Marriage Equality: Global Comparisons

Introduction

Twenty-eight countries, including the United States, have legalized same-sex marriage, and many other Western democracies without marriage equality recognize civil unions. Yet same-sex marriage remains banned in many countries, and the expansion of broader LGBTQ+ rights has been uneven globally. International organizations, including the United Nations, have issued resolutions in support of LGBTQ+ rights, but human rights groups say these organizations have limited power to enforce them.

International Norms, Democracy, and LGBTQ+ Rights

Rights monitors find a strong correlation between LGBTQ+ rights and democratic societies; the research and advocacy group Freedom House lists nearly all the countries with marriage equality—when same-sex couples have the same legal right to marriage as different-sex couples—as “free.” “Wherever you see restrictions on individuals—in terms of speech, expression, or freedom of assembly—you see a crackdown on LGBT rights,” says Julie Dorf, senior advisor to the Council for Global Equality, a Washington-based group that promotes LGBTQ+ rights in U.S. foreign policy. “It’s the canary in the coal mine,” she says.

Javier Corrales, a professor at Amherst College who focuses on LGBTQ+ rights in Latin America, points to income levels and the influence of religion in politics, as well as the overall strength of democracy, to explain regional divergences [PDF].

While marriage equality has made the most gains in Western democracies, antidiscrimination laws are gaining traction worldwide. In 2020, eighty-one countries and territories, including some that retain sodomy laws, had protections against employment discrimination [PDF] based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

The UN Human Rights Council, expressing “grave concern” over violence and discrimination against individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity, commissioned the body’s first study on the topic [PDF] in 2011. In 2014 the council passed a resolution to combat anti-LGBTQ+ violence and discrimination. Two years later, the United Nations appointed [PDF] its first-ever independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. “What is important here is the gradual building of consensus,” says Graeme Reid, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch. “There’s an accumulation of moral pressure on member states to at least address the most overt forms of discrimination or violence.”

Activists in the international arena have focused on antiviolence and antidiscrimination campaigns rather than marriage equality. “There’s no sensible diplomat who would think that pushing same-sex marriage on a country that’s not ready for it is a good idea,” says Dorf. She adds that not all countries with marriage equality allow same-sex couples to jointly adopt and cautions against equating the right to marry with freedom from discrimination.

United States

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 26, 2015 [PDF], that the Constitution grants same-sex couples the right to marry, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in the thirteen states where it remained banned. The five-to-four ruling, which extends to U.S. territories, came amid dramatic shifts in public opinion. By 2020, 70 percent of Americans polled approved of same-sex marriage, up from 27 percent in 1996.

The ruling came less than two decades after President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, thereby denying same-sex couples federal marriage benefits, such as access to health care, social security, and tax benefits, as well as green cards for immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens. In June 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the parts of DOMA that denied federal benefits to same-sex couples.

Despite these Supreme Court rulings, a debate continues in the United States between advocates of legal equality and individuals and institutions that object to marriage equality on the basis of religious belief. In June 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs, violating the state’s civil rights law. However, the court chose not to issue a broader ruling on whether businesses have a right to deny goods or services to LGBTQ+ people for religious reasons. In June 2020, the court ruled that a 1964 civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace also applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The ruling protected LGBTQ+ employees from being fired in more than half of states where no such legal protections previously existed.

Europe

More than half of the countries that have marriage equality are in Western Europe. Same-sex marriage has been legalized in the Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), Norway (2009), Sweden (2009), Portugal (2010), Iceland (2010), Denmark (2012), France (2013), the United Kingdom (2013), Luxembourg (2015), Ireland (2015), Finland (2017), Malta (2017), Germany (2017), and Austria (2019). Italy is the largest Western European country where same-sex marriage is not legal; its parliament, however, approved civil unions for same-sex couples in 2016. In 2020, lawmakers in Switzerland voted to legalize same-sex marriage, and the public is expected to vote on the legislation in a 2021 referendum.

