Barbados: This is why we needed the first ever Barbados Pride

Barbados is facing a startling increase in the level of anti-gay rhetoric, stirred up by religious groups from the US. Barbados has the worst anti-sodomy law in the western hemisphere, life imprisonment. But we have not yet recorded the level of homophobic violence common in other Caribbean countries.

That said religious groups have changed their tactics. They have held blatantly homophobic conferences, street marches, and public meetings vilifying and demonizing LGBTI. Our politicians have also jumped on the anti-LGBTI bandwagon. In response to this rising tide of hate, LGBT Barbadians held our first official Pride last weekend (24 to 26 November).

Is Barbados Pride asking for trouble?

For years, many Barbadians have argued that Pride was too radical for our society to handle.

Some LGBTI advocates were also against the idea for fear of backlash. Religious fundamentalists and anti-gay figures have claimed a Barbadian Pride celebration would mimic the ‘moral decadence of the West’. I had often been told a Barbados Pride would only be asking for trouble. But I refused to heed such misgivings. I knew how important Pride was for our LGBTI community – especially for me as a transgender woman.

I was privileged to deliver a talk at the Pride launch. During it, I recounted how the original catalyst to Pride celebrations globally, the Stonewall riot against police abuse and state indifference, remains an integral part of LGBTI advocacy. Senior civil servants, representatives of diplomatic missions in Barbados and the media attended the launch. And I impressed upon them why such advocacy was needed here.

Sadly no member of the Barbadian government accepted our invitation to attend the launch, testifying to their antipathy towards the LGBT community.

But I shared how the government ignores us and treats us as undeserving of dignity, respect and legislative protection. In Barbados, this is coupled with extremist religious dogma and a increasingly hostile pop culture. That is why I felt we had to push back against this onslaught of neglect and abuse.