he Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) collaborated with SASOD in Guyana to undertake much anticipated ‘Desires for Care and Access to Services among Transgender Persons in Guyana’ study. The study, launched yesterday as part of International Transgender Day of Visibility activities, is a first of its kind in Guyana and the Anglophone Caribbean was aimed at developing a better understanding of the challenges transgender persons face when it comes to accessing health services tailored to their needs.
SASOD Guyana and Guyana Trans United led the study, with funding from the Global Fund’s Community, Rights and Gender Special Initiative with the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition as technical assistance provider.
SASOD’s Managing Director Joel Simpson, in pointing out the significance of the study being released to recognize International Transgender Day of Visibility, noted that “Trans Day of Visibility is about celebrating transgender people and raising awareness about the various forms of discrimination that they face, and also acknowledging their contributions to society in general. I think this research project does all three of those things. We recognize in our work that there was no real research on transgender issues in Guyana and the English-speaking Caribbean and we didn’t have an evidence base for comprehensive interventions related to care and access to services for trans people in Guyana,”
The study, which was conducted between January and March 2020, involved semi-structured interviews with twenty-two (22) trans and gender non-confirming persons from four regions in Guyana, and explored issues such as HIV and access to care, gender identity, expression and sexuality, along with desire for gender-affirming care. The findings will be used to provide evidence-based guidance for HIV programme-planning and decision-making during the process of transition and sustainability planning in Guyana.
A major conclusion from the study is the fact that transgender people remain one of the most marginalized groups in society with very limited access to economic and social resources, despite having increased visibility in the media and public spaces.
Speaking to CVCs support for the study, Executive Director Ivan Cruickshank noted that data from studies such as this is critical for the region’s HIV response. “The results of the study reaffirm the fact that we need to focus on the critical need for localized research and data to understand the needs and challenges of the transgender community at country level. I’m happy that Guyana started this process and we now have robust data to inform policy, programmes, advocacy and interventions,” he said. He also expressed that it was a pleasure for CVC to be a part of the study.
In welcoming the recommendations from the study, the CVC Executive Director noted CVC will be pushing for the recommendations to be adopted by national stakeholders to help transgender people in Guyana affirm their identities. “We are very interested in having further conversations around helping the community to have a better sense of the concept of gender identity and be able to help them to own that identity; because that’s something we are seeing a need for across the region. It is also important for us to be able to provide a supporting environment for professionals to deliver gender-affirming, comprehensive responses, not only in the area of HIV, but also in terms of other medical and social services to the Transgender community. I think this study has offered some very useful recommendations which can be translated to interventions in other countries,” Cruickshank said.
Meanwhile SASOD’s Managing Director Joel Simpson pointed out that a detailed action plan was devised to implement some of the recommendations. “This is really action research. This work certainly does not end with gathering this evidence and letting it sit in a report. Based on the report we developed an action plan and identified interventions into short, medium- and long-term actions. We listed the stakeholders who needed to be engaged to address these issues and have already started to engage some of them, including the National AIDS Programme Secretariat around the issue of access to HIV services especially. That’s an important outcome of the project that will go on for some time as we work to implement these recommendations,” Simpson said.
