A Saint Lucia court has struck down a set of laws criminalising homosexuality, in a major win for LGBTQ+ rights in the Caribbean.
Judges in the eastern Caribbean nation ruled on Tuesday (29 July) that laws banning so-called “gross indecency” and “buggery” were unconstitutional.
The High Court of Saint Lucia argued that the colonial-era laws unfairly targeted LGBTQ+ people and contravene fundamental human rights, including rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and protection from discrimination.
It is now the fifth country in the Eastern Caribbean region to decriminalise same-sex activity after Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, and St Kitts & Nevis.
Only five countries in the Western Hemisphere continue to ban private, consensual same-sex activity – Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Trinidad and Tobago decriminalised homosexuality in 2018, but reversed its decision in March 2025.
