The third country in the conservative Caribbean area to do so this year is Barbados, where a high court has overturned regulations from the colonial past that criminalize homosexual relations.
For campaigners and charitable organizations fighting against similar laws on the island in the eastern Caribbean, including one that mandates up to a life sentence for homosexual males found guilty of having sex, the Barbados High Court’s decision on Monday marked a turning point.
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According to Téa Braun, chief executive of the London-based Human Dignity Trust, a human rights organization, “It’s gone from a certain ripple effect to a tidal wave in the Caribbean, which is what everyone involved set out to achieve.”
Braun added that despite the laws seldom being used, they send the message that LGBTQ persons are criminals and second-class citizens.
She noted in a phone interview that, “the striking down of the laws reverses that and overnight tells the entire society that this is consensual contact and that what people choose to do with their private relationships is not the business of the law.”
UNAIDS also applauded the decision, saying it will help lessen the stigma that keeps LGBTQ individuals from accessing services for HIV testing, treatment, and prevention.
“Decriminalisation saves and changes lives and builds stronger societies,” the agency noted.
In the Caribbean, a number of Christian churches and organizations have fought the repeal of such laws, and some political figures who use religious allusions in their defense have backed them.
Only six nations in the Americas still maintain comparable laws, according to Braun. These six are Guyana, Grenada, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Jamaica, where members of the LGBTQ community have left after being violently attacked. In St. Lucia, a lawsuit is still ongoing. These rules were ruled unlawful earlier this year by Caribbean courts in Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis.
According to Braun, 67 countries throughout the world now have laws that make private, consenting same-sex acts illegal, down from more than 80 ten years ago.
The Barbados High Court merely made an oral order declaring such legislation to be illegal; a formal decision with its reasoning won’t be released until late January. It was unclear right away if the administration intended to appeal. Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, is seen as a supporter of the LGBTQ community and once urged for the repeal of the restrictions when serving as the island’s attorney general.
Two LGBTQ activists in Barbados brought the lawsuit, with the help of regional organizations such as the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality, Inc. In a phone conversation, the organization’s executive director, Kenita Placide, expressed her desire that society would stop excluding people according to their sexual orientation or gender identity: “We really take this win as a stepping stone to ensuring access to justice.”
Braun noted that the LGBTQ community continues to experience violence and prejudice, adding that the repeal of these laws “doesn’t solve all problems, of course.” “The dismantling of these laws is the first major step, but not the last step.”
