Privy Council Overturns Trinidad's Colonial-Era Anti-Gay Laws, Setting Precedent Across the Commonwealth Caribbean

A 10-year legal fight culminates in a unanimous UK appeals court ruling that could cascade across every Caribbean nation still using the Privy Council as its final court of appeal.

Jason Jones, a Trinidadian activist who has lived in London for decades, won a unanimous Privy Council ruling on Tuesday that restores a 2018 high court judgment declaring Trinidad and Tobago's colonial-era "buggery" laws unconstitutional. The five-judge panel found that sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act 1986 must be interpreted consistently with the constitution, meaning they cannot criminalise private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex.

The decision caps a decade-long legal arc. In 2018, high court judge Devindra Rampersad ruled the relevant provisions unconstitutional. The Trinidad and Tobago government appealed, and in 2025 the court of appeal reversed Rampersad's ruling, effectively recriminalising consensual anal sex. The Privy Council's intervention now overturns that reversal and restores the original victory. The structural significance lies in the Privy Council's jurisdictional reach. As the final court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago and several other Commonwealth countries, its reasoning — particularly the finding that "the ability to form a deep connection with another person through an intimate and loving relationship is a vital interest for all human beings" — creates binding or highly persuasive authority across multiple Caribbean jurisdictions where similar colonial-era statutes remain on the books. Jones himself framed the ruling as having a "domino effect across every country that has the privy council as its supreme court," a claim with real legal weight. Freedom Law Chambers, his legal team, emphasised that the judgment expressly recognised a loving relationship between two men as engaging constitutional protection of family life — a doctrinal expansion beyond mere decriminalisation. The ruling follows last year's Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court decision striking down similar laws in St Lucia, suggesting a regional pattern of judicial correction where legislative reform has stalled. The common thread: colonial-era statutes imposed by Britain are being dismantled through constitutional litigation rather than parliamentary action. Jones's own assessment of the aftermath is notably unsentimental. Asked whether the ruling would make him comfortable returning to Trinidad, he said no, citing inevitable pushback — including from within the queer community itself. "Every time you move the needle forward, you get the pushback," he said. "I'm not afraid of pushback." The honest question is whether judicial victories translate into lived reality. Decriminalisation removes the state's coercive apparatus but does not, on its own, address social stigma, police harassment, or employment discrimination. The legal architecture is now moving in one direction across the Caribbean. Whether the social architecture follows depends on what happens next in each jurisdiction.