A leading Caribbean LGBT and HIV advocate in Jamaica has filed a claim challenging the constitutionality of the country’s sodomy laws.
Lecturer and HIV policy analyst, Maurice Tomlinson has called the longstanding laws a “gross violation of my human rights” and those of all LGBT people in Jamaica.
Tomlinson is challenging the constitutionality of the rarely-used 1864 laws that ban anal sex and anything interpreted as “gross indecency” between men, reports AP.
Jamaica had been described by TIME as “the most homophobic place on earth.” LGBT Jamaicans struggle against legal and societal discrimination, and an ever-present threat of violence. Last year, a Jamaican man filed a suit challenging the anti-sodomy law but withdrew after threats of violence to his family.
Tomlinson is also a founding member of Dwayne House in Jamaica, the country’s first charity focusing exclusively on providing basic services to homeless LGBT youth.
