The Turks and Caicos Islands’ Court of Appeal has ruled the British territory’s government must recognize a same-sex couple’s marriage.

Richard Sankar, a realtor who has lived in the British territory for nearly three decades and is a Turks and Caicos citizen, married Tim Haymon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2020.

Haymon, who is American, in August 2021 applied for a spousal exemption under the Turks and Caicos’ immigration law on the basis of his status as a spouse that would have allowed him to legally live and work in the territory.

The Turks and Caicos’ Director of Immigration initially denied the application because its definition of marriage used does not include same-sex couples.

Haymon and Sankar filed their lawsuit in October 2021. The Supreme Court heard the case in November 2022.

The court in March 2024 ruled the government’s refusal to issue a work permit exemption for Haymon violates the Turks and Caicos’ constitution that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. The government appealed the decision, and the Court of Appeal heard it in January 2025.

The Court of Appeal in September dismissed the government’s appeal. It released its decision on Oct. 27.

Stanbrook Prudhoe, a law firm in the Turks and Caicos, represents Haymon and Sankar.

“Just like any other spouse coming to the Turks and Caicos Islands and marrying a Turks and Caicos islander, we’re just wanting the same rights,” Haymon told the Blade during a March 2024 interview.

Haymon told the Blade he has received his “spousal certificate that gives me residency and the right to work” in the British territory in the British territory. The government appealed a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ordered it to give him the certificate, but the Court of Appeals denied it.

The Supreme Court ordered the Director of Immigration to grant Haymon a residence permit. He told the Blade he received it on Monday.

The Turks and Caicos are a group of islands that are located roughly 650 miles southeast of Miami.

Consensual same-sex sexual relations have been decriminalized in the British territory since 2001.

The constitution states “every unmarried man and woman of marriageable age (as determined by or under any law) has the right to marry a person of the opposite sex and found a family.” The constitution also says “every person in the islands is entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, that is to say, the right, without distinction of any kind, such as race, national or social origin, political or other opinion, color, religion, language, creed, association with a national minority, property, sex, sexual orientation, birth, or other status.”

Then-Cayman Islands Grand Court Chief Justice Anthony Smellie in 2019 ruled same-sex couples can legally marry in the Cayman Islands. The Caymanian Court of Appeal later overturned the decision, and the British territory’s Civil Partnership Law took effect in 2020. 

Then-Bermuda Supreme Court Justice Charles-Etta Simmons in 2017 issued a ruling that paved the way for gays and lesbians to legally marry in the British territory. The Domestic Partnership Act — a law then-Gov. John Rankin signed that allows same-sex couples to enter into domestic partnerships as opposed to get married — took effect in 2018.

Bermuda’s top court later found the Domestic Partnership Act unconstitutional. The Privy Council, a British territories appellate court in London, upheld the law. It also ruled same-sex couples do not have the constitutional right to marry in the Cayman Islands.

The Turks and Caicos government has until Nov. 24 to appeal the Court of Appeals decision. It remains possible the Privy Council’s Judicial Committee could hear Haymon and Sankar’s case.

A Jamaican LGBTQ rights group is raising funds to help victims of Hurricane Melissa.

The funds that Equality for All Foundation Jamaica is raising through the Rustin Fund for Global Equality will “provide emergency housing, transportation, essentials, and rebuilding support for those in our community most in need.”

“Hurricane Melissa has caused extensive devastation across Jamaica, leaving many families and communities struggling to recover,” said the Equality for All Foundation Jamaica in a social media post that announced the fund. “Among those affected are LGBTQI+ Jamaicans, many of whom already experience homelessness, displacement, and further barriers to accessing public relief and safe shelter due to fear or past experiences of discrimination.”

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Melissa on Oct. 28 made landfall in Jamaica’s Westmoreland Parish with sustained winds of 185 mph.

The BBC notes the Category 5 hurricane that caused widespread destruction in western Jamaica killed at least 28 people on the island. Melissa also killed more than 30 people in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic.

Heavy rains and strong winds caused widespread damage in eastern Cuba after Melissa made landfall in the country’s Santiago de Cuba Province on Oct. 29. The hurricane also impacted the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Bermuda.

Jamaica is among the countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized. Discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity is also commonplace in Jamaica, as the Washington Blade has previously reported.

