Security businessman Harold “Topgun” Hopkinson on Tuesday said his gay son migrated two decades ago, warning that the country continues to lose talent because many young people do not feel safe or accepted at home.
Speaking at the European Chamber of Commerce Guyana’s Chamber Day Luncheon, Hopkinson said his son Quincy came out to him in 1998 at the age of 20. Despite receiving support from his father, he left Guyana in 2005 because he believed he would find the world’s acceptance abroad.
“He flourished for he knew his father accepted him, and that, to him, was the first manifestation of true love,” Hopkinson said.
Quincy now serves as a director at the University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, a major state-run trauma centre that handles more than 100,000 emergency-room visits a year. He is married to his partner Olivier and they recently adopted a son.
Quincy’s success reflects what Guyana advocates say Guyana loses when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people migrate in search of safety and dignity. “Discrimination doesn’t just hurt people,” Hopkinson said. “It hurts families, and it hurts our country’s economy.”
The businessman, whose company provides aviation and residential security services to major airlines and ExxonMobil, used the speech to call for the repeal of Guyana’s colonial-era law criminalising consensual same-sex intimacy between men. The provision, from the colonial era, carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. While the law is not actively enforced, rights groups say it is used to harass or intimidate LGBT citizens.
“Our neighbours have eliminated laws criminalising same sex intimacy,” Hopkinson said. “Inclusive societies and companies thrive. Investors prefer markets where workers are respected and feel safe.”
He added that Guyana’s rapid economic expansion made inclusion a practical necessity, arguing that the country could not afford to lose skilled workers to migration. “For us to compete and succeed, we as a nation need every capable person contributing to our growth, including our LGBT citizens,” he said.
Hopkinson’s appeal comes amid growing calls from local and international groups urging Guyana to modernise its laws and align with human-rights rulings that deem criminalisation discriminatory.
He said his experience as a father shaped his stance. “I want a Guyana, a One Guyana, where all can feel free and be welcome and to build a life without fear of being persecuted,” he told the audience. “That’s the Guyana I believe in and the future I know we can achieve by supporting our brothers and sisters.”
