UK court overturns Trinidad and Tobago law criminalising gay sex

Trinidad ⁠and Tobago’s law criminalising ⁠consensual sexual relations between ⁠male same-sex couples was overturned by a London court on Tuesday, after a legal challenge by a gay man who said the law breached his human rights.

Jason Jones challenged the Caribbean nation’s ‌Sexual Offences Act – which made “buggery” and “gross indecency” illegal – as breaching his fundamental rights under the country’s constitution.

London’s Privy Council, the final court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago, ruled in Jones’ favour, saying it was unconstitutional for the law to “criminalise private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same ⁠sex”.

Jones, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago and now lives in Britain, ‌welcomed the ruling but added that it did not address wider issues of “human rights and equality for LGBTQ+ people which ‌have been denied using British colonial era laws across the Commonwealth ⁠and beyond”.

The office ⁠of Trinidad and Tobago’s Attorney General, which opposed Jones’ appeal, did not immediately respond to ‌a request for comment.

02:10

Hundreds of LGBTQ couples to say ‘I do’ as Thailand’s same-sex marriage law takes effect

Tuesday’s ruling is the latest concerning LGBTQ rights in the Caribbean, where some nations ‌still have ‌laws forbidding intimacy between people of the same sex, a legacy of ‌British colonial-era statutes.

Jones had initially won his case at Trinidad and Tobago’s High ⁠Court in 2018, but that ruling was overturned, prompting Jones to go to ⁠the Privy Council, which ruled that Trinidad and Tobago’s law was unconstitutional.

Judge Philip Sales said as he announced the court’s ruling that “the ‌current understanding of the ‌fundamental individual right to respect for private and family life is that it protects such a core part of human identity as one’s sexual orientation”.

“Laws which seek to criminalise such activities cannot be justified,” Sales added.