Decriminalization of homosexuality is the repeal of laws criminalizing same-sex acts between multiple men or multiple women. It has taken place in most of the world, except much of Africa and the Muslim world.
Decriminalization of homosexuality is the repeal of laws criminalizing same-sex acts between multiple men or multiple women. It has taken place in most of the world, except much of Africa and the Muslim world.
During the French Revolution in 1791, the National Constituent Assembly abolished the law against homosexuality as part of adopting a new legal code without the influence of Christianity. Although the assembly never discussed homosexuality, it has been legal in France ever since. [1] [2] Previously it could be punished by burning to death, although this was infrequently enforced. [3] [4] The abolition of criminality for sodomy was codified in the 1810 penal code. [5]
The decriminalization of homosexuality was spread across Europe by Napoleon's conquests and the adoption of civil law and penal codes on the French model, leading to abolition of criminality in many jurisdictions and replacement of death with imprisonment in others. [6] [7] Via military occupation or emulation of the French criminal code, the Scandinavian countries, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Japan, and their colonies and territories—including much of Latin America—decriminalized homosexuality. [8] Confirmed by the French Criminal Code of 1810 and applied in the Napoleonic empire, decriminalization then became definitive in some states that emerged from the empire (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, some Swiss cantons), but was temporary in others which recriminalized in part (some Italian states) or in whole (Germany, Spain) in the 19th or 20th century. [9] It is the exception rather than the rule that civil law systems criminalized homosexuality. [10] Former French colonies are less likely than British ones to criminalize homosexuality, [11] [12] although such laws have been added in some colonies that adopted French criminal codes, including Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon. [12] The Ottoman Empire is often considered to have decriminalized homosexuality in 1858, when it adopted a French-inspired criminal code, [13] but Elif Ceylan Özsoy argues that homosexuality was already decriminalized and this change of law actually penalized homosexuality more harshly than before because it introduced higher penalties for public displays of same-sex affection. [14]
The Soviet government of the Russian Soviet Republic (RSFSR) decriminalised homosexuality in December 1917, following the October Revolution and the discarding of the Legal Code of Tsarist Russia. [15]
The legalisation of homosexuality was confirmed in the RSFSR Penal Code of 1922, and following its redrafting in 1926. According to Dan Healey, archival material that became widely available following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 "demonstrates a principled intent to decriminalize the act between consenting adults, expressed from the earliest efforts to write a socialist criminal code in 1918 to the eventual adoption of legislation in 1922." [16]
The Bolsheviks also rescinded Tsarist legal bans on homosexual civil and political rights, especially in the area of state employment. In 1918, Georgy Chicherin, a homosexual man who kept his homosexuality hidden, was appointed as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR. In 1923, Chicherin was also appointed People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, a position he held until 1930. [17]
In the early 1920s, the Soviet government and scientific community took a great deal of interest in sexual research, sexual emancipation and homosexual emancipation. In January 1923, the Soviet Union sent delegates from the Commissariat of Health led by Commissar of Health Semashko [18] to the German Institute for Sexual Research as well as to some international conferences on human sexuality between 1921 and 1930, where they expressed support for the legalisation of adult, private and consensual homosexual relations and the improvement of homosexual rights in all nations. [15] [18] In both 1923 and 1925, Dr. Grigorii Batkis , director of the Institute for Social Hygiene in Moscow, published a report, The Sexual Revolution in Russia , which stated that homosexuality was "perfectly natural" and should be legally and socially respected. [19] [18] In the Soviet Union itself, the 1920s saw developments in serious Soviet research on sexuality in general, sometimes in support of the progressive idea of homosexuality as a natural part of human sexuality, such as the work of Dr. Batkis prior to 1928. [20] Such delegations and research were sent and authorised and supported by the People's Commissariat for Health under Commissar Semashko. [15]
The legalisation of private, adult and consensual homosexual relations only applied to the Russian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR. Homosexuality remained a crime in Azerbaijan (officially criminalised in 1923), as well as in the Transcaucasian and Central Asian Soviet Republics throughout the 1920s. [21] Similar criminal laws were enacted in Uzbekistan in 1926 and in Turkmenistan the following year. [22]
Despite decriminalising homosexuality in 1917 wider Soviet social policy on the matter of wider homosexual rights and the treatment of homosexual people in the 1920s was often mixed. The Soviet courts still tried to repress sexual variation even when homosexuality was not a crime. [23] In the late 1920s, Soviet government towards homosexuality and homosexual rights underwent a change, and reversed its earlier openness to same-sex sexuality by implementing laws criminalizing male homosexuality in 1934. [24]
By 1958, Interpol had noticed a trend towards the partial decriminalization of homosexuality with a higher age of consent than for heterosexual relationships. This model was recommended by various international organizations. Convergence occurred both through the partial decriminalization of homosexuality (as in the United Kingdom, and many other countries) or through the partial criminalization of homosexuality (such as in Belgium, where the law increased the age of consent from 16 to 18 for same-sex sexual activity came into effect in 1965). [25] Overall, there was a wave of decriminalization in the late twentieth century. Ninety percent of changes to these laws between 1945 and 2005 involved liberalization or abolition. [26] One explanation for these legal changes is increased regard for human rights and autonomy of the individual [27] and the effects of the 1960s sexual revolution. [28] The trend in increased attention to individual rights in laws around sexuality has been observed around the world, but progresses more slowly in some regions, such as the Middle East. [29]
