AMCHAM CEO: End LGBTQI discrimination

AMCHAM T&T CEO Nirad Tewarie said the time has come for the Equal Opportunities Act to be amended to end legal discrimination against the LGBTQI community.

Tewarie was responding to adverse comments from RebuildTT which condemned statements made by his father Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie in support of acceptance of the community.

RebuildTT president Gregory Lal Beharry said Tewarie’s (B) advocacy for religious leaders to engage members of the LGBTQI community in healthy, respectful and rational discussions about strengthening the family was an oxymoron.

Lal Beharry also advanced that the LGBTQI’s agenda is contrary to the traditional family and would instead undermine and destroy those traditional values.

Yesterday, the AMCHAM CEO took to social media to show support for both the LGBTQI community and his dad’s position espoused at a forum for religious leader he held in his constituency, last Thursday.

“Are we really debating a human's right to love and be loved in 2019? Are we really debating a citizen's right to fair treatment by the state and in the eyes of the state in 2019?” he asked.

Tewarie (N) said, “The Equal Opportunities Act must be amended to end legal discrimination against the LGBTQI community. I am proud that AMCHAM T&T took this stance publicly in 2014, the year that I joined.”

He said the organised LGBTQI community has put forward a list of proposals to advance the interests of the community.

“Same sex marriage legislation is not among them at this time. C'mon, human rights are everyone's business. I challenge anyone to show me a God who instructs their followers to dehumanise their creatures based on whom they love,” he wrote.

In his case, he submitted, “I would much prefer that kids be taught about a loving LGBTQI family "as normal" than be told a dysfunctional hetero family should be kept together to appease a misunderstood version of God. Yes, I feel strongly about this. I don't like oppression, injustice or advantage.”