Queer Sex at the altar - Caribbean IRN Update May, June, July, August, Sept, Oct 2026

Extract of 'Yesterdays' by Harold Sunny Ladoo (1974)

Queer sex at the altar

Jamaica born Marlon James' 2026 novel The Disappearers tells a story of about a group of gay men who survive the murder of one of their friends 1980s Jamaica.

More than fifty years ago, Trinidad and Tobago-born Harold Sonny Ladoo wrote about Sook - 'a village queer'and the 'affairs' he was having in a 1955 Trinidad in Yesterdays. Sook took two of his first time lovers to a 'Christian Church' for the first time encounters.

Two different kinds of literary imaginations of Caribbean queer life, based perhaps on multiple realities.

Critical Fabulation

The Eswick J.S. Padmore Friends For Life Digital Collection is "a curation of Trinidad and Tobago’s oldest LGBTQI+ community organization and is named after founding member Eswick J.S. Padmore (1966-2024) to celebrate the organization’s rich legacy of communal care and social justice activism. The archive contains 40 videos and a mix of 500 photos, posters, newspaper advertorials, and other media collected by the group from 2003 to present. The public collection represents a small part of Trinidad and Tobago’s queer history and provides a glimpse into all the important work being done by social justice groups in the country. "

The powerful and moving Vesta Cay " is an iridescent islet, an interdisciplinary inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of numerous LGBTQ+ Jamaicans over the years." The community digital archive connects to the alternative stories as part of grieving and healing from the loss.

The Palava Project successfully concluded its second summer course, and continues to fund raise for its 2027 film festival.

Law

In Guyana, the Guyana Together project had its third anniversary.

The May 2026 Stronger Together II issued its communique "Collective Power Harnessed: A Solidarity-Driven Recommitment to Human Rights for All."

Pride and Other Expressions

Curaçao Pride was held with the theme Making Waves .

Suriname Pride also has several activities

Cuba had its IDAHOT activities. Pride was also held in Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana . In Jamaica, the German Embassy flew the Pride flag.

CAISO will be holding its Annual LGBTQIA Art Exhibition in December 2026

Check out our Caribbean Sexualities page for more resources

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British Guiana 1898 : Punishment for Sodomy meted out to Nabi Baksh and Mohangoo on the Mersey

Between 1838 and 1917, the British brought indentured labour from India to the then British Guiana. An 1898 report from the Governor of British Guiana to the Colonial Office in England reports on the punishment meted out by the Surgeon Superintendent of the Mersey against two men Nabi Baksh and Mohangoo for committing sodomy. "Nobibux was put in irons and Mohangu, after blistering his penis, was made to holystone from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. " The Surgeon Superintendent said that he had "known of cases where the penis had been blistered, as a prevention treatment, in cases of Masturbation with boys" When the ship docked in British Guiana, there was an investigation which included testimony from others on the ship. This report was donated by author Gaiutra Bahadur. Ms Bahadur got the report from the Colonial Office Correspondence books at the UK National Archives at Kew, United Kingdom while doing research for her soon to be...

WRITE IT IN FIRE: TRIBUTES TO MICHELLE CLIFF :Call for Submissions

Michelle Cliff (1946-2016) was a remarkable writer who claimed many identities she was taught to despise: Lesbian, Black, Woman, Jamaican. She wrote powerful novels, essays, stories, and poems that make us rethink what it means to love, to hope, and to have community. She also carved space for same-sex loving and diverse sexualities in the Caribbean by representing our desires fiercely and by being deeply rooted in place. She continues to inspire us to write our stories, our sense of self, in fire. “ A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives – our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings ― all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. ― Michelle Cliff, “Claiming An Identity They Taught Me To Despise” “ Who can say how many lives have been saved by books?” ― Michelle Cliff, Everything Is Now: New and Collected Stories “ It was Zoe, and Zoe alone, I thought of. She snapped into my mind, and I remem...

Queer Archives TT - Caribbean IRN Update July to December 2024

Queer Archives TT The Queer Archives of Trinidad and Tobago is a project to develop a repository of Trinidad and Tobago's queer history. The archives feature two collections - The Cyrus Sylvester Digital Collection ; and the Timeline of LGBTQI+ Westory . The lead organisation is CAISO: Sex & Gender Justice and there is an interdisciplinary project team The archives were launched in October 2024 and will continue to grow. Caribbean LGBTQI+ Citizenship and rights Dr Nastassia Rambarran's PhD Thesis "A comparative analysis of Barbados and Guyana with respect to colonial legacies, transnational processes and decolonizing activities involved in queer activism " is available In Haiti, Erasing 76 Crimes reports that evangelical Christians block protections of the rights of LGBTQ+ Haitians La Joven Cuba has a story " Travestismo-transformismo en Cuba: una historia intermitente " about the history of travestismo and transformismo in Cuba....

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