Where Sexual Orientation Is Protected by the Law

Broad protections for the LGBTQI community are still sort of rare around the world. A report by ILGA World, the international lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex association, shows that countries in the Americas and Europe have come furthest in enshrining LGBTQI protections into their laws on a national level. Despite being an industrialized nation and a G7 member, Japan seems to have aligned itself with its regional neighbors in Asia, where protections for sexual minorities – either in a country’s constitution or by a broadly formulated law – remain rare. A law to protect the community has been introduced in Japan’s national parliament but has most likely been derailed according to leaked quotes from closed door meetings. In the quotes, lawmakers called LGBTQI people morally inacceptable, while others said they shouldn’t be tolerated.

Being the host of the Olympics, Japan has now come under fire for its shortcomings on the LGBTQI front. Observers have called into question its adherence to the Olympic Charter, while Human Rights Watch said the country deserved a "Gold Medal for Homophobia".

In Asia, only the relatively new constitution of Nepal from 2015 mentions LGBTQI protections. Mongolia and Taiwan are the only two other nations on the continent which offer broad protections as defined by ILGA World. Mongolia introduced the respective law in 2017. Taiwan was a trailblazer by adding the protections in 2004 and recently moved on to allow gay marriage in a first in Asia. While the U.S. does not have a national law offering broad protections to LGBTQI people, 17 states have such laws on the books.