Court hears suit against 2 nations' anti-gay laws

A Caribbean court heard a challenge on Wednesday from a gay rights activist who argued that immigration laws ostensibly barring homosexuals from entering two countries in the region are discriminatory and must be repealed.

Maurice Tomlinson, a Jamaican gay rights activist who is a legal adviser with New York-based AIDS-Free World, argues that obscure immigration rules barring entry to gay people in Trinidad and Tobago and in Belize violate freedom-of-movement rights under a key Caribbean Community treaty.

He took his challenge to the Caribbean Court of Justice, the final appeals court for some members of the 15-member Caricom.