"I Have To Leave To Be Me" : Discriminatory Laws against LGBT People in the Eastern Caribbean

This report focuses on the experiences of LGBT people in small island states of the Eastern Caribbean. It demonstrates, through individual testimony, how existing discriminatory legislation negatively impacts LGBT populations, opening the door to discrimination, violence, and abuse. The report includes seven Eastern Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. All seven countries have versions of buggery and gross indecency laws, relics of British colonialism, that prohibit same-sex conduct between consenting persons. The laws have broad latitude, are vaguely worded, and serve to legitimize discrimination and hostility towards LGBT people in the Eastern Caribbean. They are rarely enforced by way of criminal prosecutions but all share one common trait: by singling out, in a discriminatory manner, a vulnerable social group they give social and legal sanction for discrimination, violence, stigma, and prejudice against LGBT individuals.