I took my country to an international commission and won. Now it must scrap the homophobic laws that fuel hate

Finally the Jamaican state has been held to account for its complicity in the violence and discrimination I have faced for being gay. An international tribunal has ruled that Jamaica should scrap its homophobic laws immediately.

The hatred that LGBTQ+ people routinely face in Jamaica, and the colonial-hangover laws that criminalise gay relationships, are well documented. But, for the first time, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has determined that laws against the “abominable crime of buggery” and acts of “gross indecency” effectively led to state-sanctioned violence against LGBTQ+ Jamaicans.

Related: Jamaica should repeal homophobic laws, rights tribunal rules

Gareth Henry is a Jamaican LGBTQ+ activist living in Canada

This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.