UK judges begin hearing appeal over Trinidad and Tobago anti-gay law

Source: The Guardian

UK judges begin hearing appeal over Trinidad and Tobago anti-gay law

Activist is challenging ruling last year that restored colonial-era homophobic law against same-sex intimacy

Natricia Duncan in Castries, Kejan Haynes and Lisa O’Carroll
Wed 8 Jul 2026 15.01 BST
Last modified on Wed 8 Jul 2026 17.45 BST

Some of the UK’s top judges are hearing arguments over whether a Trinidad and Tobago court had the legal right to overturn a 2018 ruling to remove colonial-era homophobic laws that criminalise anal sex between consenting men.

The country’s “buggery law”, often referred to as its “sodomy” law, was created in 1925 and was written into Trinidad and Tobago’s 1986 Sexual Offences Act. In 2017 a Trinidadian LGBTQ+ rights activist, Jason Jones, challenged the law, and in 2018 a high court ruled that it infringed upon his constitutional right to privacy and equality.

Last year a court of appeal quashed that decision after an intervention by the country’s attorney general. Now Jones’s appeal is being heard by the London-based judicial committee of the privy council (JCPC), the highest court of appeal for the UK’s overseas territories, crown dependencies and several independent Commonwealth countries. It shares the same judges as the UK supreme court.

Activists across the Caribbean are closely watching the proceedings, in which an outcome is expected in three to six months’ time.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/08/uk-judges-appeal-trinidad-and-tobago-homophobic-law