ON SATURDAY, May 16, I stumbled across an online article, published by the internationally well known lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) website gaystarnews.com.
It caught my attention because its headline featured local LGBT advocate from the group Barbados Gays Lesbians [And All-Sexuals] Against Discrimination (BGLAD), Ms Donnya Piggott, saying that she went from “homeless to hero”.
For the majority of the article, Piggott, who is 25 years old, spoke about how resentful she is of her mother, because she is not fully accepting of her homosexuality.
She explains how her path of public advocacy brings embarrassment and public scorn upon her mother. Piggott highlighted how wrong her mother’s actions are, while adding that she still lives in her mother’s house, fearful of being kicked out as she has been in the past.
Piggott also recounted an incident involving police officers when she was homeless after being kicked out of her house by her mother. In this incident, she perceived the police’s actions to be threatening and homophobic specifically because she and her girlfriend were lesbians sleeping in their car.
Piggott is one who has chosen to live a publicly gay life – choosing to be an advocate and making sure that her voice and opinions of the rights of LGBT people be heard in very public places.
If she is so dedicated to working towards changing the hearts and minds of the public, why are her messages negative and reflect poorly on Barbados as a whole?
Sensitivity trainingWhy didn’t Piggott take this opportunity to highlight that local police officers and members of the Defence Force recently received LGBT sensitivity training from LGBT activist Maurice Tomlinson?
Why didn’t she speak positively about her mother, who’s providing her with shelter and family, regardless of her personal struggles with a level of embarrassment that is widely attached with LGBT people?
As a 25-year-old woman who has chosen this path, she speaks with a tone of entitlement while actively pursuing something that is against the morals of her family – and expects her mother to be completely accepting.
Push own agenda
She is an activist working to mould minds, but she didn’t say how she too is working to compromise and meet others halfway, like they are with her. Similarly, Bajan gays push their agenda on others without compromising and meeting others halfway.
Why shame her family and country on an international platform and sensationalise the state of LGBT affairs in Barbados?
As an activist, Piggott was given an international stage to speak about Barbados and chose to speak purely about negatives rather than how we are progressing. We are not a perfect society but no society is.
We are a country run by tourism; what these words and stories portray to international LGBT audiences? When they hear pure negative stories about how LGBT people are treated in Barbados, they will not visit when they are fed only the negative and not any word on how we are working towards fixing these problems.
When I finished reading the article, all I gathered was that Ms Piggott faces problems that many Bajans face for different reasons but as an “activist”, she didn’t mention how she’s working for the betterment of the community she “serves”.
It makes you wonder if the LGBT movement really cares about the whole of Barbados’ society as they claim, or if they only care about their own advancement.
– Marianne Durant-Howard
