Marching ahead of the Caribbean
R A I N B O W R E S I S TA N C E
In Suriname, Local LGBTQ People Have Been Organizing a Gay Pride since 2011 to Battle Homophobia in a Multi-ethnic Society By
Ewout Lamé
Picture this: whitewashed wooden colonial buildings and churches, the occasional mosque, a few Hindu shrines, and Dutch road signs, all surrounded by lush tropical growth. This is Suriname, a small republic north of Brazil. You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of it. Although located on the South American mainland, it’s culturally much closer to the Caribbean. Another atypical thing about Suriname: it is one of the few places in the Caribbean to openly celebrate Gay Pride. Suriname has just over half a million inhabitants, most of whom live on the Atlantic coast. Pristine tropical rain forest covers large parts of the country. European plantation owners brought in enslaved people from West Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries, followed by indentured laborers from China, India, and Indonesia, amongst other places. As a result, Suriname today is an incredibly culturally diverse country, where you can savor localized Asian cuisine with kawina and kaseko, music with a distinct African feel, blasting from the speakers. In the hinterland, Maroon and Amerindian communities maintain their tribal traditions. Many Caribbean nations formally outlaw homosexuality; Suriname does not. “Yet within each of Suriname’s many ethnic communities and religions there is a sense of taboo towards same-sex relations, exacerbated by the large measure of social control that comes with any small society,” explains Faisel Tjon-A-Loi, chairman of the LGBT Federation Suriname, a coalition of local LGBT organizations that has presented Suriname Pride since 2011. LGBTQ people in Suriname are facing discrimination and rejection. Pentecostal churches loudly proclaim homosexuality to be a sin. In the Asian communities, gay people are forced into arranged marriages. Suriname’s already high suicide rate is even more of a 118 | Boston Pride 2018
risk to LGBTQ people due to discrimination. Politicians are loath to offend their constituencies by championing gay rights. Suriname maintains close ties with its former colonial overlord, the Netherlands. Yet the LGBTQ emancipation over there is not always helpful; opponents occasionally frame homosexuality as wan witi man sani, in the local Creole: “a white man’s thing.” As recent as 2014, a local dancehall group produced a song calling for gays to be shot in the head, causing a national controversy. And yet, last October three Amerindian young men wearing tribal headgear and high heels proudly walked at the front of a modest, but jubilant, Pride march through the historic center of
LGBTQ Amerindians lead the 2017 parade through Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, in traditional cultural attire and heels. Credit: Pride Month Suriname.
