In their judgment, the Supreme Court judges held that, ‘(…) it would be unconstitutional to limit the right to associate, through denial of registration of an association, purely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the applicants. Due to the popularity of the two-packs and variety packs, more will be added in all kinds of combinations for your enjoyment!

Following in the footsteps of the French Penal Code, the Napoleonic Code, introduced in full in 1804, was adopted by most of the countries occupied by the French under Napoleon. This was challenged by Tasmania in the High Court of Australia where Tasmania was not successful and finally conceded, repealing the anti-sodomy offence.The latter punishment was applied to “sorcerers, sorceresses, renegades, sodomites and heretics publicly convicted. The age of consent for same-sex sexual activity remained at 21 until 1994 when it was lowered to 18, before being equalised with heterosexual sexual activity at 16 with the introduction of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000. The study was based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and included about 15,000 middle and high school students who were followed for seven years into early adulthood. For other states, the criminalisation of gender expression under such “cross-dressing” provisions is rooted in Sharia Law applied in addition to or in the absence of a statutory criminal provision.

Private, consensual same-sex sexual activity between gay men was decriminalised in Palau as part of a wholesale reform of its sexual offences, a new penal code containing no such provisions. Despite the absence of laws criminalising same-sex relations in the above countries, many nevertheless imposed restrictions on LGBT people in other ways. Transgender identities are often considered under the gender-binary, [7] although some pre-modern scholars had recognized effeminate men as a form of third gender, as long as their behaviour was naturally in contrast to their assigned gender at birth. Even in jurisdictions that do not explicitly criminalise women, lesbians and bisexual women have been subjected to arrest or threat of arrest.In my view, the decision of this Court should be seen as part of a growing acceptance of difference in an increasingly open and pluralistic South Africa. The Commission, in Gareth Henry and Simone Edwards v Jamaica, found Jamaica’s laws criminalising same-sex sexual activity violate international law and the rights of LGBT people. This followed a ruling in DPP v Bowie in 1988 in which it was held that limiting ‘gross indecency’ to males was discriminatory, but that this would be remedied by making the offence gender-neutral, thereby also criminalising women. The upper house, known as the National Council, unanimously adopted the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill.

The Court held that in criminalising private, same-sex sexual intimacy between persons aged 16 or older, the laws offended the Antiguan constitutional rights to liberty, protection of the law, freedom of expression, protection of personal privacy and protection from discrimination on the basis of sex, which the Court recognised includes sexual orientation.

This gap closed rapidly after Sutherland and the European Court of Human Rights once again proved itself a champion of LGBT rights and persuaded numerous other states to repeal or amend their discriminatory laws in this area. The High Court acknowledged, in line with domestic and international studies and case law, that criminal laws like s. Similar to the 1950s in Southeast Asia, the 1960s saw a wave of African states attain independence from France and adopt penal codes that did not criminalise same sex sexual acts, such as Burkina Faso (1960), Côte d’Ivoire (1960), Madagascar (1960), Central African Republic (1961), Mali (1961) and Niger (1961).

LGB teens can’t thrive if adults single them out for punishment because of their sexual orientation. In later pre-modern periods, historical evidence of homosexual relationships are more common; and show de facto tolerance of these relationships. In April, the Parliament of the Cook Islands voted to decriminalise same-sex sexual activity between men. Other states that decriminalised in the 1990s were: the Bahamas (1991), Hong Kong (1991), Guinea Bissau (1993), Ireland (1993), Belarus (1994), Kosovo (1994), Serbia (1994), Ecuador (1997), Cyprus (1998), South Africa (1998) and Chile (1999). By way of example, the following countries decriminalised at or around the time they joined: Lithuania (joined the Council of Europe in 1993; decriminalised in 1993), Estonia (1993; 1992), Romania (1993; 1996), Serbia (2003; 1994), Ukraine (1995; 1991), Albania (1995; 1995), Latvia (1995; 1992), Macedonia FYROM (1995; 1996), Moldova (1995; 1995), Russia (1996; 1993), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002; 1998-2001), Georgia (1999; 2000), Armenia (2001; 2003) and Azerbaijan (2001; 2000).

Forty-eight members of parliament backed the proposed initiative by the government to revise an article of the 2019 law. The early 1990s saw a major expansion of the Council of Europe membership due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.