“Jamaica has just endured one of its worst natural disasters with the passage of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa,” wrote Craig Rijkaard, a member of the Rustin Fund’s board of directors, on Oct. 29 in a post on the organization’s website. “The damage and disruptions across central and western parishes are immense — flooding, road blockages, power outages, loss of buildings/homes, mass evacuations, and tragic loss of life.”

“LGBTQI+ Jamaicans are especially vulnerable, as one in three has experienced homelessness or displacement,” added Rijkaard. “Unfortunately, government-led relief efforts do not always work well for our communities, as many LGBTQI+ Jamaicans are afraid to access public services due to fear and the lived reality of discrimination — over a third report they would avoid emergency aid for this reason.”

Click here to donate to the fund.

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, where LGBTQ rights advance and retreat with every political tide, there exists a reality that remains almost invisible: that of people who, in addition to belonging to the LGBTQ community, live with a physical, motor, or sensory disability. In them, two battles converge — one for recognition and another for accessibility — often fought in silence.

According to the World Bank, more than 85 million people with disabilities live in Latin America and the Caribbean. At the same time, the region is home to some of the most vibrant LGBTQ movements in the world, though deep-rooted violence and exclusion persist. Yet studies that cross both realities are almost nonexistent — and that lack of data is itself a form of violence.

Being LGBTQ in Latin America still often means facing family rejection, workplace discrimination, or religious exclusion. But when disability is added to the equation, the barriers multiply. As a Brazilian activist quoted by “CartaCapital” put it, “When I walk into an interview, they look at my wheelchair first, and then they find out I’m gay. That’s when the double filter begins.” This phenomenon, known as double prejudice, appears both outside and within the LGBTQ community itself. Disability is often invisible even at Pride marches or in diversity campaigns, where young, able-bodied imagery predominates. Ableism — the belief that only certain bodies are valid — seeps even into spaces that claim to celebrate inclusion.

The desexualization of people with disabilities is one of the most subtle and persistent forms of exclusion. The Argentine report Sex, Disability, and Pleasure, published by Distintas Latitudes, shows how society tends to deny the right to desire and love for those living with physical limitations. When that person is also LGBTQ, the denial doubles: they are stripped of their body, their desire, and a fundamental part of their human dignity. As Mexican psychologist María L. Aguilar states “the desexualization of people with disabilities is a form of symbolic violence. And when it intersects with sexual diversity, it becomes a denial of the right to pleasure and autonomy.”

One of the most visible examples of inclusion comes from the world of sports. 

At the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, at least 38 LGBTQ athletes competed, according to a report by Agencia Presentes. Yet the question remains: how many LGBTQ people with disabilities outside the sports world have access to employment, relationships, or basic services? In a continent marked by inequality, the intersection of sexual orientation, disability, poverty, and gender creates a mix of vulnerabilities that few public policies address.

Various studies show that LGBTQ people in Latin America experience higher rates of depression and anxiety than the general population. Reports on disability in the region also point to high levels of isolation and lack of support. But there are no intersectional data to measure how these challenges unfold when both realities converge. In countries like Chile, the Disability and Inclusion Observatory reports a high prevalence of mental health issues and insufficient access to specialized services. In the U.S., the Trevor Project has found that Latine LGBTQ youth face a greater risk of suicide attempts when exposed to multiple forms of discrimination. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, the absence of such data does not just reflect neglect — it perpetuates invisibility.

Neither disability laws nor LGBTQ policies address this intersection. A report by the International Disability Alliance warns that LGBTQ people with disabilities “face multiple discrimination and lack specific protections.” Even so, signs of progress are emerging: in Mexico, the Collective of LGBTQ+ People with Disabilities works to raise visibility around double exclusion; in Brazil, Vale PCD promotes labor and cultural inclusion; and in the Eastern Caribbean, Project LIVITY, led by the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality, known by the acronym ECADE, strengthens the political participation of people with disabilities and LGBTQ communities.

True inclusion is not measured by ramps or tolerance speeches. It is measured by a society’s capacity to recognize human dignity in all its expressions — without pity, without voyeurism, and without conditions. It’s not about applauding stories of resilience but about ensuring the right to a full life. As one Caribbean leader quoted by ECADE put it, “inclusion is not a gesture; it is a moral and political decision.”

This issue calls for a continental conversation. Latin America and the Caribbean will only be able to speak of real equality when the body, desire, and freedom of LGBTQ people with disabilities are respected with the same passion with which diversity is proclaimed. Naming what remains unnamed is the first step toward justice. Because what is not measured is not addressed, and what is not seen does not exist.