Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 27, 2010 News
High Court Judge, Dawn Gregory-Barnes, yesterday granted the Attorney General Chambers until May 31, 2010 to file an affidavit in answer to the cross-dressing challenge filed by the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD).
SASOD’s challenge came after Police detained and briefly held six people in jail on charges of cross-dressing in February, 2009.
SASOD filed the motion before the Supreme Court of Judicature for redress claiming, among other relief, to have section 153(1)(xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:02, invalidated as irrational, discriminatory, undemocratic, contrary to the rule of law and unconstitutional.
The law makes an offence of “being a man, in any public way or public place, for any improper purpose, appears in female attire, or being a woman, in any public way or public place, for any improper purpose, appears in male attire.”
Both homosexuality and cross-dressing are illegal in Guyana. The six were born male but were identified as women and say police ridiculed them when they were taken before a judge and fined.
“It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. I felt like I was less than human,” Seon Clarke, who was among those detained last year, said in a statement from SASOD.
Clarke is also one of those who filed the motion for the Supreme Court to overturn the dress laws.
The Police crackdown brought criticism from local and international rights groups.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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