List of countries where same-sex marriage is legal
As the Supreme Court Tuesday begins hearing a batch of petitions on legalising same-sex marriages, we look at a list of nations where marriage equality exists.
A five-judge Supreme Court bench Tuesday, began hearing a batch of petitions regarding the legalisation of same-sex marriages in India. This comes after at least 15 petitions on the matter were referred to a larger bench for an authoritative decision last month by a CJI-led bench, who called it a "very seminal issue”.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government has been opposing the pleas, terming them as merely reflecting “urban elitist views”, the petitioners argued that the LGBTQIA+ community deserved wider constitutional entitlements based on the right to life and personal liberty, the right to dignity, and other related rights. The challenge to status quo follows the 2018 Supreme Court decision, when it decriminalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised any consensual sexual acts between homosexual people.
Also Read: RSS backs Centre’s stance against same-sex marriage
Meanwhile, if legalised, the decision will put India among the list of these nations where marriage equality exists.
| Cuba |
| Andorra |
| Slovenia |
| Chile |
| Switerland |
| Costa Rica |
| Austria |
| Taiwan |
| Ecuador |
| Belgium |
| Britain |
| Denmark |
| Finland |
| France |
| Germany |
| Iceland |
| Ireland |
| Luxembourg |
| Malta |
| Norway |
| Portugal |
| Spain |
| Sweden |
| Mexico |
| South Africa |
| United States |
| Colombia |
| Brazil |
| Argentina |
| Canada |
| Netherlands |
| New Zealand |
| Portugal |
| Uruguay |
While Netherlands was the first ever nation to legalise same-sex marrige in the year 2001, Taiwan has landed the feat to become the first Asian nation to do so.
Of these 34 nations, 23 legalised same sex couples to marry through legislation, while ten through through court decisions. Both South Africa and Taiwan enacted the legislation following courts mandates.
The data was sourced by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's report ‘marriage equality around the world’. The report also said that India is among the five nations to watch for the adopting marriage equality in 2023. The others are Czech Republic, Japan, Philippines and Thailand.