Support is weaker in Eastern Europe. A 2017 Pew Research Center poll found that support for legal recognition of same-sex marriage is 16 percent in Belarus and just 9 percent in Ukraine. Support in Poland and Hungary, which both have constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, is 32 percent and 27 percent, respectively. At least ten other countries in Central and Eastern Europe have such prohibitions. Estonia allows civil unions, though popular support for marriage equality in the Baltic states is low. The Czech Republic and Hungary recognize same-sex partnerships. In 2018, a Budapest court ruled that same-sex marriages performed abroad must be recognized as partnerships. Since then, however, Hungarian lawmakers and populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban have passed several anti-LGBTQ+ laws, including ones that prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children and ban any content deemed to promote being gay or transgender from being distributed to people under the age of eighteen. The European Union condemned the laws as discriminatory.

In 2013, Russia made it a crime to distribute “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships among minors.” Dozens of people have been fined for violations, including participating in protests and sharing articles on social media. Human rights groups say the law is a tool for anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, and Europe’s top human rights court ruled that it is illegal in June 2017; though the decision is binding, the court has few means to enforce it. In Chechnya, a semiautonomous republic within Russia, dozens of men suspected of being gay have been detained, tortured, and even killed in two separate official crackdowns since 2017.

Despite growing support for marriage equality in many European countries, divisions remain. While in 2015 Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through popular referendum, lawmakers in Northern Ireland defeated bills to legalize same-sex marriage five times. It was ultimately legalized in 2019, however, in a vote by the UK Parliament while Northern Ireland’s legislature was suspended. Croatians approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in a 2013 referendum, though the country’s parliament allowed civil partnerships a year later.

The EU does not require its members to recognize same-sex marriage, though a 2018 ruling [PDF] by the EU’s top court says they must uphold same-sex couples’ rights to freedom of movement and residence. A 2013 European Parliament report on human rights and democracy “encourages” EU institutions and member states to recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions as “a political, social and human and civil rights issue” [PDF]; however, the EU is not able to impose such policy changes on its members.

Americas

In 2005, Canada became the first country in the Western Hemisphere to legalize same-sex marriage. It was followed by Argentina in 2010, Brazil and Uruguay in 2013, Mexico in 2015, Colombia in 2016, Ecuador in 2019, and Costa Rica in 2020. In a 2019 ruling, Brazil’s supreme court determined homophobia and transphobia to be crimes under a 1989 law outlawing racism. Just a few hours after his inauguration in 2019, however, President Jair Bolsonaro removed the Human Rights Ministry’s ability to consider LGBTQ+ concerns. He drew criticism from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups during his campaign over homophobic remarks.

Support for marriage equality varies across the region. According to a 2016 survey [PDF] by the International LGBTI Association (ILGA), 54 percent of Canadians, 48 percent of Chileans, and 57 percent of Argentines were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. In Central America, support was much lower: 33 percent of Costa Ricans, 28 percent of Nicaraguans, and 27 percent of Ecuadorians supported legalizing it. In 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of marriage equality, but the decision has not spurred much action among member states.

The only Central American country to recognize same-sex couples is Costa Rica, though some others in the region have limited antidiscrimination protections. Support for legalizing same-sex marriage also remains low in the Caribbean, at just 16 percent in Jamaica and 23 percent in the Dominican Republic. Bermuda, a British territory, legalized domestic partnerships for same-sex couples in 2017, but the government has fought to reissue a ban. A London court of appeals is set to review the Bermuda Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that said banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional in 2021.

Chile allows same-sex civil unions, but the country’s ruling conservative coalition has stalled a marriage equality bill in Congress for years. In 2021, President Sebastian Pinera said he would work to expedite its passage. The governments of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Paraguay have enacted constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. Cuba, where homosexuality was once punished by internment in forced-labor camps, has changed markedly in recent years. The National Assembly passed an antidiscrimination law in 2013, and a new constitution in 2019 removed language defining marriage as between a man and a woman. However, same-sex unions are still not recognized.

