The Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the focus for the latest in a continuing series of legal challenges to anti-gay laws inherited from the region’s colonial past.
St. Vincent anti-gay law challenged
Two gay men filed court proceedings to challenge St Vincent and the Grenadines’ “buggery” and “gross indecency” laws, which criminalise homosexuality.
Both men, who have been advised by Jeremy Johnson QC and Peter Laverack of 5 Essex Court, assert that their dignity and autonomy are stripped by these laws. They have filed claims with Affidavits stating that they have been exiled from the Caribbean nation due to the severely draconian and damaging effects of these laws.
Javin Johnson, aged 22, successfully claimed asylum in the United Kingdom in 2017 having established that he could not live as a gay man in St Vincent. Sean Macleish, aged 53, is a Vincentian resident in Chicago, Illinois. Macleish has publicly advocated to the Caribbean nation’s Prime Minister for the removal of these laws so that he may return home with his partner, but to no effect.
These challenges coincide with Prince William and his family holidaying in the country on the exclusive island of Mustique, whose website states “there are no rules on Mustique”. LGBT visitors, however, would be liable to arrest and imprisonment for up to 10 years if caught being intimate. Prince William stated this month that he would be “absolutely fine” if his own children were gay.
