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LGBTQ rights by country or territory

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Redirect Template:Pp-semi-indef Template:Pp-move Template:Update Template:Use dmy dates Template:World homosexuality laws map Template:LGBTQI+ rights at the UNTemplate:LGBTQ rightsTemplate:Rights Template:LGBTQ sidebarTemplate:Discrimination sidebar Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.

File:Laws concerning gender identity-expression by country or territory.svg
Laws concerning gender identity-expression by country or territory Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend

Notably, Template:As of, 38 countries recognize same-sex marriage.<ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|title=Countries that allow same-sex marriage |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/countries-that-legally-allow-same-sex-marriage/photostory/98636202.cms |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=timesofindia.indiatimes.com}}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|title=Same-Sex Marriage Around the World |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/gay-marriage-around-the-world/ |website=Pew Research Center |date=9 June 2023 |access-date=26 October 2023}}</ref> By contrast, not counting non-state actors and extrajudicial killings, only two countries are believed to impose the death penalty on consensual same-sex sexual acts: Iran and Afghanistan.<ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|title=LGBTQ People in Afghanistan After the Taliban Takeover |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/01/26/even-if-you-go-skies-well-find-you/lgbt-people-afghanistan-after-taliban-takeover |website=Human Rights Watch |access-date=15 November 2022 |date=26 January 2022}}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The death penalty is officially law, but generally not practiced, in Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia (in the autonomous state of Jubaland) and the United Arab Emirates.<ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|date=2019-02-13 |title=United Arab Emirates |url=https://www.humandignitytrust.org./country-profile/united-arab-emirates/ |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=Human Dignity Trust |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|title=Saudi Arabia: Man sentenced for homosexuality. Amnesty |url=https://www.amnesty.org/fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/mde230132010en.pdf}}</ref> LGBTQ people also face extrajudicial killings in the Russian region of Chechnya.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Sudan rescinded its unenforced death penalty for anal sex (hetero- or homosexual) in 2020. Fifteen countries have stoning on the books as a penalty for adultery, which (in light of the illegality of gay marriage in those countries) would by default include gay sex, but this is enforced by the legal authorities in Iran and Nigeria (in the northern third of the country).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|last=Milton |first=Josh |date=2022-07-05 |title=Three men sentenced to death by stoning for being gay |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/07/05/nigeria-gay-death-sentence-islam/ |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=PinkNews }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed its first resolution recognizing LGBTQ rights, following which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report documenting violations of the rights of LGBT people, including hate crimes, criminalization of homosexual activity, and discrimination. Following the issuance of the report, the United Nations urged all countries which had not yet done so to enact laws protecting basic LGBTQ rights.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|title=UN issues first report on human rights of gay and lesbian people|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40743%7Cpublisher=United Nations|date=15 December 2011|access-date=20 September 2018|archive-date=7 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107142044/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40743%7Curl-status=live}}</ref> A 2022 study found that LGBTQ rights (as measured by ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Index) were correlated with less HIV/AIDS incidence among gay and bisexual men independently of risky sexual behavior.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The 2023 Equaldex Equality Index ranks the Nordic countries, Chile, Uruguay, Canada, the Benelux countries, Spain, Andorra, and Malta among the best for LGBTQ rights. The index ranks Nigeria, Yemen, Brunei, Afghanistan, Somalia, Mauritania, Palestine, and Iran among the worst.<ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|last=Staff |date=January 1, 2023 |title=LGBT Equality Index: The Most LGBT-Friendly Countries in the World |url=https://www.equaldex.com/equality-index |access-date=March 5, 2023 |website=Equaldex |language=en}}</ref>Template:Better source needed Asher & Lyric ranked Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands as the three safest nations for LGBTQ people in its 2023 index.<ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|date=5 June 2023 |title=The 203 Worst (& Safest) Countries for LGBTQ+ Travel in 2023 |url=https://www.asherfergusson.com/lgbtq-travel-safety/ |access-date=20 August 2023 |website=Asher & Lyric}}</ref>

Scope of lawsEdit

Laws that affect LGBTQ people include, but are not limited to, the following:

