Two gay men, on Friday, 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 these laws strip their dignity and autonomy.
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, 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, 53, is a Vincentian resident in Chicago, Illinois, who has failed in his public advocacy to the Caribbean nation’s prime minister for the removal of these laws so that he may return home with his partner.
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.
The two claimants are unknown to each other, having separately decided that now is the time for decriminalisation. They say that these laws violate multiple and overlapping rights in the Constitution, which are there to protect all Vincentians, no matter who they are or who they love.