Human Rights Groups Urging Guyana to Stop Dress Code Arrests

Guyanese police are targeting LGBT people who have a different gender identity or expression than their birth sex. The police are arresting, abusing, and humiliating these people with such tactics as forcing them to strip down, dress as "gender norm" and to bend over to mock their sexual orientation.

"Guyana should halt arrests and police abuse of transgender people and repeal a repressive law that criminalizes wearing clothes considered appropriate only for the opposite sex, six human rights organizations said today in a letter to President Bharrat Jagdeo.

"Police are using archaic laws to violate basic freedoms," said Scott Long director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "This is a campaign meant to drive people off the streets simply because they dress or act in ways that transgress gender norms." (Human Rights Watch)

Please join these organizations in sending letters and contacting the President of Guyana to put an end to these egregious human rights abuses.

Office of the President Contact Information
His Excellence Bharrat Jagdeo
592-225-3110