GEORGETOWN, Guyana – A Nigerian man who had been living in Guyana for nearly two years was forced out of his residence earlier this month after a secret video recording allegedly showed him in an intimate encounter with another man.
The incident, which occurred in April 2023, has triggered alarm among rights advocates and renewed scrutiny of Guyana’s criminal laws on same-sex relations.
The man, who arrived in Guyana in April 2021 seeking refuge after surviving a violent anti-gay mob attack in his home country, was staying with a host family in Kitty Town, according to people familiar with the situation.
Multiple sources confirmed to The Trent that the video was recorded without his knowledge by a hidden camera allegedly installed by the wife of his male partner.
The footage reportedly showed the two men “in romantic display,” according to an individual close to the host family.
The woman, upon viewing the footage, confronted her husband and then stormed into the home where the Nigerian man was staying, visibly upset.
According to witnesses, she shared the contents of the video with the host family and surrounding neighbours.
“I was embarrassed in the presence of my host and other neighbours,” the man later recounted in an interview. “My host simply asked me to move out of the house.”
Efforts to reach the host family for comment were unsuccessful as of press time.
The man’s current whereabouts are unknown, but sources indicate he has gone into hiding out of fear for his safety.
Guyana retains colonial-era laws that criminalise same-sex intimacy, punishable by lengthy prison sentences.
Though rarely enforced in recent years, these laws have contributed to a culture of silence, shame, and vulnerability for LGBTQ+ individuals, especially migrants and asylum seekers.
Advocacy groups say the case underscores how queer refugees, even outside their countries of origin, remain exposed to hostility and social rejection.
“This incident is yet another disturbing example of how queer refugees remain deeply vulnerable, even in countries where they seek safety,” Joel Simpson, managing director of Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) Guyana, said in reaction to this incident.
“It is unacceptable that someone fleeing violence and persecution is again subjected to public humiliation, social exile, and potential harm — simply for existing.
“The use of secretly recorded intimate footage to shame and endanger a person is not only a gross violation of privacy, but a form of digital and psychological violence,” he added as he called for urgent legislative reform to decriminalise same-sex intimacy in Guyana and for “robust protections for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and migrants”.
“This is a reminder that escaping legal punishment doesn’t always mean escaping persecution,” said Sandra Williams, a human rights attorney based in Georgetown.
The Nigerian man had reportedly made attempts to live a heterosexual life in Guyana, entering into a relationship with a local woman and trying, in his words, “to become straight.”
However, he told The Trent that “the gay nature in me could not go,” adding that he eventually identified as bisexual.
His girlfriend, aware of his past, monitored him closely, but the man says he continued a secret relationship with his male partner for nearly two years before being exposed.
This is the second known incident of anti-LGBTQ+ violence and social expulsion the man has faced.
In 2021, he was arrested and charged in Nigeria after a mob attacked him and his partner. He fled to Guyana shortly after being released on bail.
Now, with no clear protection in either country, he has expressed the intention to seek asylum in the United States.
“Staying in Guyana will not give me the protection I need,” he said.
Messages sent to the head of the Kitty Police Division, Superintendent Guy Nurse, were not replied to as of the time of filing this report.
