SASOD to advance discussions on addressing homophobic violence in schools ––

organisation’s head says

By Cassandra Khan

GIVEN the low score for education in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) Inclusion Index in Guyana Report, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) plans to engage Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, on a range of issues.

This is according to SASOD’s founder, Joel Sampson, who on Monday emphasised the importance of addressing hate crimes and the bullying of LGBTI persons in schools.

At the time, he was speaking at the launch of the report which showed an overall score in 2022 of 0.241.

The coalition comprises SASOD, Guyana Trans United and SASOD Women’s Arm (SWAG).

The LGBTI Inclusion Index measures the levels of inclusion of LGBTI people in five strategic areas: health, education, political and civil participation, economic empowerment, and security and violence. It was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the World Bank and other international development partners.

In January 2022, SASOD Guyana participated in a global training programme hosted by the UNDP on how to pilot the index. The body then subsequently decided to pilot the index in Guyana, using independent national consultant, Kesaundra Alves.

While there are 51 indicators in total in the index for the pilot phase, less than half of those were used in this inclusion index.

Founder of SASOD, Joel Simpson said that they plan to re-engage the Minister of Education, because according to the inclusion report, in the area of education, there is an overall score of zero.

It was explained that on the scale, which runs from zero to one, one represents the greatest inclusion for LGBTI persons, and zero represents no inclusion for LGBTI persons or the existence of laws that harm LGBTI persons.

“We want to re-engage her (Minister Manickchand) on some of those issues, which never got any real attraction… so, I think 2023 is the year we want to see action, particularly on policies to address these issues of inclusion, so that we have a basis for dealing with the homophobic violence and bullying in schools,” he said.

Simpson noted that they will focus on violence and safety, which scored zero just like education when it came to policy advocacy.

“There is nothing there when it comes to inclusion (in the Violence and Safety and Education areas). So, dealing with hate crimes is particularly important and dealing with this growing epidemic of anti-LGBTI bullying in schools… very, very important,” he said.

Simpson added: “We need to deal with those issues