ABSTRACT
Queer issues vary based on context and cross-cultural analysis of issues such as systemic violence, educational inequalities, and workplace discrimination reveal that queer issues must always be defined in relationship to space and culture. In addition, while many in the US were celebrating marriage rights, activists in many countries around the world are still fighting against laws that criminalize LGBTQ people. Specifically, in this chapter, Fordyce uses a case study of Guyana to highlight how heteronormative stereotypes such as what the Guyanese call the Anti-Man Aesthetic continue to systematically oppress LGBTQ individuals. The Anti-Man Aesthetic, entrenched in colonial era laws, categorizes LGBTQ Guyanese as second-class citizens and methodically diminishes their basic human and civil rights. This chapter explores the ways that hegemonic masculinity operates within the Anti-Man Aesthetic and shapes Guyanese masculinity. Additionally, Fordyce conducts an examination of the role the Anti-Man Aesthetic plays in the criminalization of same-sex sexual activities, access to social programs, the lack of legislation that punishes hate crimes, along with sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in the workplace. Buttressed by a lack of legislation and homophobic and transphobic laws, the Anti-Man Aesthetic guarantees queer Guyana’s experience as a “borderland.” Synonymous with the experiences of geographical border territories such as the US-Mexico Border, queer Guyana as a borderland has enacted a counterstance. Marked by fierce defiance and advocacy through NGOs such as the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) and Guyana Trans Union (GTU), the dominant culture’s views and beliefs are being refuted. Though the magnitude of the advances are currently disproportionate to the injustices, the counterstance is unrelenting in its demands for unjust laws to be repealed and amended, along with insisting on governmental adherence to international human rights accords.
