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Alissa Trotz: The Constitutional Challenge to the Cross-dressing Law in Guyana

Dear Editor, I refer to the column In The Diaspora in the Stabroek News captioned The Constitutional Challenge to the Cross-dressing Law (SN 9/23/13), and would appreciate the opportunity to make an initial rebuttal. A more detailed one will follow soon. We last met with Alissa Trotz in the online article "Alissa Trotz's misuse ... and the self-abuse ... of Desmond Tutu on gay rights!" ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/28722518/Alissa-Trotz-s-misuse-and-the-selfabuse-of-Desmond-Tutu-on-gay-rights ). The arguments still hold. Yet again, we had proposed as friend-of-the-court briefs the online article "The Case Against Crossdressing or Transgenderism in Guyana" ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/27698238/The-Case-Against-Cross-Dressingor-Transgender-ism-in-Guyana-UPDATED ). Again, the arguments still hold, and probably explains why sasod and its obvious attempt at opportunism was ... literally ... thrown out of the motion by the Chief Justice. We are still studying the Chief Justice's ruling, and will offer a detailed response later, but are awed by some astonishing developments early on after a quick scan: 1. The 34-page document uses up fully 25 pages in describing the circumstances of arrest and detention, and not rationalizing the decision itself. 2. We have the awesome spectacle of defendants arguing before the courts ... fully one year after their detention ... that "they were not aware of why they were arrested", when the voluminous descriptives by the police in the first 25 pages of the decision show that they were indeed charged and booked according to standard operating procedures. The Chief Justice apparently "chose to believe the plaintiffs" and offered them compensation, despite noting "... Nor does the evidence show any such person similarly circumstanced was given any treatment more favourable than than received by the applicants by the Police or the Magistrate..." This poses interesting options later, particularly if the station records prove the case that the Police did act according to procedure. 3. For any resident of Georgetown, there is little or no illusion about the "improper" nature of the assembly of those detained, given the locations, but the Chief Justice spent absolutely no time considering that perspective. 4. Without being asked to make new law, the Chief Justice inserted the ominous phrase "sexual orientation" into the ruling without considering that the term when casually used is trite, ill-advised and contentious. We had pointed out to the Attorney-General and Parliamentarians that current authority insists that determining "sex" be based on objective criteria (see Mathew Staver's "Transsexualism and the Binary Divide: Determining Sex Using Objective Criteria"; http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8309&context=expresso ), while yet another authority had asked the question: "Where in the world did they get the idea that 'gender' is one of the things that can be changed?" 5. The Chief Justice did find, rightly so, that the main task of interpreting the laws of the land and the constitution meant that "...Having regard to what has been above-stated, the court holds that the offence created by section 153 (1) (XLV11) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, Chapter 8:02, does not involve any infringement of Article 149 (2) or Article 146 (1) of the Constitution....".

The offence still stands, consistent with fact, truth, detail, evidence and good social policy as initially outlined in "The Case Against Crossdressing or Transgenderism in Guyana" (http://www.scribd.com/doc/27698238/The-Case-Against-Cross-Dressing-or-Transgender-ism-in-GuyanaUPDATED ) Good law is based on good data, per Kirby, and sound public policy must now focus on medical/psychiatric/spiritual treatment, healing and recovery ... rather than tolerating or legislating unacceptable and negative behaviour into acceptance. We resume reading the entire decision, seeking legal certainty and assistance on the language used ... and noting that the next challenge by the LGBT community, following this defeat, will likely be an effort to legalize prostitution .... Yours faithfully Roger Williams 9/23/13

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