Port of Spain skyline at night, Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago Gay Sex Ban Overturned: UK Court Strikes Down Colonial-Era Law After a Decade-Long Fight

November 11, 2026 Faizan Altaf

A court in London has struck down a law that made gay sex a crime in Trinidad and Tobago, ending a legal battle that lasted almost ten years and cannot be appealed.

On Tuesday, 10 November 2026, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled unanimously that sections of Trinidad and Tobago’s Sexual Offences Act 1986, which criminalised private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex, were unconstitutional. The ruling means gay sex is no longer a crime in the twin-island Caribbean nation, and activists around the world celebrated the decision.

The case was brought by Jason Jones, a 62-year-old LGBTQ+ rights activist who was born in Trinidad and now lives in the United Kingdom. He first challenged the law in February 2017. Nearly a decade later, the highest court available to him has ruled in his favour.

What the court decided

At the centre of the case were sections 13 and 16 of Trinidad and Tobago’s Sexual Offences Act 1986. The law criminalised “buggery” and “serious indecency” between adults of the same sex. People convicted of buggery faced up to five years in prison, while those convicted of gross indecency faced up to two years.

The five judges on the Privy Council panel — Lord Reed, Lord Sales, Lord Briggs, Lord Burrows and Lady Rose — ruled that these provisions could no longer be used to prosecute consenting adults for private sexual relations. The judgment was delivered by Lord Sales and Lord Burrows.

“Those laws cannot be regarded as reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual,” Lord Sales said. “Laws which seek to criminalize such activities cannot be justified.”

The court also explained why the right to privacy protects this part of people’s lives. Lord Sales said that “the current understanding of the fundamental individual right to respect for private and family life is that it protects such a core part of human identity as one’s sexual orientation and the sexual activities carried on in private between consenting adults to give expression to that identity.”

In plain terms: a person’s sexuality is a core part of who they are, and the state has no business punishing what consenting adults do in private.

The ruling is final. Trinidad and Tobago is a sovereign republic within the British Commonwealth, but it still uses London’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as its highest court of final appeal. Because the Privy Council has now ruled, the decision cannot be appealed further.

It is also the first time the Privy Council has ruled on the constitutionality of laws of this kind, according to Human Rights Watch.

A case that took nearly ten years

Jason Jones filed his case in the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago in February 2017, arguing that the so-called buggery laws, which dated from the time when Trinidad and Tobago was a British colony, breached the country’s constitution.

In April 2018, the High Court agreed with him and found the laws unconstitutional. It was a landmark victory. But in March 2025, the islands’ Court of Appeal partially reversed that ruling, and the ban was back in force. Jones and his lawyers then took the case to the Privy Council for a final appeal.

Ahead of the ruling, Jones told CNN that he had filed his lawsuit to start a movement towards equality, even though he knew there was a long road ahead.

“My case is not just about decriminalizing (gay sexual acts in) countries in the Commonwealth that carry these British colonial-era laws. It’s about making people aware (of) how homophobia is being weaponized to take away our democratic rights,” he said.

After the ruling, the Human Dignity Trust, a UK charity that supports legal challenges to laws criminalising LGBTQ+ people, welcomed the decision. Its chief executive, Téa Braun, said: “This is not only a victory for LGBT+ people in Trinidad and Tobago but another powerful affirmation that laws criminalizing private, consensual same-sex intimacy have no place in a society with due respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.”

A law with roots in the 1500s

The law that has now been struck down has a very long history. Its origins go back centuries, to England’s “Buggery Act” passed during the reign of Henry VIII in the 1500s. The British Empire later imposed a version of it in Trinidad and Tobago through a 1925 act.

After Trinidad and Tobago became independent in the 1960s, the ban stayed in place. Part of the reason was a “savings law” clause in the country’s constitution, which shields laws from before independence from being challenged. The clause was originally created by the British as a temporary measure, to prevent legal gaps as former colonies moved to independence. But some former colonies, including Trinidad and Tobago, kept it in force for decades.

In 1986, Trinidad and Tobago repealed the sexual offences laws of the 1925 act and introduced new, tougher measures, which increased prison sentences and punished women for indecency too. That 1986 move turned out to be crucial to Jones’s case. His lawyers argued that the new measures were different from the colonial-era law of 1925, so they were not protected by the savings law clause and could be challenged.

The Privy Council agreed. It ruled that the criminalisation of private sexual acts between consenting adults is not immune from challenge, and that clauses shielding old laws from scrutiny should be interpreted narrowly, so they do not protect large areas of old law from being examined.

Jones himself put it bluntly to CNN: “This is no longer blaming Henry VIII and the British. This is our own homegrown homophobia.”

