Dear Editor,
The news reports in Stabroek News and the Guyana Chronicle of President Jagdeo’s comments at the launch of the Men’s Affairs Bureau record the President’s commentary around the issue of what appears to be the sexual orientation of the men whom the bureau will be dealing with.
The President suitably highlighted the need for the bureau – his government’s attempt to address the issues faced by men, whose diversity the President hinted at (race and religion). Some of the concerns have been raised, as in places like Trinidad and Jamaica where similar offices have been set up, to address what is emerging as issues affecting development such as low achievement in education, the propensity to violence, underemployment, crime, alcohol abuse and drug abuse.
The Guyana Chronicle quotes the President as saying, “If people don’t have a community of men to turn to for guidance, for male values – and masculine values do not mean aggression, but things that are unique to males – we would succumb more and more to this process of feminisation of men.”
What are these feminine values which the President is scared would turn up in men?
The word ‘orientation’ apparently appeared at some point in the President’s speech, and then this quote from the Chronicle: “We don’t want every young male child to start thinking that that is ok; I am not going to say the word. If we don’t want them to think that, then we need to start providing a community of men where they can get together and discuss male problems in a strong masculine environment,” he said.
So, the President was scared to say some word; was the word ‘homosexual’ or ‘gay’? Why is the President scared to say that word? Why does he think that if every young male child thinks that being gay is okay, that they themselves will become gay? Surely the President and the men who advise him should be confident in their own sexuality to know that people are not ‘made’ gay by accepting people; the reality is that people have diverse sexual orientations.
Does the President think that being strongly masculine means being heterosexual? What is his own ideology of being a man – does he think he is a suitable role model for the young men who do not have role models (he lamented the absence of role models and the negative influences)?
Does he think that men could change their sexual orientation? Is the Men’s Affairs Bureau intending to provide a strong masculine environment which would be about changing the sexual orientation of the gay and bisexual men the MAB might come into contact with?
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
