Dear Editor,
Guyana Trans United (GTU) and other concerned individuals and groups wish to voice our collective displeasure and distress over the recent decision by Magistrate Renita Singh in a case between a member of GTU and a driver for the MMC security company. The altercation between the two individuals occurred last July after several GTU members were attacked while standing on a Georgetown street corner.
The man responsible for the attack was picked up by a vehicle of the private security firm, MMC, and driven away from the scene. He was not taken to the police station as the GTU members requested, but released by the MMC guards to roam freely on the street, even though he had just attempted murder. He subsequently attacked two other GTU members, stabbing them both to death. Later that same evening, the MMC vehicle that had assisted the killer, was seen again. A GTU member then attempted to use her vehicle to block the MMC vehicle from driving away, so that its licence number could be obtained. The driver of the MMC vehicle rammed the GTU member’s car and sped away.
The GTU member ended up being charged and found guilty of dangerous driving by Magistrate Singh, while the MMC driver got off scot free. GTU disagrees with Magistrate Singh’s verdict as a member of their community is punished while others who are equally, if not more culpable of wrongdoing, go unpunished. GTU maintains that if the driver and staff of MMC had taken the violent individual immediately to the Brickdam Police Station as GTU had requested, their friends Jason (Jada) Samuels and Carl (Tyra) Sinclair would not have been murdered.
Magistrate Singh’s ruling disregards the distress of the Guyanese Trans community who have been victims of numerous violent attacks over the years, and who rarely get justice. We wish to be recognized as equal citizens of Guyana, and for our inalienable human rights to be respected. It should not matter whether some transgender persons are engaged in sex work or do not conform to traditional gender roles; we are Guyanese just like all others and deserve justice and fair treatment from the law enforcement and judicial authorities and other public bodies.
We respectfully but firmly call on all fair-minded Guyanese to stand with us in our pursuit of justice and equality. The time has come for us to end discrimination and violence against transgender and non-gender conforming Guyanese.
Yours faithfully,
Quincy Mc Ewan
Executive Director,
Guyana Trans United
Society Against Sexual
Orientation Discrimination
(SASOD) Guyana Rainbow
Coalition (GuyBow)
Red Thread: Crossroads
Women’s Center
Guyana Responsible
Parenthood Association
Cracey Fernandes, Guyana
Sex Work Coalition
Danuta Radzick, Women and
Social Rights activist
Namela Baynes-Henry,
Human Rights activist
Josephine Whitehead,
Attorney-at-Law
Nadia Sagar, Attorney-at-Law
