UK judges hear appeal on Trinidad and Tobago colonial-era anti-gay law

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is hearing arguments on whether a Trinidad and Tobago appeals court was right to overturn a 2018 ruling that struck down a law criminalising anal sex between consenting men.

• In 2018, Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court ruled that the 1925 colonial “buggery law” violated the constitutional right to privacy and equality, a decision quashed by the Court of Appeal last year.
• Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told the Guardian that the case could affect “savings clauses” preserving other colonial-era laws in Caribbean constitutions.
• Activist Jason Jones, who brought the original challenge, said the law “dehumanises LGBTQ+ people” and that the state could have removed it without costly litigation.
• Former Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar noted that the five remaining Americas countries that criminalise homosexuality are all former British colonies where such laws have been repealed in the UK.