The United Kingdom’s Privy Council has ruled that Trinidad and Tobago’s law criminalising consensual same-sex relations is unconstitutional, striking down the colonial-era ban.
The ruling on Tuesday overturns a decision by Trinidad and Tobago’s Court of Appeal in 2025, which had reinstated the ban after the High Court first struck it down in 2018. The case was brought by activist Jason Jones, who argued that the law breached his constitutional right to privacy.
The Privy Council is Trinidad and Tobago’s highest court of appeal, based in London. Delivering the judgment, Lord Sales said: “To the extent that the State criminalises consensual sexual activity between adults, it is interfering with that autonomy.”
Jones welcomed the decision, saying: “This is a victory not just for me, but for every LGBTQ+ person in Trinidad and Tobago, across the Caribbean and around the world, who has been told that who they are is a crime.”
The law, which originated as British colonial law, remained in force after Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962. Trinidad and Tobago is one of more than 60 countries that still criminalise same-sex relations, and one of only a few remaining in the Caribbean to do so.
Source: CNN (also reported by Reuters via WIXX).
