Court to rule on final challenge to T&T’s gay sex ban in UK

A nearly 10-year battle for gay rights in Trinidad and Tobago could end Wednesday at a final appeals court in England. Supreme Court judges in London will hold a hearing on a landmark human rights case that could decriminalise gay sex in the Caribbean nation, potentially setting a precedent for the largely conservative Caribbean region. The case was filed in February 2017 by Jason Jones, who argues that so-called “buggery” laws in the twin-island nation that date from the colonial era and prohibit gay sex are unconstitutional. Those found guilty could receive up to five years in prison. Opposing Jones are Trinidad and Tobago’s Government, backed by the country’s Council of Evangelical Churches and its largest Hindu organisation, Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha. The case has wound its way through several courts. In April 2018, Trinidad’s High Court found the laws unconstitutional, but a local appeals court partially reversed that ruling in March 2025. In July of that year, Trinidad’s Court of Appeals allowed Jones to seek a ruling from the final court of appeals in England. Now, the case is before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and activists across the Caribbean are closely watching the outcome. In 1991, the Bahamas decriminalised homosexuality, while the UK Government repealed such laws in 2001 in Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Recently, judges have struck down similar laws in Barbados, Dominica, St Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda. Gay sex, however, remains a crime in Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad.