Africa: Queen Elizabeth - the Commonwealth Gay Sex Bans Scrapped Under Her Rule

Commonwealth nations have scrapped colonial-era gay sex bans during Queen Elizabeth's rule

Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign saw a wave Commonwealth countries remove laws criminalising gay sex, most of which were introduced when they were part of the British Empire.

More than a dozen Commonwealth nations - a club of mainly former colonies - have decriminalised consensual gay sex since Britain relaxed its own laws in 1967.

But bans on same-sex relations remain in many Commonwealth countries, which Queen Elizabeth headed in a ceremonial role.

Here is a timeline of major events to weaken or remove bans on gay sex in Britain and its former colonies during Queen Elizabeth's rule from 1952 to 2022:

1957 - The Wolfenden Report recommends that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence" in the United Kingdom.

1967 - Gay sex is partially decriminalised in England and Wales, for consenting men aged 21 and over in private. For heterosexual couples, the age of consent is 16.

1969 - Canada partially decriminalises gay sex, for adults aged over 21.

1973 - Malta repeals its British colonial-era ban on gay sex.

1980 - Gay sex is partially decriminalised in Scotland.

1981 - Vanuatu legalises consensual same-sex relations for adults.

1982 - Gay sex decriminalised for over-21s in Northern Ireland, after a 1981 European Court of Human Rights ruling.

1986 - New Zealand decriminalises gay sex.

1991 - The Bahamas partially decriminalises gay and lesbian sex for over-18s.

1997 - Tasmania is the last state in Australia to make gay sex legal.

1998 - South Africa declares the criminalisation of gay sex unconstitutional.

2001 - The gay male age of consent across Britain is reduced to 16, making it equal to the heterosexual age of consent and fully decriminalising consensual gay sex.

2002 - Cyprus makes the age of consent 17 for everyone, having initially legalised gay sex for those aged 18 and over in 1998.

2010 - Fiji lifts its colonial-era ban on gay sex.

2012 - Lesotho repeals its 1939 sodomy ban.

2014 - Uganda's constitutional court nullifies a law that would have strengthened an existing British-era ban and imposed punishments of up to life in jail for gay sex.

2015 - Two articles in Mozambique's Portuguese colonial-era penal code criminalising "vices against nature" are repealed.

2016 - Belize's Supreme Court rules its gay sex ban is unconstitutional. Seychelles also repeals its prohibition.

2018 - India's colonial ban on gay sex is ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, decriminalising same-sex relations in the country of 1.3 billion people.

2018 - Trinidad and Tobago's high court overturns its law against "buggery".

2019 - Brunei introduces the death penalty for gay sex, but later says it will not implement it after a global backlash.

2019 - Botswana High Court rules that laws criminalising same-sex relations are unconstitutional.

2022- High Courts in both Antigua and Barbuda and its neighbouring island state St Kitts and Nevis declare that laws criminalising LGBTQ+ people are unconstitutional.

2022 - Singapore announces it will repeal a law that bans gay sex.

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