In a landmark ruling, the Dominican Constitutional Court (TC) has invalidated articles from the Police and Armed Forces justice codes that criminalized homosexual relations among service members. The ruling, issued on 18 November 2025, removes long-standing penalties that defined “sodomy” as same-sex intercourse, ensuring that members of the military and national police can engage in such relationships without fear of sanction, the media reports.
The 2010 Constitution explicitly bans same-sex marriage, a change that was carried into the 2015 version.
The Constitutional Court’s new ruling, designated TC/1225/25, specifically targets Article 210 of Law 285 (1966), which created the National Police Justice Code, and Article 260 of Law 3483 (1953), which established the Armed Forces Justice Code.
The repealed articles previously stipulated varied terms of “correctional prison” for offenders depending on their rank. For officers, the punishments ranged from six months to two years of correctional prison. For enlisted personnel, penalties were set between two to six months of correctional prison.
The provisions were exclusively aimed at same-sex acts, while identical conduct between heterosexual individuals went unsanctioned.
Violation of fundamental rights
The Constitutional Court deemed both articles “ostensibly unconstitutional,” finding that they violated several fundamental rights enshrined in the Dominican Constitution and international human rights treaties.
The Court argued the penalties violated the Principle of Reasonability, was unjustifiably discriminate against individuals based on their sexual orientation, and affected the right to privacy, the free development of personality, and the right to work for personnel in the National Police and Armed Forces.
The decision was a response to an action of unconstitutionality filed by Anderson Javiel Dirocie de León and Patricia M. Santana Nina. The petitioners argued that the articles breached constitutional provisions related to equality and non-discrimination, as well as several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR).
In their submission, the petitioners highlighted the discriminatory nature of the laws: “The attacked norms only punish sex when it occurs between people of the same sex. In contrast, the same conduct is not sanctioned when it takes place between two people of opposite sexes.
El Dia reports that the ruling has been felt like a bucket of cold water by the two largest religious groups. The Roman Catholic Church and the Dominican Council of Evangelical Unity (Codue) were among the first to voice strong opposition to the Constitutional Court’s (TC) recent decision to decriminalize same-sex relations within the National Police and Armed Forces, labeling the ruling “mistaken” and “unsuitable.”
The primary figure expressing the Church’s stance is the new Coadjutor Bishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Carlos Tomás Morel Diplán, criticized the court for its “ill-advised” decision. The prelate insisted on the need for social caution, stating that the measure “sends a bad signal to society.”
The newly appointed Santo Domingo bishop called for safeguarding the nation’s traditional family structure. “We must protect and shield family values, the unity between man and woman,” the bishop emphasized, reinforcing the Church’s commitment to the male-female marital paradigm as the foundation of the family unit.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nacional
Listin Diario
Listin Diario
El Dia
20 November 2025