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Irish Examiner
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Caribbean LGBTQ+ activists celebrate as court strikes down colonial-era laws
Activists have hailed a historic judgment striking down colonial-era laws that criminalised gay sex in St Lucia as a step forward for LGBTQ+ rights in the Caribbean country. 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 "These laws were outdated and violated the basic human rights of LGBTQ+ people.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. - The Guardian
Scoop
31-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Further Legal Breakthrough In Saint Lucia For Caribbean LGBT Rights
London: 30 July In another historic breakthrough for human rights in the Caribbean, the High Court of Saint Lucia yesterday struck down a discriminatory, colonial-era, criminal law that targeted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Saint Lucia now joins Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St Kitts & Nevis as the fifth country in the Eastern Caribbean to decriminalise gay sex in recent times, leaving only five remaining countries in the Western Hemisphere with criminalising laws still on the books. Same-sex sexual activity between men and between women was prohibited under the Criminal Code 2004, which criminalised acts of 'buggery' and 'gross indecency'. These provisions carried a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment. The High Court held that these criminalising provisions contravene fundamental human rights, including the rights to privacy, freedom of expression and protection from discrimination on the basis of sex (interpreted to include sexual orientation). Téa Braun, Chief Executive of the Human Dignity Trust, says, 'This victory marks another significant legal milestone for the LGBT community in the Caribbean and demonstrates the importance of the courts when law makers fail to respect fundamental human rights. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the litigants and activists who have tirelessly pursued justice.' The case was led by regional LGBT umbrella organisation, the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE). The discriminatory law was inherited from the British during the colonial period, in which the English criminal law was imposed upon Saint Lucia. Despite adopting a new Criminal Code in 2004, Saint Lucia opted to retain the provisions and continued to criminalise same-sex sexual activity until this historic day. Today's judgment follows a landmark 2021 decision from a top regional human rights tribunal, finding that laws criminalising LGBT people violate international law.
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- The Guardian
Caribbean activists step up fight to end homophobic laws that ‘breach fundamental rights'
Growing up in a single-parent home in poor communities in Jamaica was tough for Glenroy Murray. But beyond the pain of economic disadvantage, the greater challenge, he said, was the constant fear that someone would discover his closely guarded secret. He was attracted to boys. Instinctively, he knew that being gay was simply not acceptable in his community. 'It was very obvious that I was different by many standards in this country – and what you consider effeminate,' he said, adding that it was 'made very clear' to him that that was not appropriate. Murray said over time, his effeminacy was explained away as a consequence of being academically gifted. But as he entered adolescence, it became increasingly difficult to hide his attraction to boys. One experience that fueled his fear, he said, was learning about a boy in his school whose diary was found with confessions of same sex attraction. 'There was a mob formed to beat him,' Murray said, adding that teachers had to intervene to protect the student and he had to be moved to a new school. At 17, Murray's family discovered he was in a gay relationship and threatened to evict him. He understood, he said, the challenge they faced at the time, particularly his mom. 'She operated from a space of fear … the last thing you want to hear is that [your son] is gay because that's a source of personal embarrassment,' he said. Murray was able to work things out with his mom, who he said is now his biggest supporter. But in addition to the risks of violence and community ostracism, he had to contend with the fact that his identity could make him a criminal because in Jamaica 'buggery' – the term used to describe anal sex – is illegal. Today, as executive director at the Equality for All Foundation and senior Caribbean associate for the Human Dignity Trust, two LGBTQ+ rights organisations, Murray is one of many activists across the Caribbean who are fighting to remove such prohibitions. And they are concerned about the recent outcome of an appeal against a 2018 high court judgment in Trinidad and Tobago to remove the country's 'buggery law' passed in 1925 under British rule. Last month Trinidad's supreme court upheld the government's appeal against the 2018 ruling and recriminalised the act. Téa Braun, chief executive of Human Dignity Trust, described the outcome of the case as 'very disheartening' and a regression in progress made to remove 'antiquated penal codes imposed during British colonial times' that 'breach the fundamental human rights of LGBT people'. Vowing to continue his fight before the privy council in the UK, Trinidad and Tobago's final court of appeal, Jason Jones, the LGBT+ activist who brought the 2018 case, told the Guardian the supreme court decision revolved around a colonial legal legacy called the 'savings clause'. Murray, who is legally trained and tutors constitutional law at the University of the West Indies, defined this as 'provisions in our constitution that essentially say that if a law was in force before the constitution came into force, then you cannot challenge that law on the basis that it violates your rights'. He said: 'These are provisions that protect a lot of the colonial laws from being challenged … a lot of them came up when we were becoming independent as Caribbean countries, so that all the colonial laws were preserved and that it was up to parliament to decide when those laws were changed – rather than people going to court.' The controversial clauses have split opinions among academics and the judiciary, with contrasting interpretations. The concern among activists is how the privy council will deal with Jones's case. 'What I've noticed in the judgments that are coming out of the privy council is that they take a different approach to savings law clauses than the approach taken by the Caribbean Court of Justice( CCJ),' Murray said. The CCJ, he said, seems to recognise 'there's a workaround, but the privy council doesn't see it that way … and so rather than it being about how the privy council feels about LGBT rights … it's more about how they feel about savings law clauses,' he added. If the current judgement on the Trinidad and Tobago case is upheld by the privy council, he said, it could set a precedent with implications for the fight to remove buggery laws in Jamaica, where the privy council is also the highest court. This, Murray believes, will hamper the progress already made in protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the country. While the fight to remove discriminatory laws and discrimination is far from over, Murray said he has seen progress, such as civil service policies that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. He also referred to a 2023 survey by the Equality for All Foundation, which suggested 'significant improvement' in the support for equality rights for LGBTQ+ people, with a 19% drop, from 69% in 2018 to 50% in 2023, in the number of people who did not support legislative changes to protect these rights. Fellow Jamaican activist, Dane Lewis, who is the regional programme manager for the Caribbean Forum for the Liberation and Acceptance of all Genders and Sexualities, also referred to, what he saw as, a positive trend of several Caribbean countries repealing buggery laws in recent times. But the Trinidad and Tobago case, the activists say, demonstrates the need to step up their advocacy. In addition to fighting through the courts, they are working, they said, on strategies such as encouraging political participation among LGBTQ+ people so they have a voice in decision-making, and engaging and collaborating with other minority communities. 'The fight for the rights of LGBTQ people is a fight for equality for all,' Lewis said. He added: 'Our work is focused on trying to make the region as a whole a safe space for all of its people, not just those of us … who experience issues around sexual and gender diversity, but for all of us who live at the margins. So that means … persons who are from the disabled community, women from rural areas … everybody who exists at the margin should be able to enjoy the same freedoms.'
