The ruling, which declared sections of the Sexual Offences Act unconstitutional, may soon lead to decriminalising gay sex

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Gay sex between consenting men in Trinidad and Tobago could soon be decriminalised following a court judgment that campaigners said might spark similar decisions elsewhere in the Caribbean.

In a ruling on Thursday, judge Devindra Rampersad said sections of the Sexual Offences Act, which prohibited “buggery” and “serious indecency” between two men, criminalised consensual same-sex activity between adults, and were unconstitutional.

“The judge came down on the right side of history in this case by striking down the buggery law and ruling it as unconstitutional,” said Kenita Placide, Caribbean adviser for rights group OutRight Action International, in a statement.

The decision followed a similar ruling in Belize in 2016.

“With positive rulings in Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, the movement will carry the momentum to other parts of the region,” she said.

A final judgment on how to deal with the sections of the act is expected in July, rights groups and local media said.

The case was brought in 2017 by Jason Jones, an LGBT activist who lives in Britain but was born in Trinidad and Tobago.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest LGBT activist Jason Jones, who brought on the case in 2017 to remove sections of the Sexual Offences Act. Photograph: Sean Drakes/LatinContent/Getty Images

In an online campaign, he said he wanted to challenge laws inherited while the country was under British rule.

Trinidad and Tobago became a republic in 1976. Last year, it was one of five countries which amended its laws to ban child marriage.

But it has no laws protecting LGBT people, and rights groups say many LGBT people fear being open about their views or orientation. Being convicted of buggery carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, according to the law.

Quick guide What are the laws against homosexuality in the Caribbean? Show Hide While rarely enforced, laws against homosexuality still exist in some Caribbean countries. In Jamaica and Barbados conviction for sodomy carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. In Grenada, St Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis, “unnatural crime” or “abominable buggery” between two men is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, but sex between two women is legal. Cuba legalised gay sex in 1979, as did the Bahamas in 1991 and the British Virgin Islands in 2001. In 2016, LGBT activist Caleb Orozco successfully challenged Belize’s buggery law. The case is under appeal by the Catholic Church. A similar case lodged in Jamaica since 2011 has not passed the preliminary hearing stages because of interventions by religious groups. Haiti, which gained independence from France in 1804, has never had laws banning same sex acts, but is in the process of passing a law banning gay marriage.

Thursday’s ruling was welcomed outside the courthouse by large crowds wearing rainbow outfits and singing the national anthem. Earlier this week, hundreds of people gathered outside parliament to show support for the case.

Colin Robinson, director of the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation, warned there was a long way to go.

“I don’t want to be alarmist, but I expect that this will take time for people to accept, and we hope the violence is minimal,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Trinidad and Tobago.

The group, which works for justice on sex and gender issues, said it expected the government would appeal the ruling.

In February, the nearby island of Bermuda became the world’s first nation to reverse a law allowing same-sex marriage. LGBT activists feared that would set a dangerous precedent for gay rights and reverberate far beyond the region.

