LGBT rights in Europe
| LGBT rights in Europe | |
|---|---|
Europe
|
|
| Same-sex sexual activity legal? | Legal in all 56 states Legal in all 6 dependencies and other territories. |
| Gender identity/expression | Legal in 43 out of 56 states Legal in 3 out of 6 dependencies and other territories |
| Military service | Allowed to serve openly in 39 out of 52 states having an army Legal in all 6 dependencies and other territories |
| Discrimination protections | Legal in 42 out of 56 states Legal in all 6 dependencies and other territories |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships |
Legal in 25 out of 56 states Legal in 5 out of 6 dependencies and other territories |
|
Restrictions:
|
Same-sex marriage constitutionally banned in 11 out of 56 states |
| Adoption | Legal in 19 out of 56 states Legal in 5 out of 6 dependencies and other territories |
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are widely diverse in Europe per country. Thirteen out of the twenty one countries that have legalised same-sex marriage worldwide are situated in Europe; a further thirteen European countries have legalised civil unions or other forms of recognition for same-sex couples. Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Switzerland are considering legislation to introduce same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage was enacted in Finland by March 2017. Slovenia has carried out a referendum to legalise same-sex marriage in December 2015 which failed to succeed. Malta and Estonia are the only two countries within Europe that recognises legally performed same-sex marriages overseas but does not perform them, and are both the only countries where a civil union is equal to marriage but name. Constitutions of Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine recognizes marriage only as a union of one man and one woman.
The top five EU countries in terms of LGBT rights are Malta, Belgium, UK, Portugal and Norway.
Although same-sex relationships were quite common in ancient Greece, Rome and pagan Celtic societies, after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, severe laws against homosexual behaviour appeared. An edict by the Emperor Theodosius I in 390 condemned all "passive" homosexual men to death by public burning. This was followed by the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian I in 529, which prescribed public castration and execution for all who committed homosexual acts, both active and passive partners. Homosexual behaviour, called sodomy, was considered a capital crime in most European countries, and thousands of homosexual men were executed across Europe during waves of persecution in these centuries. Lesbians were less often singled out for punishment, but they also suffered persecution and execution from time to time.
...
Wikipedia