=Continued=
The conflict in the Queens Guyanese community came to a head in December 2016 when Ms. Singh hosted a roundtable discussion about Mr. Bisram on her South Asian-focused cable channel, ITV Gold, “Let’s Talk With Lakshmee.”
She asked three panelists pointed questions on the Bisram case, including the role of his wealth in those who support him.
“We have a strange community,” a Guyanese-American educator, Chuck Mohan, said on the program. “That somehow, if you supposedly have money, you are put on a pedestal.”
Ms. Singh also asked the panelists how the official police report of Mr. Bisram’s unwanted sexual advances would affect the LGBT community in Queens. Mohamed Q. Amin, the founder of a prominent gay rights group, Caribbean Equality Project, said it was “irresponsible” and potentially dangerous for Ms. Singh to speculate on Mr. Bisram’s sexual orientation when the accused had never made a public statement about it.
The ramifications of such rumors could be serious in Guyana, Mr. Amin said, since the country still has laws against sodomy that could be punishable by life in prison, even if they are rarely enforced.
Mr. Amin declined to comment on whether Mr. Bisram donated to his organization. He did, however, feud publicly with Ms. Singh; he said that the Caribbean Equality Project was left off an email list to have a booth in last weekend’s Diwali parade. Several LGBT artists did participate.
Ms. Singh said she used to be good friends with Mr. Bisram, having first met him after his float won the 2015 Dawali parade. He offered to donate $10,000 for the 2016 parade, but she said she refused when Mr. Bisram’s associates insisted that he be on the promotional posters, larger than Ms. Singh’s namesake, the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
Lakshmee Singh, a Queens television personality, who had organized the local Diwali parade in Richmond Hill. Credit Elias Williams for The New York Times
=To be Continued=