Guyana urged to repeal laws against same-sex couples to increase tourism earnings

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana has been told that the tourism industry could bring one billion US dollars in revenue annually, if it repeals some of the “colonial” era laws that could be used to discriminate against same-sex couples.

President of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana, Dee George, said that Guyana should position itself to cash in on the global Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) tourism market which contributes US$200 billion annually to the travel industry.

“Assuming Guyana can capture just one per cent of the global LGBTQ+ travel market, this would translate to an estimated annual revenue increase of two billion dollars,” George told a Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) event, ahead of the September 27 observance of World Tourism Day.

“If the country were to capture a modest five per cent percent of the US LGBTQ+ market alone, this would result in an additional US$325 million in annual revenue for the tourism sector,” George said.

She said  her organisation received feedback that the Law Reform Commission (LRC) should be asked to scrap Sections 351 to 353 of the Criminal Law Offences Act which outlaws buggery, assaulting anyone to commit buggery and penalises offenders with a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment.

George said because Guyana's laws criminalise same-sex intimacy, “it has cost us potential revenue and it has also cost us quite an image that we are not open for business to that segment”.

SASOD's general manager, Joel Simpson, said while that and other similar laws had not been enforced for more than 50 years, their mere existence on Guyana's law books dampen the freedom to engage in same-sex intimacy behind closed doors because legally they still commit an offence without being caught.

“When you go to bed every night in a hotel room and you get intimate with your partner because you are in a same-sex practising relationship, you are basically an un-apprehended criminal,” he said.

SASOD  said it plans to ask the LRC to recommend the repeal of “everything that is colonial in nature” such as vagrancy and loitering that impinge on the vulnerable.

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