100,000 people have signed a petition calling on Commonwealth countries to roll back their anti-gay laws. More than one billion people live in Commonwealth countries with colonial-era gay sex laws.

Many Commonwealth countries continue to enforce penal codes that were first introduced under the British Empire, and never repealed. They include 10 years imprisonment and hard labour in Jamaica, 14 years in Kenya, 20 years plus flogging in Malaysia, and 25 years in Trinidad and Tobago. Homosexuality is punishable by death in member states Brunei and the northern part of Nigeria.

Edwin Sesange, who launched the petition said: “The demand for equality is no longer an issue for the minority but for the majority. “I therefore thank all those who have managed to bring this issue to light."

A group of LGBT rights campaigners organised by the Peter Tatchell Foundation protested against the criminalisation of homosexuality on Commonwealth Day. According to the Peter Tatchell Foundation, these Commonwealth Heads of Government have previously refused to discuss LGBT+ issues. Read more via Pink News