In recent years, several Caribbean nations have struck down laws criminalizing same-sex relations - some of them dating back to the European colonial era.
Courts in Belize in 2016 and Trinidad and Tobago in 2018 found such laws unconstitutional. Last year, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court also ruled Antigua and Barbuda’s “Sexual Offences Act” unconstitutional. The case was filed by a gay man who was persecuted for his sexual identity. Just months after the ruling, St. Kitts & Nevis and Barbados, struck down similar laws that often sought long prison sentences. Other cases in the region are pending.
Still, discrimination against LGBTQ people persists across the conservative and mostly Christian Caribbean. Some lawmakers and religious leaders oppose the abolition of anti-gay laws, invoking God in their arguments and calling gay relationships a sin. Same-sex consensual intimacy is still criminalized in six Caribbean countries, according to Human Rights Watch and the London-based organization Human Dignity Trust. The maximum penalties in these countries range from 10 years to life in prison.
The laws “are seldom enforced against consenting persons. And the specific legal provisions vary from country to country,” Human Rights Watch wrote. “But they share one common trait: they all give social and legal sanction for discrimination, violence, stigma, and prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals.”Some LGBTQ-rights groups consider Jamaica the Caribbean nation most hostile to gay people.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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