Privy Council in London strikes down Trinidad and Tobago's colonial-era ban on gay sex

A colonial-era law that made gay sex a crime in Trinidad and Tobago has been struck down by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, in a ruling campaigners are calling a historic milestone for LGBT+ rights in the Caribbean.

The Privy Council, which sits in London and is the highest court of appeal for several former British colonies, ruled on 10 November that the law was unconstitutional, CNN reported. The law had allowed prison terms of up to five years for "buggery" and two years for "gross indecency" between gay partners.

"Cannot be justified"

Delivering the ruling, Privy Council judge Philip Sales said: "Those laws cannot be regarded as reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual."

"Laws which seek to criminalize such activities cannot be justified," he said.

The case was brought by Jason Jones, an LGBT+ rights activist who was born in Trinidad and lives in the UK. He first won in the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago in 2018, but the islands' Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in 2025, and he took the case to the Privy Council for a final appeal.

"I was able to give us a sense of freedom"

After the ruling, Mr Jones told CNN the case was about protecting human rights. "This is about the rights of the citizen, of every citizen, and body autonomy," he said.

He said the ruling would bring psychological relief to people who had lived in the shadows. "You felt that you were living in a bird cage, and I'm really proud that I was able to give us a sense of freedom," he said.

The Human Dignity Trust, a UK charity, welcomed the decision. Its chief executive, Téa Braun, said it was "not only a victory for LGBT+ people in Trinidad and Tobago but another powerful affirmation that laws criminalizing private, consensual same-sex intimacy have no place in a society with due respect for fundamental rights and freedoms."

A colonial legacy

The law traces back to England's Buggery Act of the 1500s, and a version was enacted in Trinidad and Tobago in 1925, while it was still a British colony. The country kept the ban after independence in 1962 because of a "savings clause" that shields pre-independence laws from challenge. In 1986 it introduced new, tougher measures, which Mr Jones's lawyers argued were distinct from the colonial law and so could be challenged.

England and Wales decriminalised gay sex between men in 1967. According to the Human Dignity Trust, at least four other former British colonies in the Caribbean still criminalise sex between men, and campaigners say the ruling could open the way for similar challenges, though not all of those countries fall under the Privy Council's jurisdiction.

A link with home

Birmingham is home to a large Caribbean community with strong family ties across the region. For LGBT+ people with roots there, the ruling in a London courtroom means something very personal: the knowledge that who they are is no longer a crime in the country their families came from.