“The love that dare not speak its name”

A strong global movement has improved respect for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people around the world. However, at least 67 countries have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults. In addition, at least nine countries have national laws criminalizing forms of gender expression that target transgender and gender nonconforming people. This series of maps provides a global overview of those laws.

Legal sanctions against same-sex conduct vary in scope and application. In some countries, only specific sexual acts are punished, while in others the laws are more general, often vague and open to varying interpretation. Sentences range from fines to life imprisonment and even the death penalty. In some countries, law enforcement agencies aggressively pursue and prosecute people suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. In others, the laws are rarely enforced but nonetheless have severe consequences for LGBT people, serving to justify discriminatory treatment and impeding LGBT people’s access to employment, health services, and police protection.

Among countries that expressly forbid expression of transgender identities, at least two, Brunei and Oman, have national laws that criminalize “posing as” or “imitating” a person of a different sex. Saudi Arabia has no codified law, but police routinely arrest people based on their gender expression. Malaysia also criminalizes “posing as” a different sex, not in its federal criminal code but in the Sharia codes of each of its states and its federal territory. Nigeria criminalizes transgender and gender nonconforming people in its northern states under Sharia.

In South Sudan, such laws only apply to men who “dress as women” and in Malawi, men who wear their hair long. Tonga prohibits any “male person” from presenting as a female while “soliciting for an immoral purpose, in a public place with intent to deceive any other person as to his true sex.”

In the United Arab Emirates, laws prohibit men “posing as” women in order to enter women-only spaces. The UAE has used this law to prosecute gay and transgender people even in mixed-gender spaces. Other countries with similar laws on “women-only” spaces have not done so, to our knowledge, and are not included in these maps.

Human Dignity Trust has reported that 15 countries maintain unequal ages of consent, with a higher bar set for same-sex couples than different-sex couples, or for anal sex as compared to vaginal sex. This includes several countries that otherwise have progressive laws on sexual orientation and gender identity, such as Canada and Chile.

In 11 states of the United States, unenforceable laws prohibiting consensual same-sex conduct remain on the books despite a 2003 Supreme Court decision that found such laws unconstitutional.

The fact that we have not included a particular country in these maps does not mean it is in compliance with international human rights law. Russia and Lithuania, for instance, do not criminalize same-sex acts or forms of gender expression, but they prohibit so-called “propaganda” in support of LGBT rights, in an effort to silence activists. Many other countries have erected barriers to freedom of association and assembly for LGBT groups, as documented by OutRight Action International.

Laws are constantly changing, and we intend to update this resource to reflect such changes. In April 2023, the Parliament of the Cook Islands voted to decriminalize same-sex sexual activity between men. The Crimes Act 1969 criminalized “indecent acts” and acts of “sodomy.” In August 2022, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court struck down discriminatory legal provisions that criminalized same-sex relations in St. Kitts and Nevis, this ruling came off the heels of a similar decision in June from the High Court of Justice for Antigua and Barbuda decriminalizing same-sex relations. In August 2022 Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s announced that Singapore would decriminalize same-sex intimacy. In February, 2022, the Kuwaiti Constitutional Court ruled article 198 of the penal code, which arbitrarily criminalizes “imitating the opposite sex,” unconstitutional, finding it inconsistent with Kuwait’s Constitution that enshrines personal freedom. Kuwaiti lawyers working on the case said that Human Rights Watch’s 2012 report, “They Hunt Us Down for Fun,” which documented extensively the law’s negative effects on the lives of transgender women, was instrumental in achieving this important judicial step. In February 2021, Bhutan issued an amended penal code that no longer criminalized same sex relations. In June 2019, the Botswana High Court struck down laws prohibiting same-sex conduct, as did the Supreme Court in India and the High Court in Trinidad and Tobago the year before. The Caribbean Court of Justice in 2018 invalidated a Guyana law prohibiting some forms of gender expression. Angola in January 2019 issued a new penal code that no longer penalizes homosexual sex. Gabon criminalized same-sex conduct in July 2019, but in July 2020, parliament voted to revoke the law. Brunei enacted a new sharia code in April 2019 introducing new laws against sex between women and gender nonconformity alongside appalling punishments, including death by stoning, for anal intercourse.

Click on the country bubbles for a snapshot of each country's laws. For more information and Human Rights Watch reporting, click on the country name in the black pop-up box.

Type of Anti-LGBT Laws

This map examines two different types of anti-LGBT laws. The red dots indicate countries that outlaw same-sex relations between consenting adults.¹ The blue dots indicate countries that criminalize forms of gender expression, such as “imitating the opposite sex.” ²

• laws that outlaw same-sex relations
• laws that criminalize forms of gender expression

Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Relations, by Type of Offense

Legislation prohibiting same-sex conduct is frequently vague, euphemistic, and selectively enforced. “Buggery” is specific to anal sex, while “sodomy” can refer to anal or oral sex. Neither term is not specific to same-sex relations, but arrests of heterosexual couples under such laws are exceedingly rare. Most laws promulgated in former British colonies punish “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” or “gross indecency,” grouped together here as “unnatural/indecent acts.” “Against the order of nature” has been interpreted by courts to mean oral or anal sex and is theoretically applicable to different sex couples. “Gross indecency” laws are broad enough to include any same-sex intimacy between men and, in some jurisdictions, sex between women. This map classifies offenses according to the following categories :

• homosexual acts
• sodomy
• buggery
• unnatural/indecent acts
• debauchery
• laws including a range of offenses

Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Relations, by Sentence

Criminal sentences for consensual same-sex conduct may range from fines or several months in prison to life imprisonment and even, in several countries, the death penalty.³ This map breaks down sentences by length, as follows:

• 0-10 years
• 10-years to life
• the death penalty
• lashes / corporal punishment
• unspecified sentences

Laws Criminalizing Same-Sex Relations between Women

Many countries only criminalize same-sex relations between men. However, at least 38 countries criminalize same-sex conduct regardless of sex or expressly criminalize sexual conduct between women. At least 10 countries have, since 1986, explicitly enacted laws that criminalize sex between women as well as men, sometimes perversely framing this as a gesture toward equality.

This map shows countries that:

• criminalize same-sex relations between both men and women, including through language like “gross indecency,” which appears to be gender neutral⁴
• criminalize same-sex relations between men
• use vague language such as “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” that in some contexts is understood as anal sex or other sex between men, but that could also be used against women.⁵