LGBT conservatism refers to a socio-political movement which embraces and promotes the ideology of conservatism within an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) context. Gay conservatives may also refer to lesbian or gay persons with conservative political views.
The number of openly LGBT advocates for conservative policies has only become increasingly apparent since the advent of the modern LGBT civil rights movement in the 1970s, while many more LGBT conservatives remain closeted in countries where other socially conservative politicians have led the most organized opposition to LGBT rights efforts. The situation and ideology for LGBT conservatives varies by each country's social and political LGBT rights climate.
In 1852, under Cartista Prime Minister João Carlos de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha, same-sex sexual intercourse was legalized throughout Portugal.
In 1870, the draft penal law submitted by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to the North German Confederation retained the relevant Prussian penal provisions criminalizing male same-sex sexual intercourse, justifying this out of concern for "public opinion":
Even though one can justify the omission of these penal provisions from the standpoint of Medicine as well as on grounds taken from certain theories of criminal law – the public's sense of justice (das Rechtsbewußtsein im Volke) views these acts not merely as vices but as crimes [...]".
On May 15, 1871, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Paragraph 175 was enacted throughout the German Empire.