Barbados Decriminalizes Gay Sex

In a landmark judgement, the Barbados High Court issued a ruling that decriminalized consensual same-sex relations, Human Rights Watch reports.

Barbados becomes the third Eastern Caribbean country in 2022 to decriminalize gay sex, after Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Barbados’ Sexual Offences Act of 1992 sanctioned “buggery” with up to life imprisonment, and “serious indecency” with up to 10 years’ imprisonment. Both crimes were understood to criminalize consensual same-sex conduct and were relics of British colonial law.

Laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy in the Caribbean are rarely enforced. But they do serve to legitimize bias and hostility toward the LGBTQ+ community. A 2018 Human Rights Watch report documented discrimination, violence, and prejudice against LGBTQ+ people in seven island nations in the Eastern Caribbean, including Barbados, that criminalised gay sex.

The ruling is a result of local and regional civil society efforts to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the Eastern Caribbean region, spearheaded in part by the group Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE).

In the Anglophone Caribbean, the Belize Supreme Court in 2016 became the first to hold that laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy were unconstitutional. Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court followed suit in 2018.

Six countries in the Caribbean still have laws on the books: Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – outliers in the Western Hemisphere, where most countries have decriminalized same-sex conduct. At least 67 countries in the world still criminalize gay sex.

In a December 2020 decision, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on Jamaica to repeal laws banning gay sex. The Organization of American States has also urged all countries to “prevent, punish, and eradicate” discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Read related myGwork articles here:

Saint Kitts And Nevis Overturns Colonial-Era Gay Sex Ban

Caribbean Court Strikes Down Gay Ban In Antigua And Barbuda

Barbados To Recognise Same-Sex Civil Unions

More LGBTQ+ Rights In Barbados Republic On The Horizon, Say Campaigners

Keep up to date with the latest myGnews

LGBTQ+ professionals, LGBTQ+ Graduates, LGBTQ+ professional network, LGBTQ+ professional events, LGBTQ+ networking events, LGBTQ+ Recruitment, LGBTQ+ Friendly organizations, LGBTQ+ Friendly companies, LGBTQ+ jobs