Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Thursday of violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. According to a new report, six of the twelve Anglophone countries in the Caribbean region continue to criminalize consensual same-sex intimacy, including Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

HRW called upon the country to repeal the colonial-era laws  that criminalizes consensual same-sex conduct and push for the passage of legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Same-sex activity is prohibited under the Criminal Code 1988 which criminalizes acts of “buggery” and “gross indecency.”  The law was inherited from the British during their colonial rule over Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Cristian Gonzalez Cabrera, LGBT rights researcher with HRW, commented, “[T]he criminalisation of gay sex gives tacit state sanction to the discrimination and violence that LGBT people experience in their daily lives.” Cabrera continued to say that repeal of the law “will not only create a more equal society for LGBT people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but it will strength the rule of law for everyone living there.”

While there have been no recent reported convictions under the laws, HRW argued that the laws stigmatizes LGBTQ+ people and creates an obstacle to full equality. Furthermore, as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are signatories of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects LGBTQ+ people from discrimination, the continued existence of these colonial laws runs contrary to their international obligations.

One of the most recent legal challenges involving the laws occurred in 2019. Two gay men filed court proceedings to challenge the law, stating that they had been exiled from the Caribbean nation “due to the severely draconian and damaging effects of these laws.”

Nearly all LGBTQ+ interviewees reported at least one recent incident of discrimination, which for many “is part of everyday life.” Every interviewee also stated that had either wished to leave the country or envisioned a future abroad due to the presence of homophobic or transphobic violence and discrimination.

Recently, some countries in the region have taken strong steps to protect LGBTQ+ people. In 2022, courts in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados as well as Saint Kitts and Nevis struck down laws that criminalized consensual same-sex conduct. In 2016 and 2018, Trinidad and Tobago similarly overturned discriminatory laws against LGBTQ+ people.