UK judges begin hearing appeal over Trinidad and Tobago anti-gay law

UK judges are hearing an appeal over Trinidad and Tobago's colonial-era law criminalizing same-sex intimacy. A 2018 ruling struck down the law as unconstitutional, but was overturned in 2023; the case now tests whether 'savings clauses' preserving British colonial laws after independence remain valid. Activists across the Caribbean are watching closely, as similar laws persist in five former British colonies in the Americas.

Teaching:
• Use this case as a teaching moment on how inherited structures (colonial laws, family patterns, postural habits) can persist long after their original context disappears—practice reveals where we're still bound by outdated code
• Frame asana work as 'constitutional review': which inherited alignments serve your present body, which are vestiges of someone else's rules? Students can learn to discern between tradition worth keeping and constraint worth releasing
• Discuss 'savings clauses' in practice: we often preserve old movement patterns or beliefs 'just in case,' even when they cause harm—Ashtanga's structure helps us audit what we're carrying forward and why
• Connect the 11-year legal fight to the patience required in practice: systems change slowly, whether legal or somatic, and sustained attention over time is how we dismantle what no longer serves

Writing seeds:
• Essay: 'Savings Clauses in the Body'—how we preserve outdated movement patterns, beliefs, and restrictions long after their original context has vanished, and how practice is the constitutional review process for embodied life
• Shala Daily post: 'What Are You Still Carrying From Someone Else's Empire?'—a short reflection on inherited structures in practice, using the Trinidad case as a frame for examining which traditions we keep and which we outgrow
• Long-form piece: 'Practice as Decolonization'—exploring how Ashtanga's structure can either reinforce inherited constraint or become a method for identifying and releasing outdated code in body and mind
• Newsletter essay: 'The Right Side of History Takes Time'—on the patience required for systems change, whether legal or somatic, and how daily practice is training in sustained attention to slow transformation

Idea map:
• Systems literacy: colonial 'savings clauses' are legacy code in legal systems—practice reveals similar legacy code in the body, inherited patterns that persist without examination
• Practice as method: just as Jones's case audits which colonial laws still serve, asana practice is an audit of which inherited structures (postural, attentional, belief-based) we're still running
• Embodiment: the law criminalizes consensual intimacy, severing people from bodily autonomy—practice restores the right to inhabit and author one's own body, to decide what serves and what doesn't
• Attention: the 11-year legal fight mirrors the long arc of practice—change happens through sustained, patient attention to what's no longer working, not through sudden revolution

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/08/uk-judges-appeal-trinidad-and-tobago-homophobic-law