The Court of Appeal today upheld the decision of former Chief Justice, Ian Chang that that cross dressing is allowed once not done for “improper purposes.”

The decision was handed down by Justice Carl Singh, acting Chief Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, and Justice Brassington Reynolds. This means that any matter brought before the court, the Magistrate will have to decide what improper means and if it is applicable in that case.

The appeal was filed by members of the Guyana Trans United, following Chang’s ruling in 2016; they now plan to move to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) with the support of Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD).

Lead Counsel for the appellant, Arif Bulkan, after the ruling, said he was disappointed in the judgment.

Meanwhile, in citing a hypothetical case, Justice Singh said if a man dresses like a woman, appears to be in a depressed state and stops a taxi, hijacks the car and robs the driver, then that is an improper purpose of cross dressing.

As such, he noted that the Court of Appeal cannot change the law on that basis. However, SASOD and Trans United contended that “improper purpose” allows for discrimination.