In 2006, South Africa became the first African country to legalize same-sex marriage and remains the only country on the continent where it is legal. [9] Despite this growing tolerance of the LGBT community in South Africa, „corrective rape“ has become more prevalent in response, primarily targeting poor women in townships who lack the resources to deal with these crimes due to the remarkable lack of police presence and prejudice they face when reporting assaults. [107] Countries that have some form of protection and laws against LGBTI discrimination have also developed. While there were 142 in the previous map update, there are now 156. One group criminalizes incitement to hatred, violence or discrimination based on sexual orientation. This is the case for Angola, Bolivia and most Europeans. Others have enacted laws explicitly protecting homosexuals in the workplace, and others, classified by ILGA as „broad protection“, have legal instruments against discrimination in at least three areas (health, education, housing and provision of goods or services). In addition, two more countries than in 2019, up to a total of eleven, consider the term „sexual orientation“ in their constitutions in their equality clauses, including South Africa, the only one on the African continent. In Vallianatos and Others v. Greece (7 November 2013), the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the exclusion of same-sex couples from the register of a registered civil partnership – a legal form of cohabitation accessible to opposite-sex couples – was contrary to the Convention. [6] Greece adopted a law in 2008 providing for civil partnerships only for opposite-sex couples. A new 2015 law extended the right of partnership to same-sex couples.
[7] Some of the earliest Western societies incorporated same-sex relationships. The practice of homosexual love in ancient Greece usually took the form of pederasty, which had a limited duration and coexisted in many cases with marriage. [36] Documented cases in this region claim that these links were temporary pedophile relationships. [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] These ties created a moral dilemma among Greeks and were not universally accepted. [44] On the other hand, there are many examples of same-sex unions between peers that are not hierarchical by age (as in the case of pederasty). Among the most famous same-sex couples of ancient Greece are Harmodius and Aristogiton,[45] Pelopidas and Epaminondas,[46]:82 and Alexander and Bagoas. [46]:79 However, none of these homosexual partnerships use the Greek word for „marriage,“ so some historians have considered them almost „equivalent“ to heterosexual marriages; Meanwhile, other historians use the term „marriage“ to describe ritualized same-sex relationships in Crete during the same period. Italian academic Eva Cantarella identifies some lesbian relationships in ancient Greek female communities as a „man-made marriage.“ [47] In 2007, Mexico City©became the first country in Latin America© to allow same-sex civil partnerships. Then, in 2009, he legalized marriage, which was gradually allowed in 18 of Mexico`s 32 states. Israel recognizes same-sex marriage if it was contracted abroad. Currently, 31 of the continent`s 50 countries and 8 dependent territories recognise some form of association between LGBT people, including most members of the European Union (23/27). But 2020 was also another step forward, the study points out.
The list of countries where marriage between two men and two women is permitted has doubled since the last Review, the last Costa Rica. It thus joins a repertoire in which there are others such as Spain, Belgium, Argentina or Canada. In addition, 34 UN member states provide some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples, after Monaco and Montenegro voted in favor in the past 12 months. Kosovo: 7. In July 2020, Justice Minister Selim Selimi presented a revised Civil Code that he said provides a way to allow same-sex civil partnerships, while only marriage with opposite-sex couples is allowed. Once adopted, a special law on civil partnerships will be needed. [106] ILGA marks a step backwards in Russia, as the government passed several constitutional amendments in 2020 that could ban same-sex marriage. Among the Igbo and probably other peoples of southern Nigeria, there are circumstances in which marriage between women is considered appropriate, such as when one has no children and her husband dies, prompting them to take a wife to carry on her inheritance and family lineage. [201] Historians trace the beginning of the modern same-sex marriage movement from the 1980s to the 1990s.