UK judges begin hearing appeal over Trinidad and Tobago anti-gay law

Activist is challenging ruling last year that restored colonial-era homophobic law against same-sex intimacy

Some of the UK’s top judges are hearing arguments over whether a Trinidad and Tobago court had the legal right to overturn a 2018 ruling to remove colonial-era homophobic laws that criminalise anal sex between consenting men.

The country’s “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buggery_Act_1533">buggery law”, often referred to as its “sodomy” law, was created in 1925 and was written into Trinidad and Tobago’s 1986 https://oig.cepal.org/sites/default/files/2012_tto_sexualoffencesact.pdf">Sexual Offences Act.

In 2017 a Trinidadian LGBTQ+ rights activist, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/07/jason-jones-activist-11-year-fight-to-overturn-trinidads-homophobic-laws-reaches-final-hurdle">Jason Jones, challenged the law, and in 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/07/caribbean-anti-gay-law-ruling-high-court-trinidad-tobago">a high court ruled that it infringed upon his constitutional right to privacy and equality.