TM STATE-SPONSORED HOMOPHOBIA GLOBAL LEGISLATION OVERVIEW UPDATE December 2019 ilga.org COPYRIGHT ILGA World owns the copyright to this publication. It is provided free for your use on the proviso that you cite both the author and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World) using the suggested citation below. Suggested citation: ILGA World: Lucas Ramon Mendos, State-Sponsored Homophobia 2019: Global Legislation Overview Update (Geneva; ILGA, December 2019). On the names of countries and territories in this publication ILGA World is an organisation with ECOSOC-accredited consultative status at the United Nations and our publications therefore have to follow UN- recommended language on the names of countries and territories. Nothing in an ILGA World publication should be taken as a position made by the organisation on the status of any country or territory. If you have any doubts or queries with regard to this aspect of this publication, please contact ILGA at [email protected]. Author Lucas Ramón Mendos Main Research Assistant Enrique López de la Peña TM STATE-SPONSORED HOMOPHOBIA GLOBAL LEGISLATION OVERVIEW UPDATE December 2019 ilga.org Table of Contents Co-Secretaries General Foreword 5 By Luz Elena Aranda and Tusina Ymania Brown Author’s Preface 7 By Lucas Ramón Mendos Acknowledgements 8 1. INTRODUCTION: Sexual Orientation Law at the Doorsteps of a New Decade 9 By Lucas Ramón Mendos and Enrique López de la Peña 2. GLOBAL LEGISLATION OVERVIEW 2.1. Criminalisation Consensual same-sex sexual acts: Legal 29 Consensual same-sex sexual acts: Illegal 47 2.2. Restriction Legal barriers to freedom of expression on SOGIESC issues 55 Legal barriers to the registration or operation of sexual orientation-related CSOs 67 2.3. Protection Constitutional protection 83 Broad protections 89 Protection in employment 101 Criminal liability 115 Prohibition of incitement to hatred, violence or discrimination 123 Bans on “conversion therapy” 131 2.4. Recognition Same-sex marriage 139 Partnership recognition for same-sex couples 149 Joint adoption by same-sex couples 157 Second parent adoption by same-sex couples 163 3. THE WORLD AT A GLANCE 169 4. MAP: SEXUAL ORIENTATION LAWS IN THE WORLD (December 2019) 178 ILGA CO-SECRETARIES GENERAL’ FOREWORD ILGA CO-SECRETARIES GENERAL’ FOREWORD ILGA Co-Secretaries General’ Foreword By Tuisina Ymania Brown1 and Luz Elena Aranda.2 As we prepare to start a new year —and a new stronger, the opposition we have always decade— we are proud to present our member encountered is now coupled and reinvigorated with organisations and the general public with an update a new wave of resistance from old and new of the Global Legislation Overview of the State- detractors. Our achievements are being attacked Sponsored Homophobia report. This end-of-year and maliciously presented by anti-rights, right wing update will help us keep up to date with the and conservative actors as threatening blows to progress (and the backtracking) that we have seen society and as a disgrace to humankind as such. take place around the world in terms of sexual Sophisticated fear-mongering tactics are being orientation law since the launch of the latest used to present us as an obscure force aiming to edition of our report. use, recruit or indoctrinate children, as a conspiracy driven by an ideology that seeks to destroy the In the last few years we have seen unprecedented moral fabric of society. A menace that needs to be progress as a result of our advocacy work at the stopped. And even if these outlandish claims do not national, regional and global level. Never before sound new to us (we survive them every single day had our communities achieved such level of legal of our lives), we are now --more than ever-- starting protection in so many countries around the world to see how their strategic use as a repetitive mantra and we have numerous reasons to celebrate and in all corners of the world is gathering momentum. rejoice. In more than 70 countries “sexual orientation” has been explicitly enshrined in local As much as we would love to report about regulations, national laws and constitutions to uncontested progress, we issue this update of the protect us from discrimination. Rainbow families Global Legislation Overview of our State-Sponsored are being recognized in an ever-increasing number Homophobia report with an eerie feeling. of jurisdictions and a global tendency towards decriminalisation of consensual same-sex sexual Soon after we launched the 13th edition of the acts has now been established. report, Brunei shocked our communities —and the whole world— by enacting one of the most However, this is a time when being complacent egregious pieces of legislation of the last few about our achievements is one of the worst decades. Soon after, yet another African country mistakes we can ever make. The polarizing trends joined the list of criminalising countries: Gabon. that are taking place at a global scale mean that Another one has inexplicably defended and while more and more of us have seen our rights retained such laws (Kenya) and, in Asia and Africa, legally recognized, more LGBTI people are also in at least three other countries are currently greater danger of being discriminated, attacked, considering criminalising bills which may soon see persecuted and even murdered. As we grow the light (Indonesia, Equatorial Guinea, and Egypt). 