Slovenia legalizes LGBTQ marriage and adoptions
The move makes Slovenia the first country in Eastern Europe to ensure equal rights for same-sex couples.
LGBTQ+ rights & well-being
This archive tracks real progress on LGBTQ+ rights and well-being — from legal protections and policy wins to health access, community support, and cultural recognition. Each story focuses on what’s working and where momentum is building, offering a grounded, hopeful look at a topic that shapes millions of lives.
Cuba approves same-sex marriage in historic turnabout
Same-sex marriage in Cuba is now legal, after roughly two-thirds of voters approved a sweeping new family code that also opens adoption to gay couples. Before the referendum, the draft was workshopped at more than 79,000 neighborhood meetings, drawing over 300,000 citizen suggestions that shaped the final text. The 100-page code goes well beyond marriage equality, condemning family violence, urging equal sharing of housework, and giving children a formal voice in family decisions. It’s a remarkable turn for a country that once sent gay men to labor camps, and it places Cuba alongside Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia in Latin America’s steady movement toward fuller recognition of who counts as a family.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court strikes down ban on buggery
The Offenses Against the Person Act, imported from England, criminalized “unnatural offenses” and carried a maximum penalty of 10 years with hard labor.
Singapore to repeal colonial-era law against sex between men
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has announced the repeal of the colonial-era Section 377A of the penal code, under which sex between men is punishable by up to two years in prison.
Andorra becomes the 33rd country with marriage equality
The tiny nation’s new law also creates a system for transgender people to update the name and gender marker on legal documents without providing proof of medical care.
Greece bans genital surgery on non-consenting intersex babies
The surgeries are often unnecessary for the health of the child and are performed so that adults feel better about how the child’s genitalia look, even though the child often cannot consent to the procedures.
Nintendo announces it will recognize same-sex partnerships even though Japan doesn’t
The Japanese video game company Nintendo has announced that it will extend marriage benefits to employees who are in same-sex partnerships.
Caribbean court strikes down gay ban in Antigua & Barbuda
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court found that Antigua and Barbuda’s 1995 Sexual Offenses Act “offends the right to liberty, protection of the law, freedom of expression, protection of personal privacy and protection from discrimination on the basis of sex.”
First couples wed as Swiss same-sex marriage law takes effect
Marriage for All took effect in Switzerland on July 1, 2022, with same-sex couples saying their vows just months after voters approved the law by 64.1% in a national referendum. Among the first were Aline and Laure, a Geneva couple of two decades who married on the 19th anniversary of their civil union. “It’s normality that’s taking effect,” Laure said — a quiet way of describing a change that also brings full adoption rights, immigration sponsorship, and equal access to fertility care. With Switzerland on board, most of Western Europe now recognizes same-sex marriage, adding momentum to a global shift that began with the Netherlands in 2001 and continues to widen, country by country.
Joe Biden issues executive order to fight conversion therapy & LGBTQ fostering discrimination
The executive order tells the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue rules that ban the use of federal funds for programs that offer conversion therapy.