SAN JUAN (AP):
A top court in Barbados has struck down colonial-era laws that criminalise gay sex, becoming the third nation in the conservative Caribbean region to do so this year.
The ruling issued Monday by the Barbados High Court is a pivotal moment for activists and nonprofit organisations who have long fought against such laws on the eastern Caribbean island, including one that demands up to a life sentence for gay men found guilty of having sex.
“It’s gone from a certain ripple effect to a tidal wave in the Caribbean, which is what everyone involved set out to achieve,” said Téa Braun, chief executive of the London-based Human Dignity Trust, a human rights organisation.
RARELY INVOKED
While the laws were rarely invoked, they signal that LGBTQ people are criminals and lesser citizens, Braun said.
“The striking down of the laws reverses that and overnight tells the entire society that this is consensual contact and that what people choose to do with their private relationships is not the business of the law,” she said in a phone interview.
UNAIDS also celebrated the ruling, saying it will help reduce the stigma that can prevent LGBTQ people from seeking HIV testing, treatment and prevention services. “Decriminalisation saves and changes lives and builds stronger societies,” the agency said.
Several Christian churches and organisations across the Caribbean have opposed the abolition of such laws, with support from some political leaders who invoke God in their arguments.
Braun said there are now only six remaining countries in the Americas with similar laws, including Guyana, Grenada, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica, where members of the LGBTQ community have fled following violent attacks. A case in St Lucia is pending. Earlier this year, Caribbean courts have found such laws in Antigua & Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis unconstitutional.
Worldwide, 67 jurisdictions criminalise private, consensual same-sex activities, down from more than 80 a decade ago, Braun said.
The Barbados High Court issued only an oral ruling saying it found such laws unconstitutional, and won’t release a written judgment detailing its reasons until late January. It wasn’t immediately clear if the government planned to appeal. Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley is considered an ally of the LGBTQ community and once called for abolishing the laws when she was the island’s attorney general.