CCJ Declares Guyana’s Cross-Dressing Law Unconstitutional
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that 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”, is unconstitutional.
The law, Section 153(1)(xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act – enacted in Guyana in 1893 as part of the vagrancy laws of the post-emancipation era – is to be struck from the laws of Guyana.