History of LGBT-related lawsEdit

Template:See also

Ancient IndiaEdit

Ayoni or non-vaginal sex of all types is punishable in the Arthashastra. Homosexual acts are, however, treated as a smaller offence punishable by a fine, while unlawful heterosexual sex carries much harsher punishment. The Dharmsastras, especially the later ones, prescribe against non-vaginal sex like the Vashistha Dharmasutra. The Yājñavalkya Smṛti prescribes fines for such acts including those with other men. Manusmriti prescribes light punishments for such acts.<ref name="DharmaLGBT">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Vanita>Template:Cite book</ref> Vanita states that the verses about punishment for a sex between female and a maiden is due to its strong emphasis on a maiden's sexual purity.<ref name="VanitaLGBT">Template:Cite book</ref>

Ancient IsraelEdit

The ancient Law of Moses (the Torah) forbids people from lying with people of the same sex (i.e., from having intercourse) in Leviticus 18 and gives a story of attempted homosexual rape in Genesis 19, in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, after which the cities were soon destroyed with "brimstone and fire, from the Lord"<ref name="S&G">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="SG2">Template:Cite book</ref> and the death penalty was prescribed to its inhabitants – and to Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt because she turned back to watch the cities' destruction.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Deuteronomy 22:5, cross-dressing is condemned as "abominable".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

AssyriaEdit

In Assyrian society, sex crimes were punished identically whether they were homosexual or heterosexual.<ref name="Nissinen">Template:Cite book</ref> An individual faced no punishment for penetrating someone of equal social class, a cult prostitute, or with someone whose gender roles were not considered solidly masculine.<ref name="Nissinen" /> Such sexual relations were even seen as good fortune, with an Akkadian tablet, the Šumma ālu, reading, "If a man copulates with his equal from the rear, he becomes the leader among his peers and brothers".<ref name="Greenberg">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|url=http://epistle.us/hbarticles/neareast.html%7Ctitle=Homosexuality in the Ancient Near East, beyond Egypt by Bruce Gerig in the Ancient Near East, beyond Egypt|website=epistle.us|access-date=23 March 2017|archive-date=2 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181002215825/http://epistle.us/hbarticles/neareast.html%7Curl-status=live}}</ref> However, homosexual relationships with fellow soldiers, slaves, royal attendants, or those where a social better was submissive or penetrated, were treated as bad omens.<ref>Pritchard, p. 181.</ref><ref>Gay Rights Or Wrongs: A Christian's Guide to Homosexual Issues and Ministry, by Mike Mazzalonga, 1996, p.11</ref>

Middle Assyrian Law Codes dating 1075 BC has a particularly harsh law for homosexuality in the military, which reads: "If a man have intercourse with his brother-in-arms, they shall turn him into a eunuch."<ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|last1=Halsall|first1=Paul|title=The Code of the Assura|url=https://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/1075assyriancode.asp%7Cwebsite=Internet History Sourcebooks Project|access-date=16 November 2015|publisher=Fordham University|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911230918/http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/1075assyriancode.asp%7Carchive-date=11 September 2015}}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A similar law code reads, "If a seignior lay with his neighbor, when they have prosecuted him (and) convicted him, they shall lie with him (and) turn him into a eunuch". This law code condemns a situation that involves homosexual rape. Any Assyrian male could visit a prostitute or lie with another male, just as long as false rumors or forced sex were not involved with another male.<ref>G. R. Driver and J. C. Miles, The Assyrian Laws (Oxford, Clarendon Press [1935]), 71.</ref>

Ancient RomeEdit

In ancient Rome, the bodies of citizen youths were strictly off-limits, and the Lex Scantinia imposed penalties on those who committed a sex crime (stuprum) against a freeborn male minor.<ref>Plutarch, Moralia 288a; Thomas Habinek, "The Invention of Sexuality in the World-City of Rome," in The Roman Cultural Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 39; Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," pp. 545–546. Scholars disagree as to whether the Lex Scantinia imposed the death penalty or a hefty fine.</ref> Acceptable same-sex partners were males excluded from legal protections as citizens: slaves, male prostitutes, and the infames, entertainers or others who might be technically free but whose lifestyles set them outside the law.

