There are no laws protecting citizens of Dominica from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Reports of violence against LGBTQ+ citizens are often not taken seriously by the police and can actually victimize the reporter. Between the years 1995 and 2000, there were 35 people arrested and brought up on buggery, or sodomy, charges which results in fines and up to 10 years in prison. In 2001 alone 10 men and 15 women were jailed for “gross indecency”, a charged defined as any act other than sexual intercourse but is used mainly to persecute homosexual acts. In some cases, LGBTQ+ citizens are also sent to psychiatric hospitals by the court. There is a history of violence against gay tourists in Dominica and LGBTQ+ advocate groups have to operate in secret. Minority Rights Dominica was founded by Darryl Philip and is one such group working to advance rights and equality in Dominica. The Catholic church in Dominica is supportive of decriminalization and in 2013, Bishop Malzaire made a public call for the government to repeal the law that criminalizes same-sex marriage. In July 2019 a Gay man filed a lawsuit with Dominica’s High Court challenging two parts of the Sexual Offenses Act that criminalizes anal sex (10 year penalty) and “gross indecency” (12 year penalty). The unsupportive government and small size of Dominica has led to an extreme lack of research.
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Marriage for Same-Sex Couples
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Civil Unions
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Joint Adoption
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Second Parent Adoption
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Employment Nondiscrimination Laws
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Broad Protections
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Criminalization of Violence
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Ban of Conversion Therapy
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Consensual Same-Sex Acts are Legal?
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Gender
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Max Penalty (Yrs in Prison)
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Andil Gosine(2013) Murderous Men, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 15:4, 477-493, DOI:10.1080/14616742.2013.849965
Baptiste-Smith, C. (2018). HIV Testing Service Utilization among Men and Women in Dominica. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4801/b6f4e4a206884f3aa28ae9dc0b3d2ce21bee.pdf
Fabeni, S. (2011, July). A Shadow Report on the Violation of ICCPR Obligations Relating to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Perosns in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Retrieved from https://www.heartlandalliance.org/gihr/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/02/dominica-lgbt-iccpr-shadow-report.pdf
Malta, M., Cardoso, R., Montenegro, L.et al.Sexual and gender minorities rights in Latin America and the Caribbean: a multi-country evaluation. BMC Int Health Hum Rights19,31 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12914-019-0217-3
Nyblade, L., Jain, A., Benkirane, M., Li, L., Lohiniva, A.‐L., McLean, R., Turan, J.M., Varas‐Díaz, N., Cintrón‐Bou, F., Guan, J., Kwena, Z. and Thomas, W. (2013), A brief, standardized tool for measuring HIV‐related stigma among health facility staff: results of field testing in China, Dominica, Egypt, Kenya, Puerto Rico and St. Christopher & Nevis. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 16: 18718. doi: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.7448/IAS.16.3.18718
Television, S. (Producer). (2011, June 7). Living in the Shadows: MSM and HIV AIDS in Dominica [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLo9mN9pKBY