LONDON — The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council will hold a hearing on July 8, 2026, to consider a legal challenge to Trinidad and Tobago's laws criminalizing gay sex. The case was filed by plaintiff Jason Jones in February 2017.

Trinidad and Tobago's laws prohibit gay sex, carrying potential penalties of up to five years in prison. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago opposes Jones in the case, with support from organizations such as the Council of Evangelical Churches and Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.

Trinidad's High Court initially found these laws unconstitutional in April 2018. However, a local appeals court partially reversed that High Court ruling in March 2025. Trinidad's Court of Appeals subsequently allowed Jones to seek a ruling from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in July 2025.

Jones, who has been openly gay since age 16, left Trinidad and Tobago in 1996. He argues that "Trinidad and Tobago is a secular society and a multi-racial one. Christian morality is neither universal nor superior."

A recently filed written argument supporting Jones asserted that criminalizing gay sex "compounds stigma at precisely the stage at which young people may be forming identity, seeking support, accessing education and healthcare, and deciding whether it is safe to disclose abuse, bullying or self-harm risks." LGBTQ groups supporting Jones stated in a court filing that his experience is "part of a wider picture. (He) is unable to fully express his sexuality without being branded a criminal."

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is composed of five judges. While gay sex remains a crime in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as in Grenada and Jamaica, other Caribbean nations have seen decriminalization. The Bahamas decriminalized homosexuality in 1991. The U.K. government repealed laws prohibiting homosexuality in Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2001. Judges have also struck down similar laws in Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Antigua and Barbuda.