CCJ to rule on Guyana cross-dressing law

THE Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will tomorrow at 10 am deliver its decision on Guyana’s cross-dressing law.

Four transgender Guyanese women have asked the CCJ – Guyana’s final appellate court – to strike down an 1893 post-slavery vagrancy provision which led to their convictions in 2009. They have challenged the constitutionality of the law, which they say criminalises wearing attire of a different gender in public for an “improper purpose” in Guyana.

The CCJ reserved its ruling in June.

The four women petitioned the CCJ after Guyana’s Court of Appeal dismissed their case, in which they contended that the country’s colonial vagrancy law discriminated against them and violated equality provisions in the Constitution.

Gulliver (Quincy) McEwan, Angel (Seon) Clarke, Peaches (Joseph) Fraser and Isabella (Seyon) Persaud were charged and fined in 2009 for wearing women’s clothing for an improper purpose under Section 153 (1) (XLVII) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act Chapter 8:02. They say it violates their right to the protection of the law.

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