The highest court in St Vincent and the Grenadines has affirmed legislation that makes homosexual acts a crime, disappointing activists who have been protesting the discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ+ community on the traditionally conservative group of islands.
The decision made on Friday by the high court in St Vincent is a result of a case brought forth in 2019 by two homosexual men residing in the UK and US but originally from St Vincent. They aimed to challenge outdated laws from the colonial era that impose a 10-year prison sentence for anal intercourse and a five-year sentence for engaging in “gross indecency” with a member of the same sex.
Senior researcher Cristian González Cabrera from Human Rights Watch described the decision as a “miscarriage of justice” and expressed that it signifies the government’s implicit approval of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.
He expressed that it was a sorrowful day for human rights in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the decision will undermine the authority of the law for all individuals in the nation.
It was unclear if anyone intended to challenge the decision.
Téa Braun, chief executive of the London-based human rights organization Human Dignity Trust, criticized that the decision was based in part on how the two men challenging the laws do not live in St Vincent.
She expressed deep disappointment, stating that the ruling is drastically different from the decisions made by courts in neighboring countries such as Barbados, Antigua, and St Kitts last year, and other courts globally, which declared these antiquated laws invalid.
Activists claim that the laws in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, although rarely used, contribute to the acceptance of physical and verbal mistreatment towards the LGBTQ+ community on the small island with a population of approximately 100,000 people.
In the previous year, a report from Human Rights Watch documented numerous cases of mistreatment and prejudice against individuals who identify as gay in St Vincent and the Grenadines. These incidents ranged from a teenage student having their arm broken to a man suffering permanent brain damage after being struck in the head with a bottle.
The leader of the island country, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, has spoken out against the mistreatment of individuals based on their sexual orientation in the past.
Along with St Vincent and the Grenadines, there are five other English-speaking Caribbean countries with laws criminalizing gay sex. They are St Lucia, Dominica, Jamaica, Guyana and Grenada.
In recent years, four other Caribbean countries have abolished similar laws: Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Source: theguardian.com
