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A good-news map: 78 (was 82) countries with anti-gay laws

A good-news map: 78 (was 82) countries with anti-gay laws

78 countries with laws against homosexual activity
78 countries with laws against homosexual activity

Today this blog gets an updated map of countries with laws against homosexual activity.  The total number of such countries is down to 78.  The list had totaled 82 at the beginning of last year.

Mozambique's LGBTI advocacy organization, Lambda, can celebrate the repeal of the country's anti-gay law, but it has not yet won its battle for  official government recognition, which it has been seeking since 2008. (Photo courtesy of Lambda)
Mozambique’s LGBTI advocacy organization, Lambda, can celebrate the repeal of the country’s anti-gay law, but it has not yet won its battle for official government recognition, which it has been seeking since 2008. (Photo courtesy of Lambda)

The latest country to drop off the list is Mozambique, on the southeastern coast of Africa, which removed its anti-gay law as part of an overhaul of its Penal Code in the second half of 2014.

The tiny nation of Palau in the western Pacific Ocean also decriminalized homosexuality last year.  So did the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized as a country only by Turkey.  Tiny São Tomé and Príncipe, in the Atlantic Ocean off the shores of central Africa, did so in 2012, but that fact was little known until last year.

Of course, LGBTI people face hostility, repression, discrimination and violence in a multitude of countries other than those with specific laws against homosexual activity.  One of the most prominent of those exceptions is violently homophobic Russia, which in 2013 outlawed any positive descriptions of same-sex intimacy that minors might read or hear. That anti-“gay propaganda” law is known in Russia as the law “for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values.”

See Also

Also in 2013, a huge setback for LGBTI people occurred in India, when the Supreme Court  struck down a 2009 Delhi High Court verdict that had decriminalised homosexuality.

View Comments (4)
  • The more gay people show others that we just want to live our lives, can take care of our homes and ourselves, the more people who oppose us may change their minds to acceptance and understanding. I saw it happen with my neighbor. When my husband and I first looked at our home, our neighbor was quite standoffish. Now, she and her husband show off our yard to their visitors, have celebrated our anniversaries with us, and we consider them some of our good friends. By being ourselves, we can convince more countries that we are not requesting special rights; we are only requesting equal rights afforded to other men and women, blacks, whites, and Asians, religions (RELIGION IS A CHOICE), etc.

  • Wouldn’t laws outlawing gay marriage and those not protecting LGBT but everyone else be considered anti-LGBT? The people of USA that say “at least its not like” then name an anti-LGBT, sound to me like a racist who says, “im not a racist, i dont support lynching black people”. Until ALL people are legally protected, and have equal rights and privileges under the law of the land, the whole country, then the USA has many anti-LGBT laws in place.

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