Leaders need to ‘show some balls’ after UK court overturns Trinidad anti-gay sex law

Detailed summary

Human rights activist Jason Jones (Picture: LatinContent Editorial) A British court has upheld a legal challenge against a law prohibiting homosexuality in Trinidad and Tobago.…

A British court has upheld a legal challenge against a law prohibiting homosexuality in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) ruled that the Caribbean nation’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is ‘unconstitutional’.

Jason Jones, the LGBT campaigner who brought the case, said the decision would have a ‘domino effect’ and ‘change the lives of millions’.

The dual British and Trinidadian citizen has fought against the country’s ‘buggery law’, introduced in 1925 under British colonial rule, since 2016.

Under Section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act, a man who engaged in consensual sex with another man could be sentenced to 25 years in jail.

A high court judge sided with Jones in 2018, but Trinidad’s Court of Appeal partly overturned the ruling and recriminalised consensual anal sex

The five-member privacy council, based in London, allowed Jones’ appeal, ruling that the law infringed Jones’ rights to a private and family life.

‘The ability to form a deep connection with another person through an intimate and loving relationship is a vital interest for all human beings,’ the judges said.

Jones said the British government bore responsibility to help change attitudes towards LGBTQ+ Caribbeans, with many of the discriminatory laws relics from colonial-era legislation.

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