Continued progress leaves homosexuality illegal in 64 nations

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…

The latest victory: Namibian court overturns anti-sodomy law

The number of nations with laws against gay sex has fallen to 64, continuing the slow, decades-long progress toward recognition of the human rights of LGBTQ+ people. The latest countries to end the criminalization of same-sex intimacy are Namibia in Africa and Dominica in the Caribbean in 2024, Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and the Cook Islands in the South Pacific in 2023, following in the footsteps of Singapore in Southeast Asia, Antigua & Barbuda, Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Barbados in the Caribbean — all in 2022.

64 countries that criminalize homosexuality — Map of the 64 countries where sexual relations between people of the same sex are illegal. YELLOW countries have sodomy laws that are currently being challenged before local courts. Sri Lanka, in PINK, currently has a bill before its parliament to repeal its sodomy law. Indonesia, in ORANGE, has laws that criminalize homosexuality only in some subnational jurisdictions. All states in RED have nationwide sodomy laws and no known legislative efforts or court challenges to remove them.

The number of criminalizing countries has dropped from over 90 at the beginning of the 2000s.

For more information, see the Erasing 76 Crimes page “List of 64 countries where homosexuality is illegal.” There you will find:

Caribbean: Same-sex marriage likely in Sint-Maarten, Aruba, Curaçao

A full list of nations with anti-homosexuality laws.
Recent history of many nations repealing or overturning those laws and a few nations newly adopting them.
A comparison of this site’s list with the similar list compiled by ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.