⚠ Legal data current as of September 2026. Legislation and case law in this area change rapidly. Treat specific figures (number of countries, bill counts, state-level status) as snapshots and verify against ILGA World, ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Map, the ACLU legislative tracker, or Movement Advancement Project before relying on them.
Global Overview (September 2026)
- Same-sex marriage: Recognized in 37 UN member States, plus Taiwan[1] - Netherlands (2001, first), through the US, most of Western Europe, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Thailand (2025)
- Criminalization: 66 countries[1] criminalize consensual same-sex activity - primarily parts of Africa, the Middle East, Central and South/Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. The figure rose from 65 when Niger criminalized same-sex intimacy for the first time in its history on 11 June 2026, part of a wider reversal that also saw Burkina Faso criminalize for the first time and Trinidad and Tobago overturn its decriminalization ruling
- Death penalty: ILGA World counts 7 UN member States where death is the legally prescribed penalty (Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Yemen and 12 northern states of Nigeria) and 5 more where it is possible but not legally certain (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia and the UAE)
- Legal gender recognition: 18 UN member states allow self-determination (no medical requirements)
- Intersex protections: 9 UN member states ban non-vital medical interventions on intersex children
Figures above drawn from ILGA World, Human Rights Watch, and the Williams Institute as of mid-2026; country counts shift with each legislative change and should be re-verified against ILGA's annual maps.
Key US Legal Milestones
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1973 | APA removes homosexuality from DSM |
| 2003 | Lawrence v. Texas - Supreme Court strikes down all remaining sodomy laws nationwide |
| 2010 | Don't Ask, Don't Tell repealed |
| 2015 | Obergefell v. Hodges - nationwide marriage equality |
| 2020 | Bostock v. Clayton County - Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation/gender identity |
Key EU & Belgium Legal Milestones
Because this guide originates in Belgium, an EU-focused timeline is included to balance the US-centric milestones above.
| Year | Jurisdiction | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Netherlands | First country in the world to open marriage to same-sex couples |
| 2003 | Belgium | Same-sex marriage legalized (2nd in the world); anti-discrimination protections on sexual orientation enacted |
| 2006 | Belgium | Full same-sex adoption legalized; lesbian couples granted IVF access |
| 2007 | Belgium | Legal gender change first permitted (under medical/surgical conditions) |
| 2014 | Belgium | Anti-discrimination protections extended to gender identity and expression |
| 2014 | EU | European Parliament adopts the Lunacek report (4 February), calling for an EU roadmap against homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity |
| 2018 | Belgium | Transgender Act of 25 June 2017, in force 1 January 2018: legal gender and name change on the basis of self-determination, no surgery or sterilization required |
| 2020 | EU | "LGBT-free zones" in Poland condemned by the European Parliament; EU funding withheld from some declaring municipalities. The Commission adopts its first-ever LGBTIQ Equality Strategy (2020-2025) |
| 2023 | Belgium | Federal ban on conversion practices |
| 2023 | EU | EU-wide push on cross-border recognition of rainbow families |
| 2024 | Germany | Self-Determination Act in force (1 November 2024): gender entry and first names are changed by a simple declaration at the registry office, with male, female, diverse or no entry as options |
| 2025 | EU | CJEU ruling in Deldits (C-247/23, 13 March 2025): under the GDPR right to rectification, authorities must correct a person's recorded gender and may not demand proof of surgery |
| 2025 | EU | October: the Commission adopts the LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-2030, successor to the 2020-2025 strategy |
| 2025 | EU | CJEU ruling (C-713/23, 25 November 2025): member states must recognise a same-sex marriage lawfully concluded in another EU country, even if they do not allow same-sex marriage themselves |
| 2026 | EU | CJEU ruling in Shipova (C-43/24, 12 March 2026): EU countries must offer legal gender recognition, since refusing matching documents hinders free movement |
| 2026 | EU | CJEU Full Court (C-769/22, 21 April 2026): Hungary's 2021 anti-LGBTI law breaches EU law and the Union's founding values |
| 2026 | Belgium | ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map (12 May 2026): Belgium slips from 2nd to 4th in Europe, score steady at 85%, as Spain takes the top spot |
| 2026 | Netherlands | Parliament passes a ban on conversion practices (Senate vote, 16 June 2026); the date it takes effect is still to be set |
The EU's current framework
The live EU policy framework is the LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-2030, adopted by the European Commission in October 2025 as successor to the first-ever strategy (2020-2025). It focuses on protecting LGBTIQ+ people from harmful practices and hate-motivated offences, empowering communities and equality bodies, and funding civil society, and it explicitly addresses conversion practices.
