Trinidad and Tobago's anti-gay laws overturned

Privy Council overturns anti-gay laws

London's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled that Trinidad and Tobago's laws criminalising same-sex intimacy violate the fundamental right to respect for private and family life.

An 11-year legal battle by Jason Jones

Dual-citizen Jason Jones, 62, brought the case after Trinidad's High Court ruled in his favour in 2018, only for the Trinidadian government to overturn the decision on appeal.

First Privy Council ruling on decriminalisation

This is the first time the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has decided a case to decriminalise same-sex intimacy.

Jones: the message ends today

Jason Jones said the laws never reflected who Trinidad and Tobago is as a people and nation. They told LGBTQ+ people they were criminals in their own country, but that message ends today.

“They told LGBTQ+ people that we were criminals in our own country. That message ends today.”