Oceania

Map of the 65 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.
LGBTQ rights update: 2025 tally and 2026 preview
2025 LGBTQ rights update: Mixed results in Oceania
Logo of Outright International
Outright launches important reports on LGBTQ rights in every country
Pride marcher in New Zealand poses with the flag of the tiny island nation Niue. (Claire-Eastham-Farrelly photo courtesy of NZTV)
Niue: Tally of nations with anti-homosexuality laws drops to 65
WorldPride is happening in Washington, D.C., from May 17 to June 8. (Photo courtesy of CBS and Getty)
Whose Pride is it, anyway?
Pro tennis player is the latest LGBT celebrity to defect from Russia
Metroweekly used this photo to illustrate its article about the Feb. 1 police raid in Indonesia (Zeferli photo courtesy of 123rf and Metroweekly)
Indonesia police arrest 56 men at Jakarta ‘gay sex party’
Map of LGBT Rights in Oceania — BLUE: Same-sex marriage legal and sexual orientation/gender identity discrimination prohibited; PURPLE: Foreign same-sex marriages recognized, no discrimination protections;GREEN: Sexual orientation discrimination prohibited; YELLOW: Sodomy illegal; YELLOW with GREEN outline: Sodomy illegal, but some sexual orientation discrimination prohibited; RED: Constitution bans same-sex marriage, but homosexuality is legal, no discrimination protections; GREY: Sodomy legal, same-sex marriage not permitted, no discrimination protections
2024 LGBTQ rights global update: Progress and reversals in Oceania and Australia
In a tradition that's unique to Vanuatu, women in the South Pacific island nation make music in the water. (Photo courtesy of RitmosGlobales.com)
Anti-gay moves in South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu
Tonga scene
Anti-gay lawyers seek to oust Tonga’s openly gay chief justice
Tupou VI, King of Tonga
Homophobic South Pacific nation of Tonga gets a gay chief justice
Anti-LGBT bias vs. medical advances against HIV: One nation’s story
French LGBTQ rights marchers call for immediate liberation of last colonies
2023 World Same-Sex Marriage and LGBT Rights Progress – Part 4: Africa and Oceania
31 Commonwealth nations still have laws against gay sex
Same-sex couple Karla Eggleton and Lara Sadaraka are mothers of Kayla Pouana Ngaroa Ki Ivanui Pafuti Sadaraka-Eggelton.. Eggleton is the CEO of Destination Cook Islands. (Photo courtesy of Hannah Maule-ffinch / Pink News)
How the Cook Islands freed its LGBTQ+ community