Jason Jones

Jason Jones (born 5 September 1964) is a gay LGBTQI+ activist from Trinidad and Tobago who successfully challenged the constitutionality of Sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offenses Act prohibiting consensual adult intercourse per anum and sexual acts between consenting same-sex adults. In a landmark judgment in the English-speaking Caribbean, Justice Devindra Rampersad ruled the clauses unconstitutional and null and void.

Early life Born in Port of Spain, Jones was an altar boy and sang in the choir at St Patrick's RC Church while attending Newtown Boys' RC primary school. He later attended Fatima College. He was the grandson of the St Patrick's organist Ivy Telfer. His mother was Monica Jones, a British journalist, and his father Mervyn Telfer, a television broadcaster on the national TV station Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT). His mother later married Rex Lassalle, one of the leaders of a Regiment mutiny on April 21, 1970, known as the Black Power Revolution. Jones was bullied as a child because "it was obvious to others" he was gay. He said in a newspaper interview that his parents "outed" him: "One day they sat me down and had a talk with me because there was so much homophobic bullying happening to me and I didn't even know what a bullerman [a homophobic slur in Trinidad] was. They sat me down and explained what it meant. They didn't avoid the pink elephant in the room." Jones was a singer and left Trinidad in 1985 to pursue his singing career in the UK. In 2010 and 2014 he returned to Trinidad and Tobago but returned to the UK again in the face of "intolerable" homophobia. challenging the constitutionality of Sections 13 and 16 in the Sexual Offences Act on the basis that: the “very existence of these sections continuously and directly affects the claimant’s private life by forcing him to either respect the law and refrain from engaging – even in private with consenting male partners – in prohibited sexual acts to which he is disposed by reason of his homosexual orientation, or to commit the prohibited acts and thereby become liable to criminal prosecution”. and delivered its judgment on April 12, 2018.

In his judgement Justice Devindra Rampersad said Jones had proved the State's retention of the pertinent sections had “everything to do with homosexuality and the colonial abhorrence to the practice.”

The Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal upheld the appeal of the Attorney General on 25 March 2025. Jason Jones has stated his intention to appeal the ruling to the Privy Council.

Media activism Jones uses social media to raise funds for his legal campaign. His Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts often feature posts on his campaign for LGBTQI+ rights in Trinidad and Tobago.