Eighty percent of repeals between 1972 and 2002 were done by the legislature and the remainder by the laws being ruled unconstitutional by a court. [30] The 1981 ruling in Dudgeon v. United Kingdom by the European Court of Human Rights was the first time that a court called for the decriminalization of homosexuality. [31] Unlike earlier decriminalizations, repeal was not coincidental with the adoption of a new system of criminal law but rather by means of a specific law to repeal criminal sanctions on homosexuality, beginning with Sweden in 1944. [32] Decriminalization, initially limited to Europe and the Americas, spread globally in the 1980s. [33] The pace of decriminalization reached a peak in the 1990s. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many former Soviet republics decriminalized homosexuality, [34] but others in Central Asia retained these laws. [35] China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997. [36] Following a protracted legal battle, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the criminalization of homosexuality violated the Constitution of India in the 2018 Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India judgement. [37] [38] In 2019, a plan to punish homosexuality in Brunei with a death sentence met with international outcry; as a result, there is a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. [38] Most Caribbean countries are former British colonies and retain the criminalization of homosexuality; Belize was the first to decriminalize it after the law was ruled unconstitutional in 2016. [39]
Studies have found that modernization, as measured by the Human Development Index or GDP per capita, [40] and globalization (KOF Index of Globalization) was negatively correlated having laws criminalizing homosexuality over time. [41] LGBT movements often developed after the repeal of criminal laws, but in some cases they contributed to repeal efforts. [42] LGBT activism against criminalization can take multiple forms, including directly advocating the repeal of the laws, strategic litigation in the judicial system in order to reduce enforceability, seeking external allies from outside the country, and capacity building within the community. [43] Although British colonization is associated with the criminalization of homosexuality, it has no effect on the likelihood of decriminalization. [44]
In 1981, the Council of Europe passed a resolution urging the decriminalization of homosexuality and the abolition of discriminatory age of consent laws. [45] Following the Dudgeon case the Council of Europe made decriminalization of homosexuality a requirement for membership, which in turn was a prerequisite for membership in the European Union; several European countries decided to decriminalize homosexuality as a result. [46] The Council of Europe admitted Lithuania in 1993 a few months before the country had repealed the criminalization of homosexuality; Romania was admitted the same year after promising to repeal its law but was still enforcing it in 1998. [47] Russia gave up its sodomy law in 1993 in part because of an aspiration to join the Council of Europe. [48] The last jurisdiction in Europe to decriminalize homosexuality was the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 2014. [49]
Africa is the only continent where decriminalization of homosexuality has not been widespread since the mid-twentieth century. [50] In Africa, one of the primary narratives cited in favor of the criminalization of homosexuality is "defending ordre public , morality, culture, religion, and children from the assumed imperial gay agenda" associated with the Global North; homosexuality is seen as an "un-African" foreign import. [51] [52] [53] Such claims ignore the fact that many indigenous African cultures tolerated homosexuality, and historically the criminalization of homosexuality derives from British colonialism. [54] [55] [52] In the Middle East, homosexuality has been seen as a tool of Western domination for the same reason. [56]
The Obama administration's policy of supporting the decriminalization of homosexuality forced African politicians to take a public stance against LGBT rights in order to retain their domestic support. [51] The application of international pressure to decriminalize homosexuality has had mixed results in Africa. While it led to liberalization in some countries, it also prompted public opinion to be skeptical of these demands and encouraging countries to pass even more restrictive laws in resistance to what is seen as neocolonial pressure. [57] [58] [59] It has therefore been argued by some scholars such as Joseph Massad that the international LGBT movement does more harm than good in Africa or the Middle East, while some African LGBT organizations have urged Western countries not to leverage donor aid on LGBT rights issues. [60] In 2015, African academics launched a petition calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality and criticizing several common arguments against this move. [61] Politicians may also use homosexuality to distract from other issues. [27] [53]
Following decolonization, several former British colonies expanded laws that had only targeted men in order to include same-sex behavior by women. [62] In many African countries, anti-homosexuality laws were little enforced for decades only to see increasing enforcement, politicization, and calls for harsher penalties since the mid-1990s. [63] [64] Such calls often come from domestic religious institutions. The rise of Evangelical Christianity and especially Pentecostalism have increased the politicization of homosexuality as these churches have been engaged in anti-homosexual mobilizations as a form of nation building. [65] Cameroon had an anti-homosexuality law since 1962, but it was not enforced until 2005. That year both the Roman Catholic Church (especially Archbishop Simon-Victor Tonyé Bakot and Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi) and the media began to make homosexuality a political issue. [66] As of 2020, Cameroon "currently prosecutes consensual same sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world". [67] In Uganda, proposals to deepen the criminalization of homosexuality such as the so-called "Kill the Gays" bill have gained international attention. [68] Other African countries such as South Africa, Angola, Botswana, and Mozambique have decriminalized homosexuality. [69]
Adherence to Islam is also a major predictor of maintaining laws criminalizing homosexuality and the death penalty for it. [70] [71] [72] In some countries, criminalization of homosexuality derives from the application of sharia law. [12] State interference in religious matters, for example religious courts having jurisdiction beyond family law or bans on interfaith marriage, is strongly correlated with maintaining the criminalization of homosexuality. [73]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Bosnia and Herzegovina may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female forms of same-sex sexual activity are legal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.
