Caribbean LGBTQ+ activists celebrate as court strikes down colonial-era laws
This week the Eastern Caribbean supreme court found that the island's so-called buggery and gross indecency laws, which criminalised consensual anal sex, were unconstitutional.
In a joint statement to the Guardian, a group of activists who were the claimants in the case described the judgment as 'deeply personal' but added that there was 'still work to be done'.
'We know not everyone will agree with the ruling – and that's OK. We're not asking anyone to change their beliefs. What we are asking for is fairness. These laws were outdated and violated the basic human rights of LGBTQ+ people. Striking them down is just the beginning of creating a safer, more inclusive Saint Lucia for all of us,' the statement said.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference after the judgment, attorney Veronica Cenac, who worked on the case, said it was important to remember the origin of the laws.
'Many persons believe that [they are] a part of our cultural identity and that those persons who are asking for their repeal are promoting a western, global north agenda – which is clearly not the case considering that these laws were imposed on us during colonial times,' she said.
In St Lucia, the law penalised gay sex with up to 10 years in prison. While the government did not enforce the law, activists and legal experts say it remained a threat to the island's LGBTQ+ community.
'The mere existence of this provision is itself a violation of human rights and underpins further acts of discrimination,' according to Human Dignity Trust, a UK-based legal organisation that helped work on the case.
In 2019, the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality began filing legal challenges against such laws in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia.
In 2022, courts in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis struck down those laws. Last year, a court in Dominica did the same.
Describing how hearing the monumental judgment left them 'breathless', Kenita Placide, the Alliance's executive director, said: 'It is not often that we, as activists, get to see the results of our hard work.'
But, they warned that, while the outcome was a 'stride in the right direction', LGBTQ+ people in St Lucia needed to remain on guard. Several gay men have been brutally murdered in the country over the years, and Placide warned that the judgment did not mean 'that all of a sudden we can do the gay parade without thinking about safety'.
'Right now, there's a little bit of a tension in country. Because almost every two males that walk around are being watched with some kind of scrutiny that they may be engaging. And people are ready to put up phones like they need to be the first to capture,' Placide said.
Changing the law was 'half the battle',Placide said, adding that the other half was 'changing hearts and minds where we can actually coexist in the community without being killed' because of sexual orientation.
Téa Braun, the chief executive of the Human Dignity Trust, said: 'This is a significant victory for the Caribbean's LGBT community and now leaves just five remaining jurisdictions in the western hemisphere that continue to criminalise consensual same-sex intimacy.'
The judgment, Cenac said, could have 'persuasive value' in the remaining countries: Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Earlier this year, the Trinidad and Tobago supreme court overturned a 2018 high court judgment to remove its 'buggery' laws. Campaigners have expressed concern about the country's case, which will go before the privy council in London, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries. One of the issues, they say, is a 'savings clause', a legal technicality created to protect colonial laws.
Trinidad and Tobago-based Sharon Mottley, regional programme manager for the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association of North America and the Caribbean, said the ruling brought 'renewed hope and momentum' to the region.
'Here in Trinidad and Tobago, in spite of the reversal this year, the gay community came out in their numbers and we held our Pride Parade on July 20th through the streets of Port of Spain and it was really to send a powerful message that we're here and we're not going anywhere. We refuse to be criminalised and our visibilities, our pride, our resistance and our demand for full recognition will continue,' Mottley said.
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