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Laws Discriminating Against LGBT People Around the World

Thomson Reuters Foundation (London)
Maria Caspani

7 April 2015

New York — From imprisonment and hard labour to the death penalty, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people suffer from discriminatory laws in many parts of the world.

Here's a look at some of the most striking discriminatory legislation as of early 2015:

- Homosexual acts are illegal in 78 countries.

- In Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Malaysia, among others, same-sex acts are punishable with long prison terms and a hefty fine.

- In Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and 12 states in northern Nigeria, and in southern parts of Somalia, homosexual acts are punished with the death penalty.

- In Iran, an accusation of sodomy can be "proved by the testimony of four righteous men who might have observed it." Iran punishes homosexual acts between adult men by death.

- Saudi Arabia uses strict Islamic law (Sharia) which prescribes that a married man found guilty of homosexuality shall be stoned to death, while an unmarried man shall be punished with 100 lashes and banishment for a year.

- In Jamaica and in the Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, anal intercourse, or the "abominable act of buggery", is punishable by imprisonment and possible hard labour.

- In the United States, men who have had sex with men are not allowed to donate blood for one year. In December 2014, the Food and Drug Administration eased a decades-old lifetime ban on blood donation by gay and bisexual men.

- Earlier this year, a new road safety decree listing trans sexuality among medical conditions that could prevent a person from driving sparked panic in the Russian transgender community. Officials later clarified the decree would not ban trans people from driving.

Sources: The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), Thomson Reuters Foundation, The New York Times.

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