Nations with anti-LGBT laws: 50% Muslim, 44% Christian
Many Christian-majority nations dropped anti-gay laws, Muslim nations haven’t
This article was updated and corrected on Feb. 6, 2024.
Half (33) of the world’s 66 countries that have anti-LGBT laws are nations where a majority of the citizens are Muslims.
By comparison, 29 Christian-majority countries account for 44 percent of the countries that still have anti-LGBT laws on their books.
In recent years, the number of Christian-majority nations with anti-homosexuality laws has shrunk, both through court rulings (Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda in 2022; Trinidad in 2018; Belize in 2016) and through legislative action (Cook Islands in 2023, Singapore in 2022, Angola and Botswana in 2019, Seychelles and Nauru in 2016, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Palau in 2014).
Similar laws have been dropped in Hindu-majority Mauritius (2023), Buddhist-majority Bhutan (2021) and in Hindu-majority India (2018).
However, no Muslim-majority nation has acted recently to repeal an anti-LGBT law.
For technical reasons (keeping the original story’s Internet address unchanged to allow easy online searches), this article mirrors a newly updated Erasing 76 Crimes page, also titled “Nations with anti-LGBT laws: 50% Muslim, 44% Christian“.
Here are the nations in each category:
Muslim majority
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- Bangladesh
- Brunei
- Chad
- Comoros
- Egypt
- Gambia
- Indonesia (Aceh Province and South Sumatra only)
- Iran
- Iraq
- Kuwait
- Lebanon (law ruled invalid in one court in 2014 and disqualified for use against same-sex intimacy in another court in 2017)
- Libya
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine/Gaza Strip — lacking broad international recognition as a country
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Tunisia
- Turkmenistan
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Yemen
Christian majority
Most, if not all, of these countries inherited their laws from the period when they were British colonies.
- Barbados
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Dominica (But see “Dominica leader: No enforcement of anti-gay law” )
- Ethiopia
- Ghana
- Grenada
- Guinea
- Guyana
- Jamaica
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Liberia
- Malawi
- Namibia
- Papua New Guinea
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Sierra Leone
- St. Lucia
- St Vincent & the Grenadines
- Swaziland / Eswatini
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Other
- Eritrea — roughly 50-50 Christian-Muslim. Some surveys give a edge to Christianity; others, to Islam.
- Myanmar
- Nigeria — roughly 50-50 Christian-Muslim
- Sri Lanka
Interesting article, thanks! Most of the countries currently considering repeal are also Christian majority countries in the Caribbean region and Namibia. You can remove Barbados from the list of Christian majority nations with a sodomy law as Barbados repealed theirs in 2022.
Ethiopia and Eritrea aren’t Muslim majority
Thanks.
You’re right about Ethiopia. It’s about 62% to 67% Christian. The article has been corrected.
Regarding Eritrea, you may be right. I’ve moved it to the “Other” category.
–Colin Stewart, editor/publisher of this site.