A male citizen who willingly performed oral sex or received anal sex was disparaged, but there is only limited evidence of legal penalties against these men.<ref>Williams, Roman Homosexuality, pp. 214–215; Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," passim.</ref> In courtroom and political rhetoric, charges of effeminacy and passive sexual behaviors were directed particularly at "democratic" politicians (populares) such as Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.<ref>Catharine Edwards, The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome (Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 63–64.</ref>

Roman law addressed the rape of a male citizen as early as the 2nd century BC when it was ruled that even a man who was "disreputable and questionable" had the same right as other citizens not to have his body subjected to forced sex.<ref>As recorded in a fragment of the speech De Re Floria by Cato the Elder (frg. 57 Jordan = Aulus Gellius 9.12.7), noted and discussed by Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," p. 561.</ref> A law probably dating to the dictatorship of Julius Caesar defined rape as forced sex against "boy, woman, or anyone"; the rapist was subject to execution, a rare penalty in Roman law.<ref>Richlin, "Not before Homosexuality," pp. 562–563. See also Digest 48.5.35 [34] on legal definitions of rape that included boys.</ref> A male classified as infamis, such as a prostitute or actor, could not as a matter of law be raped, nor could a slave, who was legally classified as property; the slave's owner, however, could prosecute the rapist for property damage.<ref>Under the Lex Aquilia. See McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome, p. 314.</ref>

In the Roman army of the Republic, sex among fellow soldiers violated the decorum against intercourse with citizens and was subject to harsh penalties, including death,<ref>McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality and the Law in Ancient Rome, p. 40.</ref> as a violation of military discipline.<ref>Sara Elise Phang, Roman Military Service: Ideologies of Discipline in the Late Republic and Early Principate (Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 93.</ref> The Greek historian Polybius (2nd century BC) lists deserters, thieves, perjurers, and "...on young men who have abused their persons" as subject to the fustuarium, clubbing to death.<ref>{{#invoke:Cite|web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/6*.html |author=Polybius |title=The Histories Fragments of Book VI |access-date=May 12, 2024}}</ref> Ancient sources are most concerned with the effects of sexual harassment by officers, but the young soldier who brought an accusation against his superior needed to show that he had not willingly taken the passive role or prostituted himself.<ref>Phang, The Marriage of Roman Soldiers, pp. 280–285.</ref> Soldiers were free to have relations with their male slaves;<ref>Phang, The Marriage of Roman Soldiers, p. 3.</ref> the use of a fellow citizen-soldier's body was prohibited, not homosexual behaviors per se.<ref>Williams, Roman Homosexuality, p. 112 et passim.</ref> By the late Republic and throughout the Imperial period, there is increasing evidence that men whose lifestyle marked them as "homosexual" in the modern sense served openly.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Although Roman law did not recognize marriage between men, and in general Romans regarded marriage as a heterosexual union with the primary purpose of producing children, in the early Imperial period some male couples were celebrating traditional marriage rites. Juvenal remarks with disapproval that his friends often attended such ceremonies.<ref>Juvenal, Satire 2; Williams, Roman Homosexuality, p. 28.</ref> The emperor Nero had two marriages to men, once as the bride (with a freedman Pythagoras) and once as the groom. His consort Sporus appeared in public as Nero's wife wearing the regalia that was customary for the Roman empress.<ref>Suetonius Life of Nero 28–29; Williams, Roman Homosexuality, p. 279ff.</ref>

Apart from measures to protect the prerogatives of citizens, the prosecution of homosexuality as a general crime began in the 3rd century of the Christian era when male prostitution was banned by Philip the Arab. By the end of the 4th century, after the Roman Empire had come under Christian rule, passive homosexuality was punishable by burning.<ref>Michael Groneberg, "Reasons for Homophobia: Three Types of Explanation," in Combatting Homophobia: Experiences and Analyses Pertinent to Education (LIT Verlag, 2011), p. 193.</ref> "Death by sword" was the punishment for a "man coupling like a woman" under the Theodosian Code.<ref>Codex Theodosianus 9.7.3 (4 December 342), introduced by the sons of Constantine in 342.</ref> Under Justinian, all same-sex acts, passive or active, no matter who the partners are, were declared contrary to nature and punishable by death.<ref>Groneberg, "Reasons for Homophobia," p. 193.</ref>

