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A decade-long legal battle led by LGBT+ Trinidadian activists successfully ended as Trinidad and Tobago’s highest court overturned a long-running law criminalising gay sex.
The UK-based final court of appeal for British dependencies and overseas territories issued a unanimous decision Tuesday that the 1986 Sexual Offences Act could not be used to prosecute private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex.
Seen as a landmark ruling for LGBT+ rights in the Caribbean, this law had previously carried sentences of two years for “serious indecency” and five years for “buggery”.
“What I’m going to be doing in the coming months is very targeted activism about how the Caribbean, not just Trinidad and Tobago, deals with endemic homophobia,” said LGBT+ Trinidadian activist Jason Jones after the verdict was read.
‘Phenomenal victory for gay rights’
Freedom Law Chambers, the law firm that represented Jones, said in a statement that the judgement represented a “phenomenal victory for gay rights, equal dignity and respect for private and family life in Trinidad and Tobago.”
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which issued the decision, said constitutional rights must be interpreted in a way that makes them “practical and effective in the present day, not in the past.”
The judgement was welcomed by UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk, who called it a significant milestone for rights and equality.
“I hope the judgment will help remove a longstanding source of stigma, exclusion, barriers and violence experienced by Trinidadians and Tobagonians based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Turk said.