Guyana’s transgender community calls for protection under anti-discrimination laws.

 | 
02/28/2022

Marcia John (not her real name), a Guyanese transgender woman, readied to leave a transgender support group meeting. She slipped off her black wig, replacing it with a bandana and hat. Her employer only allows her to perform her duties if she presents as a man. “I have no choice,” she said. “I have to work.” In 2018, the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that an 1893 Guyana law that prohibited cross-dressing was unconstitutional. Last August, lawmakers formally removed that section from the law books. But for Ms John and other transgender women, this has not been enough to transform the way they navigate social spaces. Intolerant attitudes remain, with sometimes dire implications for transgender people’s welfare and livelihoods. Led by the University of the West Indies Rights Advocacy Project, the cross-dressing law challenge started with a constitutional action filed in the Guyana High Court in 2010. Eight years and two appeals later, the litigants earned a historic win.

Regions: ,

Share this:

Latest Global News

Added on: 09/28/2023
09/27/2023
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has hit back at UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s highly controversial comments on the international asylum system. Braverman faced heavy …
Added on: 09/28/2023
09/27/2023
Defenders of the human rights of French-speaking African sexual and gender minorities will meet in Ivory Coast in November to coordinate and strengthen efforts …
Added on: 09/28/2023
09/27/2023
Uganda is home to the largest refugee population in Africa – and the third largest in the world – and has been widely praised …

Explore LGBTQ+ Issues

Other News from ,

Added on: 09/21/2023
“I was diagnosed with HIV six years ago and it was a very tough time for me emotionally. It was very challenging, and I …
Added on: 09/10/2023
Sixty groups forming an Ibero-American Catholic LGBTQ+ network have written to Pope Francis asking for LGBTQ+ people to be directly involved in the Synod …
Added on: 09/07/2023
The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) on Wednesday launched a “Guyana Together” campaign to increase public tolerance of gays as well as convince …