The Legality Of Homosexuality

Map source: Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, www.glen.ie

The Legality of Homosexuality

By Stuart Bartlett

Despite significant progress made by equal rights movements worldwide, many countries still maintain laws restricting GLBT people’s freedoms. These laws range from unequal ages of consent to sodomy laws enforceable by the death penalty.

In the majority of Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States, the legal freedom of GLBT people to live as they wish is unquestioned. Activists now concern themselves with securing equal rights with heterosexuals, including the right to marry, and with ensuring protection from discrimination, both legal and personal. In many places of the world, however, homosexuality freedoms are severely restricted- to the point of certain so-called “sodomy laws” carrying the death penalty. Other laws do not prohibit homosexuality outright, but place unfair restrictions on homosexual couples, such as unequal ages of consent. In addition, many of the laws treat gay men and lesbians differently- indeed, the majority of the laws do not even consider the possibility of lesbianism, leading to many countries prohibiting male homosexuality while leaving lesbianism legal simply by default.

North America
Laws in North America are fairly tolerant, with Canada in particular standing out. Laws in the United States were decided on a state-by-state basis until 2003, when the Supreme Court ruled against Texas’s sodomy law and struck down the remaining states’ sodomy laws in the process.

Central and South America
With the exception of Belize and Guyana, which criminalize male homosexuality, no sodomy laws are enforced anywhere in South or Central America. Columbia is the only country which allows GLBT people to marry, though a few other states allow civil unions.

Asia
There are no laws against homosexuality in eastern Asia. In central and southern Asia, sodomy laws are more common, though India and Nepal repealed theirs in 2007 and 2009 respectively.

The Middle East
Homosexuality is predominantly illegal through most of the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Yemen, and Iran, it carries the death penalty. The two exceptions are Jordan and Israel.

Africa
Homosexuality is generally illegal throughout Africa. South African law guarantees GLBT rights and bans discrimination.  Several Central African countries and the island of Madagascar contain no references to homosexuality, and so it is considered legal by default.

Europe
Europe is by far the most legally friendly area in the world for GLBT people. With the exception of the Chechen Republic, homosexuality is universally legal, and gay marriage or civil unions are widespread.

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