A The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court found that “the selection of an intimate partner is a private and a personal choice.”
The ruling also said the twin-island nation’s 1995 Sexual Offenses Act “offends the right to liberty, protection of the law, freedom of expression, protection of personal privacy and protection from discrimination on the basis of sex.”
The ruling comes after a gay man who works at Antigua’s Ministry of Health and a local group called Women Against Rape Inc. asked that the law be found unconstitutional.
The rarely used law states in part that two consenting adults found guilty of having anal sex would face 15 years in prison. If found guilty of serious indecency, they would face five years in prison.
The Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality welcomed Tuesday’s outcome, which came in litigation that began in 2020 to challenge what it called “invasive and unconstitutional remnants of colonial law.”
