Glenroy Murray shared a glimpse of his childhood, growing up in impoverished Jamaican neighborhoods. He was raised in a single-parent household and had encountered many challenges, but concealing his identity was the biggest one. He was afraid of being found out since he knew that his community did not tolerate homosexual people. He was told again and over again that his differences were inappropriate.
Murray claimed that his effeminacy was eventually justified as a result of his intellectual prowess. However, it was harder for him to conceal his attraction to guys as he approached puberty.
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He claimed that knowing about a kid at his school whose diary had admissions of same-sex interest was one incident that increased his anxiety. Teachers had to step in to defend the boy, and he had to be sent to a different school, Murray said, adding that “a mob had formed to beat him.”
Murray’s family found out he was in a homosexual relationship when he was 17 and threatened to have him evicted. He claimed to have grasped their current situation, especially that of his mother. Murray stated, “She operated from a space of fear … the last thing you want to hear is that [your son] is gay because that’s a source of personal embarrassment.”
Murray claimed that his mother is now his greatest supporter after they were able to reconcile. But in addition to the dangers of violence and social rejection, he also had to deal with the possibility that his identification would turn him into a criminal because anal sex, or “buggery,” is prohibited in Jamaica.
Murray is one of several activists in the Caribbean who are working to lift these restrictions as executive director of the Equality for All Foundation and senior Caribbean associate for the Human Dignity Trust, two organizations that support LGBTQ+ rights.
The recent conclusion of an appeal against a 2018 high court ruling in Trinidad and Tobago to repeal the nation’s 1925 “buggery law,” which was enacted during British control, also worries them. The Supreme Court of Trinidad recriminalized the conduct last month and upheld the government’s appeal against the 2018 decision.
The case’s conclusion, according to Téa Braun, CEO of Human Dignity Trust, was “very disheartening” and represented a reversal of the progress achieved to repeal “antiquated penal codes imposed during British colonial times” that “breach the fundamental human rights of LGBT people.”
Jason Jones, the LGBTQ+ activist who initiated the 2018 case, told reporters that the supreme court ruling centered on a colonial legal relic known as the “savings clause” and that he would continue to battle before Trinidad and Tobago’s last court of appeal, the Privy Council in the UK.
This is what Murray, a lawyer by training who teaches constitutional law at the University of the West Indies, described as “provisions in our constitution that essentially say that if a law was in force before the constitution came into force, then you cannot challenge that law on the basis that it violates your rights”.
He stated, “These are provisions that protect a lot of the colonial laws from being challenged…a lot of them came up when we were becoming independent as Caribbean countries, so that all the colonial laws were preserved and that it was up to parliament to decide when those laws were changed – rather than people going to court.”
The contentious provisions have generated divergent interpretations among scholars and the judiciary. Activists are worried about how the Privy Council will handle Jones’s case.
“What I’ve noticed in the judgments that are coming out of the Privy Council is that they take a different approach to savings law clauses than the approach taken by the Caribbean Court of Justice [CCJ],” Murray remarked.
Murray claimed that the CCJ seemed to acknowledge, stating “there’s a workaround, but the Privy Council doesn’t see it that way … and so rather than it being about how the Privy Council feels about LGBT rights … it’s more about how they feel about savings law clauses.”
If the privy council upholds the current decision in the Trinidad and Tobago case, he said, it might set a precedent that affects the fight to overturn the buggery laws in Jamaica, where the privy council is also the highest court.
Murray thinks this will undermine the nation’s efforts in defending the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. Murray said he has witnessed advancements, such as civil service standards that forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation, but that the battle to repeal discriminatory laws and discrimination is far from complete.
Support for LGBTQ+ rights has grown, according to a 2023 Equality for All Foundation study, which also found that resistance to legislative reforms has decreased from 69% in 2018 to 50% in 2023. Dane Lewis, a Jamaican campaigner, pointed out that the Caribbean has seen a recent uptick in the repeal of buggery laws.
However, the campaigners claim that the Trinidad and Tobago case highlights the necessity of intensifying their campaigning. They claimed they are focusing on tactics like promoting political engagement among LGBTQ+ individuals so they may have a say in decision-making and interacting and working with other minority communities in addition to battling via the legal system.
“The fight for the rights of LGBTQ people is a fight for equality for all,” Lewis noted.
He further noted, “Our work is focused on trying to make the region as a whole a safe space for all of its people, not just those of us … who experience issues around sexual and gender diversity, but for all of us who live at the margins. So that means … persons who are from the disabled community, women from rural areas … everybody who exists at the margin should be able to enjoy the same freedoms.”