It draws on the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights' third LGBTIQ survey (100,577 respondents across 30 countries, 2023), which found a mixed picture: LGBTIQ people in the EU are more open than in 2019, at 52%, up 6 percentage points, but hate-motivated harassment has risen sharply to 55%, up 18 percentage points.
Belgium in the 2026 Rainbow Map
Belgium was an early global leader on both marriage equality and self-determination-based legal gender recognition, and still sits in the European top five. But in ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Map & Index 2026, published 12 May 2026, Belgium fell from second place to fourth, overtaken as Spain broke Malta's decade-long hold on the top spot.
Belgium's score held steady at 85% rather than falling. The slip reflects stagnation rather than rollback, and ILGA-Europe points to three areas in particular: impunity for online hate speech, the absence of legal recognition for non-binary people, and insufficient protection for intersex minors. The second of those is why a Belgian non-binary person still has no legal gender marker matching their identity, despite the self-determination law in force since 2018. In April 2025 the federal Interior Minister announced that people would be able to ask for an identity card without a sex marker, but as of September 2026 no implementing decree has been published, and the civil register would still record only M or F.
For scale, the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IGVM/IEFH) records 748 people changing their official gender registration in 2024, and 5,188 people in total between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2024.
Key Concepts
- Sodomy laws - Laws criminalizing same-sex acts; last US laws struck down 2003
- The Lavender Scare (1940s-1960s) - US government campaign purging gay and lesbian federal employees
- Section 28 (UK, 1988-2003) - Prohibited "promotion of homosexuality"; chilling effect in schools
- Anti-trans legislation - Surge since 2020 in the US targeting healthcare, sports, bathrooms, and curriculum; nearly 600 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills in a single 2025 US legislative session (ACLU)
- "LGBT-free zones" - Symbolic declarations by ~100 Polish municipalities (2019 onward) opposing "LGBT ideology"; condemned by the European Parliament in 2020 and challenged through withheld EU funding. Most were rescinded by 2023 under legal and financial pressure
- "Gender ideology" / "anti-gender" movement - A transnational political framing (prominent in Poland, Hungary, Russia, and parts of the US) that casts LGBTQIA+ rights, sex education, and gender studies as a threatening "ideology." Used to justify restrictive legislation; opposed by LGBTQIA+ and human-rights organizations as a disinformation frame
- SOGI / SOGIESC - "Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity" (and, in the longer form, "Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics"). The standard terminology in international human-rights law and UN bodies for the protected dimensions
- LGBTQIA+ asylum - LGBTQIA+ people facing persecution may claim refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention (membership of a "particular social group"). In practice, claimants are frequently required to "prove" their identity to immigration authorities, sometimes by invasive or stereotype-based standards. The EU bars requiring "tests" of sexual orientation, but credibility assessments remain contested. Recognition, detention conditions, and safe-country rules vary widely by receiving state
Note: the European Commission adopted the LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-2030 in October 2025; ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Map & Index 2026 was published 12 May 2026; Niger's new Criminal Code criminalizing same-sex relations took effect 11 Jun 2026; Slovakia's two-sexes constitutional amendment passed 26 Sep 2025; Sweden's 2025 gender-recognition law still requires a medical certificate (not full self-ID).
[1] Counts differ between trackers, so this page names its source for each. The marriage figure follows ILGA World's Pride Month 2026 database update, which records marriage equality in 37 UN member States plus Taiwan. ILGA World counts UN member States only and lists Taiwan separately because Taiwan is not a UN member State, which is where the earlier figure of 38 came from. The criminalization figure of 66 follows Erasing 76 Crimes as of 14 June 2026, which counts some jurisdictions ILGA World treats differently and which updated immediately after Niger's law of 11 June 2026; ILGA World's own count for the same period is 65 UN member States. Both counts are defensible. Last verified 29 September 2026.