Registration is but the first step. LGBTIQ organizing in the Caribbean

By Neish McLean

Caribbean nations have shaken many of the relics of their colonial past, yet criminalization of same-sex sexual activity, under so-called buggery laws, still exists in over half of the countries in the region. In such an environment, you would expect lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) organizations and communities to be scarce, or to operate largely underground. In the Caribbean it is not so.

Despite the many challenges such as bullying, violence, discrimination that LGBTIQ people face on a daily basis, according to OutRight Action International’s report, “The Global State of LGBTIQ Organizing: The Right to Register”, registration of LGBTIQ organizations is not one of them. In fact, 49 per cent of LGBTIQ organisations are legally registered to openly work on LGBTIQ issues – the highest proportion of all regions examined by the study.

Of course same-sex activity and LGBTIQ community organizing are different, and a ban of one should not impede the other. However, in practice, the two are often conflated.  For example, Qatar and Singapore, where same-sex relations are criminalized, are also places where the OutRight survey could not identify any LGBTIQ organizations or found predominantly unregistered organizations.

To be exact, of the 54 countries where OutRight found that LGBTIQ organizations cannot legally register openly as LGBTIQ organizations, 38 are countries where the law criminalizes same-sex sexual activity. Of the 30 countries where OutRight could not identify any LGBTIQ CSOs, 15 are countries where the law criminalizes same-sex sexual activity.

In the Caribbean, where over half the countries criminalize same-sex sexual activity, “The Global State of LGBTIQ Organizing: The Right to Register” report found that 49 per cent of LGBTIQ organizations are officially registered to work on LGBTIQ issues. A further 33 per cent are also legally registered, but on the basis of focusing on other issues, and only 18 per cent do not hold official registration (and not necessarily because they can’t obtain it). For comparison sake, the same report showed that in Eastern Europe, where no country criminalizes same-sex relations, only 46 per cent of LGBTIQ organizations are legally registered to work on LGBTIQ issues, 26 per cent registered with a different primary aim, and 28 per cent are unregistered.

While there are reasons why organizations may want to choose to remain unregistered, the study shows that legal registration is widely possible in the Caribbean. This is no small feat!

Civil society organizations are an indispensable ingredient of healthy democracies. They act as the voice of those less heard, of those excluded or marginalized from society.  They serve to raise awareness among the public and authorities, to hold authorities accountable, and, crucially, to ensure that changes adopted at a legislative or policy level translate into real change for you, and me, and everyone. Without being able to legally register, their ability to fulfill this important function is severely impeded.

Registration gives an organization legitimacy; it grants an official seal of approval for the activities the organization seeks to carry out. This, in turn, is crucial for being able to obtain funding, gain greater access to government processes, be seen as a credible source by the media, to rent an office, open a bank account, and, for signaling intent: we mean business, and we are here to stay. For example in Belize, which is one of the few Caribbean nations to have struck down its colonial era ban on same-sex activity, did so because of a landmark case brought to the Supreme Court by the United Belize Advocacy Movement – an LGBTIQ organization. Without legal registration, the organization would not have had the legitimacy to bring this case.

It is encouraging to see that a region which is no champion of the human rights of LGBTIQ people nevertheless upholds their right to organize. However, registration is only the beginning.

Collaboration with other organizations, locally, and across borders is important – strength in numbers, as they say, working towards common goals, learning from each other’s experiences will infinitely boost the efforts of activists at a grassroots level.

Visibility is also key. Despite the incredible number of local LGBTIQ organizations and their respective achievements, both registered and not, the perception that LGBTIQ people and LGBTIQ organizations are something foreign, something imported from the West, prevails. The more visible the local organizations become, the more photos are available from local events, with local people, the more likely it is that awareness of the fact that LGBTIQ people exist everywhere, and have always existed everywhere, will grow.

Ultimately what OutRight’s data shows is that sustainable LGBTIQ organizations are needed in order to push for and achieve lasting change for LGBTIQ people in their communities. Organizations in the Caribbean are often able to register and operate freely. The rest will follow.

(Neish McLean is Caribbean Program Officer at OutRight Action International)