New report finds that Trinidad & Tobago needs to do more to stop LGBTQ+ discrimination

‘[O]ur differences matter and must be accounted for in the struggle for freedom’

Originally published on Global Voices

Shortly before Pride Month, on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT) on May 17 — a day that commemorates the World Health Organization’s 1990 decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder — the Trinidad and Tobago-based civil society organisation CAISO shared the findings from its 2024 Insights from Wholeness and Justice Report.

The NGO compiles this report annually based on the services it renders to members of the local LGBTQ+ community. After four years of similar issues coming to the fore, CAISO believes that “wider sustained interventions” are needed to address what it calls “state-sponsored discrimination,” which makes LGBTQ+ people “disproportionately susceptible to social displacement.” Its report also found that “violent social systems” contribute to the deterioration of community members’ psychological well-being:

For the meaningful and reparative inclusion and protection of LGBTQI+ people in Trinidad and Tobago, attention must be paid to different aspects of their lives that impact community members’ ability to live fully and equally. This includes physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing, as well as livelihood opportunities. The State is responsible for ensuring the rights of all citizens. Measures need to be taken to ensure LGBTQI+ people can enjoy their rights and freedoms, as with other social groups.

Problems being faced

The most common issues that people who used CAISO's services in 2024 reported experiencing were domestic violence (44 percent; both family and intimate partner violence), harassment and assault (25 percent), and issues relating to employment (nine percent).

The instances of domestic violence took various forms, including harassment, displacement, physical, verbal and financial abuse, and other forms of aggression. Unlike previous years, those who complained of workplace discrimination did not seek legal redress, regardless of the legitimacy of their claims, 50 percent of which involved unfair termination and 75 percent of which had to do with workplace harassment. Their decisions in this regard were either related to anxiety around meeting their basic needs, or concerns about their migration status, which the report said “points to a systemic gap in the delivery of justice of Trinidad and Tobago and perpetuates the economic exploitation of already marginalised people.”

Just as concerningly, 14 percent of people had experienced intimate partner violence, either in a current or past relationship, and 25 percent reported they had experienced harassment and/or physical and sexual assault outside of domestic relationships. Of the victims who reported sexual or physical assault, 43 percent decided not to pursue any legal action. In examining the data, CAISO found that “a lack of confidence in protective systems plays a key role in how people decide whether (and how) to take action, when they experience violations.”

Naturally, some people faced multiple overlapping problems, which increased their vulnerability. Food and financial insecurity accounted for 39 percent; housing instability, 36 percent. As many as 57 percent sought mental health support.

Analysis of the findings

CAISO’s Programme and Research Officer Kellog Nkemakolam explained that the 2024 Insights Report continues to illustrate the pervasive nature of state neglect and its failure to “acknowledge the realities of sexual diversity and gender expansiveness, as well as the distinct community experiences arising from these realities.”

He added that the state’s “unwillingness to confront its direct role and complacency in the violence faced by the community,” as well as the absence of “decisive steps to rectify this through legislative amendments and procedural reform,” makes the day to day reality of the most vulnerable members of the local LGBTQ+ community that much more untenable.

When it comes to domestic violence, Community Lawyer Donielle Jones noted that while the country's 2020 Domestic Violence (Amendment) Act provides avenues for legal recourse via Protection Order applications, most people were reluctant to follow through:

[P]eople dependent on those perpetrating violence are vulnerable to increased insecurities if they were to disrupt these relationships by instituting legal action. This was especially the case with young people and working-class people in domestic [relationships] where financial responsibilities were significantly intertwined, or where there was substantial imbalance in income and/or access to resources.

Complicating these challenges is the fact that they are often deeply intertwined. LGBTQ+ people who are victims of violence or employment discrimination, for instance, also tend to be more susceptible to food insecurity, financial hardship, and housing instability. Community caseworker, Rae Alibey, explained that such structural discrimination contributes to the prejudicial attitudes many people face, based on their real, or even perceived, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Power of communities

In the context of the 2025 IDAHOBIT theme “The Power of Communities,” CAISO Director Angelique V. Nixon made the point that, in working for equality and justice, “our differences matter and must be accounted for in the struggle for freedom.”

In this regard, the NGO would like to see amendments made to Trinidad and Tobago’s Equal Opportunity Act that address the exclusion of sexual orientation and include the the LGBTQ+ community under its protections, saying it is “one significant and meaningful change that the government can initiate to begin addressing the numerous silences and gaps in legislation and procedures.”

In addition to this type of legislative change, the 2024 Insights Report also advocated for inclusive and expanded social services, as well as education and training guardrails that would help protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and provide mechanisms for redress should violence or discrimination occur.