Criminalization of homosexuality

Criminalization of homosexuality is the creation or enforcement of state laws that punish same-sex sexual activity or relationships. Its forms and effects vary across legal systems and historical periods.

Sodomy law: A law prohibiting specified sexual acts, historically often including consensual acts between men. Such statutes have been a common legal instrument for punishing same-sex intimacy.
British colonialism: The expansion and governance of territories under British political control. British rule exported criminal codes that later remained in many former colonies.
LGBT rights: Legal and social protections concerning the equality, liberty, and participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Removing criminal penalties is one part of broader struggles for equal protection.
Decriminalization: The removal of criminal penalties for conduct previously treated as an offense. It directly reverses laws punishing consensual same-sex conduct.
United Nations Human Rights Committee: A treaty body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Its decisions and reviews address whether criminalization violates treaty rights.
Buggery Act 1533: An English statute that made buggery a capital offense and placed its punishment under secular jurisdiction. It established a consequential model of state prosecution in English law.
Indian Penal Code: India's principal criminal code, enacted in 1860 under British colonial administration. Section 377 criminalized specified sexual acts and influenced laws elsewhere.
HIV criminalization: The use of criminal law to punish or regulate conduct associated with HIV transmission or status. Anti-gay policing can compound the barriers that criminal laws create for HIV prevention and care.
Wolfenden report: A 1957 British committee report recommending that consensual homosexual acts between adults in private cease to be criminal offenses. It argued that private morality and criminal law should not be identical.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: A United Nations treaty that commits states parties to protect civil and political rights. Its privacy and equality protections underpin challenges to laws targeting same-sex intimacy.

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Sexual normsBroader topic: It is a direct legal consequence of norms that condemn same-sex intimacy.