The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) has reported that state-sponsored homophobia is alive and well in at least 86 countries around the world, resulting in jail if found guilty. In 7 of those countries, queer people can be sentenced to death.

The 7 countries include Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar,  Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. 

The research deals only with legislation criminalizing consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private above the age of consent. 

A 30-year-old world federation, ILGA consists of 670 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex groups from more than 100 countries.

“Although many of the countries listed in the report do not systematically implement those laws, their mere existence reinforces a culture where a significant portion of the citizens needs to hide from the rest of the population out of fear,” said Sri Lanka’s Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, co-secretary general of ILGA.

“A culture where hatred and violence are justified by the state and force people into invisibility or into denying who they truly are. Whether exported by colonial empires or the result of legislations culturally shaped by religious beliefs, if not deriving directly from a conservative interpretation of religious texts, homophobic laws are the fruit of a certain time and context in history.

“Homophobia is cultural. Homophobia, lesbophobia and transphobia are not inborn. People learn them as they grow.”

ILGA’s 2008 report on state homophobia around the world is available at www.ilga.org. ILGA has published a map on LGBTI rights that can be used to raise awareness of people on the many laws affecting LGBTI people in the world. It is available here.