It’s 2020 & Homosexuality Is Still Punishable By Death In These 10 Countries

51 years on from the Stonewall Riots, global celebrations to remember the event that kickstarted the gay rights revolution have been curtailed due to the coronavirus. The first pride parade occurred a year later and on the 50th anniversary of that occasion, it is thought that the only such march will occur in Taiwan where Covid-19 has largely been contained.

Globally, a lot has been achieved in the fight for gay rights in recent years but as Statista’s Niall McCarthy shows in the following map, there is a lot more work to do.

According to ILGA, an international federation campaigning for LGBT rights, homosexuality is punishable by up to eight years in prison in 31 countries and 10 years to life in prison in another 10 countries.

The following infograpic was made with EQUALDEX data and it shows where homosexuality remains illegal.

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Gabon is the latest country to decriminalize homosexuality after introducing laws against gay sex last year. On June 23, lawmakers in the country’s lower house of parliament voted to revise that law which stipulated that having homosexual relations was considered “an offence against morality”, punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of five million CFA francs or $8,600.

In 2020, homosexuality is still punishable by death in several countries and it remains illegal in at least 71 others.

The following infographic shows the countries where the death penalty is used against homosexual activity and it also uses another group, Equaldex, as a source. It is important to note that it is used on a regional basis in parts of Nigeria and Somalia where sharia law has been adopted. Notably, it is also used in Qatar (only applying to Muslims) which will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

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Last year, Brunei recently provoked international outrage when it introduced strict Islamic laws that made homosexual activitly punishable by stoning to death.