Parliament removes legislation outlawing cross-dressing

GEORGETOWN, Guyana:

Nearly three years after the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled as unconstitutional, a law in Guyana, which makes it a criminal offence for a man or a woman to appear in a public place while dressed in clothing of the opposite sex for an “improper purpose”, Parliament on Tuesday has agreed to its removal from the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act.

On November 13, 2018, the CCJ, Guyana’s highest court in ruling the law unconstitutional, noted “difference is as natural a thing as breathing. Infinite varieties exist of everything under the sun (and) that civilised society has a duty to accommodate suitable differences among human beings.”Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, in piloting the amendment to the Act, told legislators that “it is the duty of this House, having been directed by the declaratory orders made by the peak of our judicial hierarchical structure, it is the duty of this House now to remove that repulsive provision from the laws”.

He was critical of those, particularly within the Christian community who continue to maintain that cross-dressing offends moral values.

“I’m told that some people have some strong Christian views. Well, in a liberal secular society , in a democratic nation you’re entitled to those views but the Constitution says, civil liberties say that those people are also entitled to dress in that way,” he said.