The irony of the court that decided it

There is an irony in this ruling that many in the Caribbean have noted. To settle a challenge to a colonial-era policy, Trinidad and Tobago had to use the judicial system of its former colonial ruler.

“We have to still think about the fact that these laws were inherited from our colonial masters,” said Ria Mohammed, an attorney and director of the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights. “They (the British) have long since abandoned them. So why are we holding on to them?”

England and Wales decriminalised gay male sex in the 1960s. Yet the laws Britain left behind in its former colonies remained in force for decades afterwards.

“That is the ultimate irony, and it also is a moment for us to sit and reflect about what are we really doing?” Mohammed said. “It really is about us having a mature conversation about what kind of society do we want to build.”

That question has already led some Caribbean countries to change their final court of appeal. Five countries — Belize, Guyana, Barbados, Saint Lucia and Dominica — have replaced the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice. In some of the countries that still use the Privy Council, Jones’s case has renewed debate about whether they should do the same.

What the ruling means beyond Trinidad and Tobago

The judgment applies to Trinidad and Tobago only. But activists and legal experts say it could pave the way for similar challenges in other former British colonies that still criminalise gay sex.

At least four other former British colonies in the Caribbean — Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — criminalise sexual activity between men, according to the Human Dignity Trust, though not all of them fall under the Privy Council’s jurisdiction. Similar restrictions remain in dozens of countries around the world.

Because the Privy Council is the highest appeals court for several former British colonies, its reasoning is likely to matter in future cases from those countries too.

“The decision is going to be binding in Trinidad and Tobago. But as a matter of logic, if you are a part of the appellate structure of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council … it is unlikely that a case from a different jurisdiction would be decided in a different way,” Mohammed said.

Human Rights Watch made a similar point. It noted that these laws, rooted in British colonial rule, have long fuelled stigma, discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, even when they were rarely enforced. The organisation said the Privy Council’s ruling reaches beyond Trinidad and Tobago because the same court serves as the highest court for other independent Commonwealth countries and UK overseas territories.

That matters because a law does not have to be used often to cause harm. When gay sex is a crime, even on paper, it can be used to threaten people, to justify discrimination, and to make victims of violence afraid to report what happened to them. Removing the law removes that threat.

What happens next

For Trinidad and Tobago, the legal question is now settled. Private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex can no longer be prosecuted.

The court has not yet issued the final order setting out exactly how the law will be changed, and has asked both sides for further written submissions first.

The ruling does not, by itself, settle the wider social argument about LGBTQ+ rights in the country, and attitudes will take longer to change than laws.

But the judgment sets a clear direction. It says that the right to privacy protects sexual orientation, that old laws cannot hide behind clauses that shield them from challenge, and that criminalising consenting adults for what they do in private cannot be justified.

For campaigners in other Caribbean countries, the next step is to decide whether to bring similar cases. For governments in those countries, the ruling is a warning that their own colonial-era bans may not survive a court challenge either.

And for Jason Jones, who began this fight in 2017, the ruling closes a chapter that has defined almost a decade of his life. His case began as one man’s challenge to a law in the country where he was born. It has ended with that law struck down by the highest court in the land — a decision that may now echo across the Caribbean.

Frequently asked questions

What did the court rule?

On 10 November 2026, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London unanimously ruled that sections 13 and 16 of Trinidad and Tobago’s Sexual Offences Act 1986 were unconstitutional. The law can no longer be used to prosecute consenting adults of the same sex for private sexual relations.

What were the penalties under the old law?

People convicted of “buggery” faced up to five years in prison, and people convicted of “gross indecency” faced up to two years.

Who brought the case?

Jason Jones, a 62-year-old LGBTQ+ rights activist born in Trinidad who lives in the UK. He filed the case in February 2017. The High Court ruled in his favour in 2018, the Court of Appeal partially reversed that in March 2025, and the Privy Council has now ruled in his favour.

Why did a court in London decide a case about Trinidad and Tobago?

Trinidad and Tobago is an independent republic, but it still uses the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London as its highest court of final appeal. The ruling cannot be appealed.

How old is the law that was struck down?

Its origins go back to England’s Buggery Act of the 1500s. Britain imposed a version in Trinidad and Tobago in 1925, and the country replaced it with tougher measures in 1986 after independence.

Does the ruling affect other countries?

The judgment applies to Trinidad and Tobago only. But the Privy Council is the final court for several other former British colonies, and activists hope the ruling will help challenges to similar bans elsewhere in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

What did the judges say?

Lord Sales said: “Those laws cannot be regarded as reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual.”

Sources

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.

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