Section 377 is a British colonial penal code that criminalized all sexual acts "against the order of nature". The law was used to prosecute people engaging in oral and anal sex along with homosexual activity. As per Supreme Court Judgement since 2018, the Indian Penal Code Section 377 is used to convict non-consensual sexual activities among homosexuals with a minimum of ten years imprisonment extended to life imprisonment. It has been used to criminalize third gender people, such as the apwint in Myanmar. In 2018, then British Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged how the legacies of such British colonial anti-sodomy laws continues to persist today in the form of discrimination, violence, and even death.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Angola have seen improvements in the early 21st century. In November 2020, the National Assembly approved a new penal code, which legalised consenting same-sex sexual activity. Additionally, employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been banned, making Angola one of the few African countries to have such protections for LGBT people.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Botswana face legal issues not experienced by non-LGBT citizens. Both female and male same-sex sexual acts have been legal in Botswana since 11 June 2019 after a unanimous ruling by the High Court of Botswana. Despite an appeal by the government, the ruling was upheld by the Botswana Court of Appeal on 29 November 2021.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people face widespread prosecution in Uzbekistan. Same-sex sexual activity between men is illegal in Uzbekistan. The punishment is up to three years in prison. Uzbekistan is one of just two post-Soviet states in which male homosexual activity remains criminalised, along with Turkmenistan.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Sri Lanka face significant challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Senegal experience legal persecution. Senegal specifically outlaws same-sex sexual acts and, in the past, has prosecuted men accused of homosexuality. Members of the LGBT community face routine discrimination in Senegalese society.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Africa are generally poor in comparison to the Americas, Western Europe and Oceania.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Zambia face significant challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal for both men and women in Zambia. Formerly a colony of the British Empire, Zambia inherited the laws and legal system of its colonial occupiers upon independence in 1964. Laws concerning homosexuality have largely remained unchanged since then, and homosexuality is covered by sodomy laws that also proscribe bestiality. Social attitudes toward LGBT people are mostly negative and coloured by perceptions that homosexuality is immoral and a form of insanity. However, in recent years, younger generations are beginning to show positive and open minded attitudes towards their LGBT peers.
This is a list of important events relating to the LGBT community from 1801 to 1900. The earliest published studies of lesbian activity were written in the early 19th century.
A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood and defined by many courts and jurisdictions to include any or all forms of sexual acts that are deemed to be "illegal", "illicit", "unlawful", "unnatural" and/or "immoral". Sodomy typically includes anal sex, oral sex, manual sex, and bestiality. In practice, sodomy laws have rarely been enforced to target against sexual activities between individuals of the opposite sex, and have mostly been used to target against sexual activities between individuals of the same sex.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Guinea-Bissau face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Guinea-Bissau, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Northern Cyprus since 7 February 2014. Previous laws allowed three years prison sentences, according to Articles 171 and 173 of its criminal code. Female homosexuality was not criminalised. Arrests for homosexuality have occurred as recently as 2011.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Seychelles face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 2016, and employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is banned in Seychelles, making it one of the few African countries to have such protections for LGBT people. However, LGBT people may nonetheless face stigmatization among the broader population.
Communist attitudes towards LGBT rights have evolved radically in the 21st century. In the 19th and 20th century, communist parties and Marxist–Leninist states varied on LGBT rights; some Western parties were among the first political parties to support LGBT rights, while others, especially the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc, harshly persecuted people of the LGBT community.
The history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) in Russia and its historical antecedents has largely been influenced by the political leanings of its rulers. Medieval Catholic-Protestant Europe had the largest influence on Russian attitude towards homosexuality. Russian LGBT history was influenced by the ambivalent attitude of the Russian Orthodox religiosity regarding sexuality.
Sexual activities involving men who have sex with men (MSM), regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual identity, can include anal sex, non-penetrative sex, and oral sex. Evidence shows that sex between men is significantly underreported in surveys.
Capital punishment as a criminal punishment for homosexuality has been implemented by a number of countries in their history. It is a legal punishment in several countries and regions, all of which have sharia-based criminal laws, except for Uganda.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the post-Soviet states face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents.
Some or all sexual acts between men, and less frequently between women, have been classified as a criminal offense in various regions. Most of the time, such laws are unenforced with regard to consensual same-sex conduct, but they nevertheless contribute to police harassment, stigmatization, and violence against homosexual and bisexual people. Other effects include exacerbation of the HIV epidemic due to the criminalization of men who have sex with men, discouraging them from seeking preventative care or treatment for HIV infection.