SASOD Guyana

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SASOD Guyana is the local and global award-winning, human rights movement and organization, leading change, educating and serving communities, to end discrimination based on sexuality and gender in Guyana and the Caribbean for nearly two decades. SASOD Guyana was formed and launched on June 7, 2003, by mostly students - from the University of Guyana calling themselves Students Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination at the time – advocating for the inclusion of sexual orientation as grounds for discrimination in the Guyana constitution. SASOD Guyana seeks to have discriminatory laws repealed which criminalize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and other (LGBTIQ+) people, while advocating for state and non-state actors to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of these groups. SASOD Guyana continues to be both proactive and responsive in supporting vulnerable groups by providing and connecting these groups to critical socio-economic services.

SASOD Guyana implements three key programmes. These programmes are described as the “3 ‘H’ agenda”: Human Rights, Homophobia(s) Education and Human Services programmes.
• Human Rights Programme: Freedom from discrimination and hate-filled violence is a right for all people. SASOD Guyana is committed to promoting human rights of all people, especially those facing discrimination. In Guyana, policies, laws, state programmes and services often are often discriminatory or exclude vulnerable populations. This discrimination hinders the enjoyment of basic human rights. This programme aims to address the need to protect vulnerable groups from discrimination, achieve equality, equity and full citizenship. As the major components of this programme, SASOD Guyana engages in multi-pronged advocacy to challenge violence, discrimination and injustice, advocates to change policies and laws which exclude and discriminate against marginalized populations, utilizes the United Nations and Inter-American human rights systems to pressure and hold the State accountable for its obligations to these groups who are more susceptible to rights violations.
• Homophobia(s) Education Programme: SASOD Guyana is committed to ending all forms of homophobia(s), including transphobia, biphobia and lesbophobia. To achieve this goal, our Homophobia(s) Education Programme focuses on engaging key sectors of society where anti-LGBTQ+ prejudices are prevalent. Through a discrimination reporting and documentation system, media campaigning, sensitization, training and direct engagement with key stakeholders, SASOD Guyana seeks to cultivate positive changes in attitudes, which drive prejudice against LGBTIQ+ people.
• Human Services Programme: Because vulnerable populations suffer pervasive discrimination in Guyana, their access to basic socio-economic services, such as health, education, work and housing, is severely inhibited. SASOD Guyana is committed to enabling access to basic, human services for stigmatized groups. SASOD Guyana provides services, referrals, researches and develops solutions and services to address health, literacy and remedial education, entrepreneurship and employment, and emergency shelter and housing for those who need these services most.

Joel Simpson is the Founder and Managing Director of SASOD Guyana.

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