The 65 countries where homosexuality is still illegal

Two men (heads not showing) holding hands outside a prison door — Homosexuality is a crime in 65 countries worldwide

(Image credit: Getty Images)

A court in Uganda has dismissed the first case brought to trial under its strict Anti-Homosexuality Act, revealing a justice system “strained by political pressure, public fear and inconsistent enforcement”, said Deutsche Welle.

The East African country introduced the legislation in 2023, despite pressure from Western governments and human rights groups. “One of the world’s harshest laws targeting the LGBT community”, it carries a sentence of life in prison for same-sex intercourse, with the death penalty an option in cases deemed “aggravated”, said Reuters.

But from the outset there has been “a lot of confusion, even among prosecutors” about the law, said Juliet Kanyange, the lawyer representing the man, aged 20 on arrest in August 2023, whose case was dropped this month. Dismissing the case, the court said the accused was “mentally unstable” and would be unable to understand a trial. His defence team says he developed psychosis and schizophrenia after spending more than a year in prison on remand.

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There are 65 countries that still criminalise homosexuality, according to Erasing 76 Crimes, a news site that tracks anti-LGBTQ+ laws and efforts to repeal them. Of these, 12 countries – Iran, northern Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Uganda – retain a possible death sentence for private, consensual same-sex sexual activity.

Gay rights are constitutionally enshrined in most of South and North America, with most exceptions in the “conservative Caribbean”, said The Associated Press. Even so, last summer St Lucia’s Supreme Court ruled consensual same-sex intimacy legal in private settings, and more and more countries in the region have “struck down colonial-era” laws that criminalise same-sex relations. Barbados, and St Kitts and Nevis repealed their laws in 2022, following similar moves by Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago, but the latter reinstated the country’s buggery and gross indecency laws in March 2025.

In November 2024, the European Court of Justice began hearing a case brought by 16 of 27 EU member states, which claimed the law was in breach of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. A non-binding opinion from the court’s advocate general, Tamara Ćapeta, issued in June, concluded Hungary had violated fundamental rights of human dignity, respect for family life and non-discrimination. The hardline Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán has stuck firm, however, and in April last year passed a constitutional amendment codifying a ban on Pride events.

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