Pacific Rim

Australia and New Zealand are the only Pacific Rim countries in which same-sex marriage is legal. Australia’s parliament voted in December 2017 to change the law on marriage after nearly eight million Australians backed the move in a national referendum that fall. Same-sex marriage became legal in Taiwan in May 2019, as the legislature implemented a ruling the top court issued two years earlier. A district in Tokyo began recognizing same-sex unions in 2015, amid rapidly shifting public opinion in Japan. And in 2020, a court in Sapporo stated that the Japanese government’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages violates the constitution. Almost 80 percent of people sixty and under supported same-sex marriage in a 2018 survey. Lawmakers in Thailand and Vietnam have considered bills to legalize same-sex marriage or civil partnerships.

Just 31 percent of people in China, 30 percent in Malaysia, and 14 percent in Indonesia supported legalizing same-sex marriage in 2016, according to ILGA. Same-sex relations between men are banned in parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Singapore. In Brunei they are punishable by stoning to death, though following international outcry, the government said it won’t enforce the law. Rights groups have reported increased threats and violence against LGBTQ+ people in Indonesia since 2016, including discriminatory comments by several public officials. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has voiced support for recognizing same-sex unions but not same-sex marriages, and 73 percent of Filipinos polled in 2019 said homosexuality should be accepted.

South and Central Asia

Same-sex relations are illegal in much of South and Central Asia [PDF], including in Bangladesh and Pakistan. In 2018, India lifted a colonial-era ban on gay sex, and in 2020, Bhutan moved to decriminalize it. Nepal has enacted some protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and in 2015 a government-appointed panel recommended that lawmakers legalize same-sex marriage. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan allow people to register as a third gender in official documents.

There is little information on public attitudes toward homosexuality in South and Central Asia. ILGA found 35 percent of Indians and 30 percent of Pakistanis in 2016 thought same-sex marriage should be legal. Support in Kazakhstan stood at 12 percent.

Middle East and North Africa

Same-sex relations are illegal in much of the region and are punishable by death in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Tunisia, and Gaza have laws explicitly prohibiting same-sex acts. In 2018, Lebanese courts set a potential precedent for decriminalization. Israel recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other countries, but a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriages did not pass in the Knesset, Israel’s legislative assembly, in a 2018 vote. Same-sex couples enjoy civil benefits, including residency permits for the partners of Israeli citizens.

Israel stands apart from its neighbors in public attitudes toward same-sex couples: according to the ILGA survey, 49 percent of Israelis said same-sex marriage should be legal, compared to 19 percent of respondents in the United Arab Emirates, 16 percent in Egypt, and 14 percent in both Jordan and Morocco.

Sub-Saharan Africa

South Africa is the only sub-Saharan African country where same-sex couples can marry. The parliament legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, less than a decade after the constitutional court struck down laws banning sex between men. The postapartheid constitution was the world’s first to protect people on the basis of sexual orientation, though the 2016 ILGA poll found only 40 percent of South Africans were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and human rights monitors have reported failures by security forces to uphold rights of lesbians and transgender men.

Same-sex relations are illegal on much of the continent and are punishable by death in Mauritania and Sudan, as well as in parts of Nigeria and Somalia. Polling by Afrobarometer between 2016 and 2018 found that 78 percent [PDF] of Africans across thirty-four countries were intolerant of homosexuality. Human rights groups raised alarm over a crackdown on LGBTQ+ people by officials in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2018. Though the African Union’s human rights commission adopted a resolution condemning violence against LGBTQ+ people in 2014, a group of African nations attempted to suspend the appointment of a UN expert charged with investigating anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in 2016.

However, there have been recent advances: Afrobarometer found that majorities in three countries in addition to South Africa—Cape Verde, Mauritius, and Namibia—are tolerant of homosexuality. In 2015 Mozambique decriminalized same-sex relations, followed by the Seychelles in 2016, Angola and Botswana in 2019, and Gabon in 2020. And in recent years, courts in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia have ruled in favor of LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.