Criminalization of homosexuality

The criminalization of homosexuality refers to the historical and ongoing classification of same-sex sexual acts as criminal offenses, with laws most frequently targeting men who have sex with men, though women are also affected in some regions. While these laws are often not enforced against consensual acts, they nonetheless foster police harassment, social stigmatization, and violence against homosexual and bisexual individuals. A significant consequence is the worsening of the HIV epidemic, as criminalization discourages men who have sex with men from seeking prevention or treatment. Justifications for such laws have included the scientifically discredited notion that homosexuality is acquired, public revulsion, and condemnation rooted in Abrahamic religions. Opposition emerged during the Enlightenment, initially citing practical enforcement difficulties, excessive state intrusion into private life, and the ineffectiveness of criminalization. Later arguments shifted to viewing homosexuality as a medical condition rather than a crime, asserting that criminalization violates human rights, and denying that homosexuality is morally wrong. Many current laws stem from colonial legal codes inherited from the British Empire, such as the Indian Penal Code’s Section 377, the Wright Code, the Stephen Code, and the Griffith Code, which were imposed across Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. In contrast, the French colonial empire did not criminalize homosexuality, as France abolished such laws during the French Revolution to remove religious influence from criminal law. Other nations base their prohibitions on sharia law. In the Western world, decriminalization gained momentum after World War II, spreading globally and peaking in the 1990s. Recently, some African countries have intensified enforcement due to politicization and the mistaken belief that homosexuality is a Western import. Currently, homosexuality is not criminalized in 131 countries, while it remains de jure illegal in 62 UN member states and de facto in two others, with at least seven jurisdictions imposing the death penalty. Historically, early examples include Assyrian laws, the Roman Lex Scantinia, Byzantine emperor Justinian’s edicts, and the Syro-Roman law book prescribing death. In medieval Europe, secular sodomy laws emerged, with punishments ranging from fines to burning, often enforced du