Despite his landmark victory on Tuesday, Jason Jones says the fight for full equality and human rights for LGBTQ+ people in Trinidad and Tobago is far from over.
Jones said the decision ended the message that LGBTQ+ people were criminals in their own country.
He added, “Whilst I welcome this judgment, it does not, however, address the main issues of human rights and equality for LGBTQ+ people which have been denied using British colonial era laws across the Commonwealth and beyond.
“These laws never reflected who we are as a people and a nation: diverse, multiracial, and secular. They told LGBTQ+ people that we were criminals in our own country. That message ends today.”
Jones said he was proud to have led the 11-year legal challenge but insisted that more work was needed.
He declared, “Let this victory be the rallying call to accelerate the fight for full equality and rights for all people, everywhere.”
The Privy Council ruled that Sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act, which criminalized buggery and acts of serious indecency.