British EmpireEdit

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The United Kingdom introduced anti-homosexuality laws throughout its colonies, particularly in the 19th century when the British Empire was at its peak.<ref name="kirby-export">{{#invoke:Cite|journal|last1=Kirby |first1=Michael |title=The sodomy offence: England's least lovely criminal law export? |journal=Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change |date=2013 |url=https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4824/20/02Kirby_TheSodomyOffence.pdf |access-date=6 October 2020 |publisher=School of Advanced Study, University of London |location=London |archive-date=10 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201010225917/https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/4824/20/02Kirby_TheSodomyOffence.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> As of 2018, more than half of the 71 countries that criminalised homosexuality were former British colonies or protectorates.<ref name="cnn-british-legacy">{{#invoke:Cite|news|author=Ben Westcott |title=The homophobic legacy of the British Empire |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/11/asia/british-empire-lgbt-rights-section-377-intl/index.html |access-date=6 October 2020 |work=CNN |date=12 September 2018 |archive-date=8 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008120150/https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/11/asia/british-empire-lgbt-rights-section-377-intl/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1861, the British Empire introduced Section 377 of the British Colonial Penal Code, outlawing consensual sexual activity between same-sex couples as well as labelling third gender communities such as the apwint people and Hijra as "outlaw tribes". This law was intended to criminalise acts "against the order of nature". Section 377 was used to prosecute people engaging in oral and anal sex along with homosexual activity.

Today, Section 377 still exists in some former British colonies:

In addition to Section 377, the United Kingdom also introduced a number of laws targeting gender non-conformity throughout its colonies. In 1861, authorities of the North-Western Provinces (NWP) sought to enact a 'special law' against Hijra people in order to criminalise their identity.Template:Sfn The Hijra were included in the Criminal Tribes Act (1871)Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and were monitored with the hope of eliminating their culture.Template:Sfn Due to the passage of the Criminal Tribes Act (1871), Hijra people could not possess children. Template:Sfn

While significant progress has been made to reverse these laws, the majority of the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, formerly known as the British Commonwealth, still criminalise sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex and other forms of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Homosexual activity remains a criminal offence in 29 of the 56 sovereign states of the Commonwealth; and legal in only 27. In 3 of these states, homosexual activity is punishable by death.

LGBTQ communities still face significant discrimination due to the influence of colonialism in Former British colonies, despite these communities being accepted prior to British colonialism. In the Indic cultural sphere, references to a third sex can be found throughout the texts of India's religious traditions like Jainism<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Buddhism<ref name="Jackson10996">Template:Cite journal</ref> as well as the Kama Sutra.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The foundational work of Hindu law, the Manu Smriti (c. 200 BC–200 AD) explains humans as belonging to one of three biological sexes, indicating a belief that transsexuality was an inherent trait.

NetherlandsEdit

In 2001, the Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Global LGBT rights mapsEdit

Note that for simplicity the table below does not distinguish between 'legal' and 'lawful'. An action can only be legal or illegal where a specific law has been passed.

TimelineEdit

Template:Decriminalization of homosexuality timeline

LGBT-related laws by country or territoryEdit

Note: A country in this list is to be presumed to have equalized the age of consent at the same time as it decriminalized homosexual acts, unless otherwise noted.

AfricaEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

List of countries or territories by LGBT rights in Africa

AmericasEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

List of countries or territories by LGBT rights in the Americas

AntarcticaEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

AsiaEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

List of countries or territories by LGBT rights in Asia

EuropeEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

List of countries or territories by LGBT rights in Europe

OceaniaEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

List of countries or territories by LGBT rights in Oceania

See alsoEdit

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NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

<references />

External linksEdit

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