In a reversal, homosexuality is now illegal in 65 nations

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

West African nation of Mali resists the trend of global progress on LGBTQ rights

The slow, decades-long progress toward recognition of the human rights of LGBTQ people has encountered a setback with the adoption of a new homophobic penal code by the West African nation of Mali.

Before that reversal at the end of 2024, the number of nations with laws against gay sex had fallen to 64. 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.

<strong>Updated map of sodomy laws around the world: <span style="color: #ff0000;">RED</span> countries criminalize gay sex with no known legislative efforts or court challenges to remove them. <span style="color: #ffcc00;">YELLOW</span> countries have sodomy laws being challenged in the courts. Sri Lanka, in <span style="color: #ff00ff;">PINK, </span>currently has a bill before its parliament to repeal its sodomy law. Indonesia, in <span style="color: #ff6600;">ORANGE, </span>has laws that criminalize homosexuality only in some subnational jurisdictions.</strong> — Updated map of sodomy laws around the world: RED countries criminalize gay sex with no known legislative efforts or court challenges to remove them. YELLOW countries have sodomy laws being challenged in the 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.

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

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For more information, see the Erasing 76 Crimes page “List of 65 countries where homosexuality is illegal.” There you will find:

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.