Trinidad and Tobago gay sex ban overturned

Trinidad and Tobago's highest court of appeal struck down a law that criminalised private, consensual sex between adults of the same sex, in a landmark ruling for LGBTQ rights in the Caribbean.

The UK-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council issued the unanimous decision on Tuesday, ruling that the 1986 Sexual Offences Act could not be used to prosecute such relations. The law had carried sentences of two years for “serious indecency” and five years for “buggery.”

The decade-long legal challenge was led by LGBTQ Trinidadian activist Jason Jones. After the ruling, Jones told AFP he planned targeted activism on how the Caribbean deals with what he called endemic homophobia.

The court said constitutional rights must be interpreted in a way that makes them “practical and effective in the present day, not in the past.”

Freedom Law Chambers, which represented Jones, called the judgment a “phenomenal victory for gay rights, equal dignity and respect for private and family life in Trinidad and Tobago.”

UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk welcomed the judgment as a significant milestone for rights and equality. He said he hoped it would help remove a longstanding source of stigma, exclusion, barriers and violence experienced by people in Trinidad and Tobago because of sexual orientation and gender identity.