons).”
A recent study of Guyana by the University of the West Indies found examples of discrimination in the workplace and limited access to health care for LGBT people.
Guyana’s overall HIV infection rate is estimated at 1.2 percent, but about 19.4 percent of Guyanan men who have sex with men are infected, according to the United National AIDS Report of 2010.
Current laws prohibit cross-dressing; “acts of gross indecency with male person,” which carries a sentence of up to two years in prison; attempted “unnatural offenses,” up to 10 years in prison; and buggery, up to a life sentence.
The study said some of these laws are not often enforced, but still have serious consequences.
“There are many ways in which judgments are made, and punishments are meted out long before there are trials,” reported the Guyana Times website.
For more information, see the Kaieteur News article “Parliament to start review of homosexual, death penalty laws this week.”
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Reblogged this on Goaty's News.
Laws against homosexual activities in Guyana have led to harassment, discrimination, vigilante justice and high levels of HIV infection in the homosexual community, according to a report from the University of the West Indies Faculty of Law in Barbados.
For reasons of love, respect, and compassion this law against buggery should be ended even for the sake of only one innocent person who won’t get infected.
Without abandoning church doctrines opposed to homosexuality.
Let’s push the message of ‘test and treat’ rather than stigma and discrimination.
Let God judge sin not the police.
Buggering is not necessarily an homosexual act. Many women in Guyana love to be buggered. I have been asked by many to do it to them when I was stationed there. It was a form of not getting pregnant.