LGBT+ Rights Have

this graph was created in OurDataWorld:

How much progress has been made in protecting the rights of LGBT+ people?

In this article, I show recent and long-term data on both the progress made and the setbacks faced.

Today, same-sex relationships are legal in most countries, several dozen countries allow same-sex marriage and joint adoption, and at least a few countries legally recognize gender marker changes and third genders.

Yet, at the same time, most countries don’t protect LGBT+ rights, and dozens have recently implemented more regressive policies, such as explicit bans on same-sex marriage.

One of the core rights of LGBT+ people is to love whoever they love without fear of prosecution.

Freely choosing one’s intimate partner has become more possible since the second half of the 20th century, when same-sex relationships became legally protected in many countries.

Using data from researcher Jean-François Mignot, the chart shows that in the late 18th century, same-sex intimacy was legal in only around two dozen countries, including France, Japan, and the Russian Empire.

While the Russian Empire made same-sex relationships illegal in 1832, several dozen countries, especially in Latin America, legalized them over the 19th and early 20th centuries.

After setbacks in the 1930s, legalization returned in the 1960s, particularly in Western Europe. Progress accelerated in the 1990s, starting with Eastern Europe.

By 2020, same-sex sexual acts were legal in 133 countries out of the 202 studied by Mignot.

The trends are even more positive when we look at the number of people living in countries where same-sex relationships are legal, as they have become recognized in populous countries like China and India.

You can look at the status of each country over time on our interactive map.