Section 3 of three · Everywhere Else
Thirty-eight jurisdictions where marriage equality has taken effect by statute or court order, plus the seventy-one that still criminalise — named, dated, and cited to the ILGA World record.
The Netherlands was the first jurisdiction in the world to open civil marriage to same-sex couples, the Act taking effect 1 April 2001 after passage by the States-General in December 2000. The piece records the legislative vote, the text of the amendment to Book 1 of the Civil Code, and the number of marriages performed in the first year as reported in Dutch civil registration statistics.
By Jurisdiction
Statute, court order, referendum and advisory opinion — 6 pieces
Everywhere Else
On 22 May 2015 Ireland became the first country to extend marriage equality by popular referendum, with 62.1 per cent voting yes on a turnout of 60.5 per cent; the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Act was signed by the President on 29 August 2015.
Everywhere Else
In November 2018 Taiwan's electorate voted in three referendums to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples; the Constitutional Court's Interpretation No. 748 (2017) had already found the Civil Code unconstitutional, and the Legislative Yuan passed the Act for Implementation of J.Y.
Everywhere Else
Thailand's Marriage Equality Act received Royal Assent on 18 September 2024 and took effect 22 January 2025, making Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to enact marriage equality by statute.
Everywhere Else
ILGA World's State-Sponsored Homophobia report documents the number of jurisdictions that criminalise consensual same-sex conduct between adults — seventy-one as of the most recently published edition — with the statutory basis, the penalty range and the date of the law in each.
Everywhere Else
The Yogyakarta Principles, adopted by a group of international human-rights experts in November 2006 and extended by a ten-principle addendum (Yogyakarta Principles plus 10) in 2017, set out how existing international human-rights law applies to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Everywhere Else
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued Advisory Opinion OC-24/17 on 9 January 2018, finding that the American Convention on Human Rights requires state parties to extend equal marriage rights to same-sex couples — an advisory opinion, not a binding judgment, but one cited in subsequent constitutional litigation in Colombia, Costa Rica and Chile.
