Guyana has no plans to remove laws that criminalize LGBTQ people, Pink News reported, mentioning that government officials have not arranged a referendum on the matter, as originally promised.
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Homophobia, transphobia and anti-LGBTQ laws are still widespread in South America. But Guyana remains the only country on the continent that continues to criminalize people based on sexual identity.
The country’s laws consider homosexuality to be illegal while failing to recognize same-sex marriages. They also deny LGBTQ people protection from discrimination.
Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination, SASOD, and other LGBTQ rights groups have repeatedly called on the Guyanese government to hold a referendum in which citizens can vote on decriminalizing homosexuality.
The government had previously agreed to the referendum, saying that the legislative arm of government “recommended that the matter be taken to a vote.” Guyanese officials, however, have failed to follow up on referendum plans, Pink News added.
“In this era of global progress, we can’t afford to remain caught in the traps of traditional mindsets, shunning and deeming LGBT persons as outcasts in our society,” Guyanese Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence said, the Guyana Chronicle reported.
“We have to wake up to the realization that these are human beings whose human, political and social rights are being violated.”
Guyana had also given a pledge to the United Nations Human Rights Council, UNHCR, to take measures such as public consultations and talks with religious leaders to help affect change in policy. None of these plans, however, have been implemented.
Last month, Guyanese National Assembly member Gail Teixeira told the Associated Press that the government has “no line or position on the gay rights issue." Critics, however, have slammed laws against LGBTQ rights as "archaic."