1 Tuisina Ymania Brown is a survivor of 40 years of institutionalised discrimination and spousal gender-based violence, racial profiling, and trans violence and persecution. She lives her truth as a trans woman of colour from Polynesia, a human rights defender and a former corporate In-house Counsel. She practices in trademarks and intellectual property law and holds a Masters of Intellectual Property Law and a Master of Law. She has over 15 years of volunteer experience in international NGOs including: Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (New York, International Advisory Board Member); Global Interfaith Network on Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (Johannesburg, Treasurer and Co-Chair); International Trans Fund (New York, Co-Chair). Born and raised in Samoa, she currently lives as a single parent to two sons in Brisbane Australia 2 Luz Elena Aranda is a Bisexual artivist. She studied Dramatic Literature at UNAM and Ethnology at ENAH, in addition to a technical career in Production in Media and Communication at the Ansel Adams Photography School. She is the General Director of Las Reinas Chulas Cabaret and Human Rights AC and Director of the International Cabaret Festival. She has worked in different organizations, including ProDesarrollo, Finanzas and Microempresa (where she developed the theater component for the Methodology for the Incorporation of the Gender Approach in the Mexican Microfinance Institutions MEGIM), Faces and Voices FDS, AC (where she created the campaign against poverty I look, I know, I act), and Oxfam Mexico, where she was a consultant for the project Building an integrated approach to inequality: indigenous peoples, rural populations and women victims of violence in Mexico. She obtained the Leadership Scholarship from the MacArthur Foundation through the Mexican Society for Women's Rights AC (SEMILLAS) and the recognition "Women investing in women" by the same institution. She is part of generation 54 of the Global Women in Management program: Advancing Women's Economic Opportunities sponsored by CEDPA and EXXON MOBIL. Since 2014 he is a member of the ILGALAC Regional Council. STATE-SPONSORED HOMOPHOBIA (Update) - 2019 5 ILGA CO-SECRETARIES GENERAL’ FOREWORD Europe and North America, two regions of the that was so devastating for the local community world that had shown clear signs of steady that even claimed the lives of some of our most progress, are failing to keep up with that trend and valued youth. More countries now protect us from show distressing signs of backtracking in the form discrimination based on sexual orientation in their of restrictive caselaw, relentless violence, fierce constitutions and have legal provisions against hate opposition to legal initiatives to protect our rights, crimes and incitement to hatred, violence and so-called “licences” to discriminate based on discrimination. The challenge with these laws will religious beliefs, and unseen levels of hate speech now be fighting for their effective implementation. that are making headlines. Decriminalisation Now, as more and more of us organise and take to efforts seemed to have gone wrong in Oceania and the streets for our cause, as we file well-researched yet no criminalising country in the region seems to lawsuits before local and international courts and be taking clear steps to support our claims. In this as we tenaciously advocate before national context, we deeply regret having to report that governments and international organisations, we since March 2019 more of us have been allegedly are also committing to protect one another and to executed for whom we love, and effectively take more time for self-care and healing: a much imprisoned or arrested under existing laws in needed priority in times of vicious backlash. several countries. We enthusiastically look forward to what lies In any case, being aware of all these intense ahead, hoping for numerous opportunities for battlefronts does not make our accomplishments change and improvement, but we are also any less important. We are a resilient movement realistically aware that challenges are becoming and we have always been thriving even in great more frequent and more demanding. This adversity. Our siblings in Botswana gave us all an realisation, far from deterring us, will lead us to invaluable dose of hope when they managed to outdo ourselves and achieve even more. Because scrap the legal provisions that made us all criminals our lives are at stake. in that country. Our siblings in Taiwan further reinforced that feeling of joy when marriage equality became a reality for the first time in Asia thanks to their tireless work and after courageously To all those involved in the production of this update, surviving the heavy blow of a hateful referendum our sincere appreciation.