A ruling by a British-based court has invalidated laws criminalizing homosexuality in Trinidad and Tobago, setting a precedent for those challenging similar laws in other nations in the Caribbean and possibly beyond.
The ruling was handed down on Tuesday by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which serves as the highest court of appeal for dozens of crown dependencies, overseas territories and former British colonies.
Five British judges unanimously upheld a 2018 decision by a lower court in Trinidad that had found two sections of the Caribbean country’s 1986 law targeting private, consensual same-sex relations to be unconstitutional. An appeals court in Trinidad had reversed the lower-court decision in 2025.
Trinidad’s attorney general had argued that the law preserved traditional family values in the country, and had leaned on a legal mechanism called “savings provisions,” which kept many laws from the British colonial era.
The decision delivered a hard-fought victory to advocates for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in Trinidad. Jason Jones, an L.G.B.T.Q. activist who had been a key plaintiff against the law since 2015, called the ruling a “vindication.” He said it would provide hope to young L.G.B.T.Q. people in his country who are living in fear of legal and societal discrimination.
Still, Mr. Jones noted ruefully, to challenge the colonial-era law, his lawyers had to seek intervention from a court based in Britain — decades after Trinidad gained independence, in 1962.
“We are a colonized people,” he said. “Why are we running to white people in London for our justice?”
Here’s what to know about the ruling.
Why did the decision come from a court in Britain?
During the colonial period, Britain imposed its system of laws across a global empire spanning nations in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
Many laws on the books in Trinidad and Tobago are left over from before the island nation of 1.5 million people left the British monarchy and became a republic in 1976. While laws criminalizing homosexuality in Trinidad stemmed from colonial-era legislation, they were amended to be even stricter in 1986.
Even as colonies became independent in the latter half of the 20th century, some retained deep economic, cultural and legal ties to Britain as part of an umbrella group of nations called the Commonwealth. It is made up of 56 members.
One of the vestiges of the British Empire is the Privy Council, which serves as the court of last resort for many of those nations. Caribbean countries have the power to leave the Privy Council system, said Téa Braun, chief executive of Human Dignity Trust, an international legal organization focused on eradicating anti-L.G.B.T.Q. laws. And many have done so, moving to regional bodies like the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Although the Caribbean court is headquartered in Trinidad’s capital, Port of Spain, the country has not made it the final court of appeal. And Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said she has no imminent plans to do so.
Ria Mohammed, a Trinidadian lawyer and director of the Caribbean Center for Human Rights, said it was “deliciously ironic” that a British-based court had helped invalidate colonial-era laws. But she noted that Caribbean judges had also been major players in enacting similar changes across the region.
Mr. Jones, 62, who moved to Britain at the age of 21, said he had been frustrated by a legal apparatus that required change to come from outside Trinidad. But he said: “I will use any tool to fight. If systems exist, you have to work within those systems to dismantle them.”
What has been the reaction to the ruling?
The ruling was a source of deep personal pride for Mr. Jones, but it was also celebrated by rights groups in Trinidad and beyond that had supported his efforts.
“This victory is more than a legal milestone,” Pride TT, an L.G.B.T.Q. rights group in the country, said on social media on Tuesday. “It is a reminder that everyone deserves to live with dignity, privacy and freedom from discrimination.”
Alex Farrow, chief executive of Kaleidoscope Trust, a British-based charity for L.G.B.T.Q. causes, said in a statement: “Horrifyingly, the number of countries criminalizing homosexuality has been increasing over the past two years. To see that number fall yesterday is a huge achievement.”
The prime minister and attorney general did not respond to requests for comment on the decision. But homosexuality remains deeply stigmatized in the country, and some religious leaders in the country expressed disappointment in the ruling.
“I cannot tell anybody how to live their life,” Ellis Burris, president of the country’s Inter-Religious Organization, said in a phone interview. But he said he believed that homosexuality was “against the divine law.”
What does the ruling mean for Trinidad and other countries?
The ruling will not automatically cause anti-gay laws to be struck from the books in Trinidad, said Ms. Braun, the Human Dignity Trust executive. But she said they were now void and unenforceable.
And she said the ruling could be cited in challenges to similar laws in other countries that operate under the Commonwealth system, though its effect would be “persuasive, not binding.” Each nation has its own constitutional provisions.
Challenges to laws in, for example, Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines could be bolstered by the Trinidad ruling, Ms. Braun said.
While Trinidadians were rarely charged under the laws, rights groups argue that striking them down helps insulate them from discrimination.
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