Bishop of Guyana urges respect for civic rights of gay and lesbian protestors

The Bishop of Guyana has supported the right of gay and lesbian activists to parade in support of their civil rights, but has fallen short of endorsing their cause. On 2 June 2018 Georgetown — the South American nation’s capital — witnessed its first LGBT rights march. The Georgetown Minister’s Fellowship had urged the government to block the march saying it promoted immorality. Writing on Facebook the Rt. Rev. Charles Davidson stated:

Just saw a post from one of my clergy about “Georgetown ministers call for banning of LBGT March.”

I disagree with the call to ban and must point out that the LGBT community has the right like all of us to march on the streets of Georgetown with police permission.

WE ARE ALL GOD’S CHILDREN and our rights must be protected.

I am the Bishop of Guyana and I approve this message.

Sources within the diocese, a member of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, told AI the bishop’s words were an endorsement of free speech, not for the protestor’s cause.

The CPWI as well as the wider West Indian community across the region holds to a traditional view of human sexuality, with the province strongly opposed to the innovations of of doctrine and discipline in human sexuality and marriage propounded by the liberal churches of North America and Brazil.

The march was not likely to have changed the minds of Georgetown residents, with one newspaper reporting that when the rally reached the Seventh-day Adventist Church at Church and Oronoque Streets, Queenstown, two men dressed as women mimed sexual acts, gyrating their bodies and hands. Members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, who worship on Saturday and were leaving their church at the time, watched the parade from the doorway and were “expressionless”.

The parade was organized by the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination,  Guyana Trans United and the Guyana Rainbow Foundation and was called to protest the nation’s sodomy laws.