Read more at Erasing 76 Crimes.
Central America
Costa Rica: The constitutional court recognized the right of same-sex couples to share maternity leave, just like heterosexual couples can.
The government has proposed a gender recognition bill, but the state Social Security Fund rejected a part of it that would require it to cover sex reassignment surgery. It’s still being debated.
The ministry of education announced it was eliminating sex education and policies around homophobic bullying in schools, and also eliminating the position of LGBTI commissioner.
Honduras: The country emerged as another locus of far-right drift after US President Trump intervened in the presidential election to declare his preferred candidate. The close election still hasn’t declared a winner nearly a month later. Whoever is ultimately declared winner will be further to the right of outgoing president Xiomara Castro, who had vocally supported LGBTQ rights (though didn’t accomplish much in the face of a hostile congress).
El Salvador: The country’s dictator has gotten cozy with Trump, hosting the CECOT detention and torture center where America is deporting its undesirable migrants.
Caribbean
St. Lucia: The biggest positive development in the region was the court ruling that decriminalized gay sex in Saint Lucia. This court case was part of a coordinated strategy by Caribbean LGBTQ activists who filed simultaneous cases in five states challenging their sodomy laws, and this was the fourth positive ruling. Unlike other rulings in this series, the court did not find that the constitution specifically bars sexual orientation discrimination. We’re still waiting on a ruling from Grenada, which could come any day now. Or a year from now. Look, the court operates on Caribbean time.
An unrelated sodomy case in St. Vincent and the Grenadines failed in 2024, and I have not heard anything about an appeal. And another unrelated case…
Trinidad & Tobago: And the shock negative development of 2025. In March, the court of appeal overturned a 2018 ruling that decriminalized sodomy in the country. Caribbean time is Caribbean time, but overturning a seven-year-old decision is crazy. The case is now headed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London for a final ruling, and it’s really unclear how it’ll rule.
The case turns on the “savings clause” in the constitution, which insulates pre-independence laws from court scrutiny, and whether it applies. The plaintiff said it didn’t apply, since the legislature had repealed the pre-independence sodomy law with a stronger one in 1986 and 2000. The court found that the savings clause applied, but reverted the law to the pre-independence version, which sounds like pure legislating from the bench to me!
The Privy Council has been pretty strongly in favor of upholding savings clauses in the recent past, but this one is quite a pretzel. They ought to also be bound by international treaty obligations (of both the UK and Trinidad) to decriminalize sodomy. In all likelihood, we won’t see a ruling until 2027 or later, fully a decade after the original case was filed.
Cuba: The National Assembly passed a law allowing gender change by self-identification, and also recognized common-law marriage for the first time.
Dominican Republic: The biggest news was that the Constitutional Court struck down laws that criminalized police officers and military personnel who have gay sex. The ruling also clearly established for the first time that the Dominican constitution bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, both in government services and in employment. It’s likely that over time this will become a foundational ruling to assert further LGBTQ rights in the country.
This is also fortunate, because congress also passed a new penal code this year over the objections of civil society groups, because it failed to include prohibitions on discrimination and hate crimes, and didn’t decriminalize abortion.
The court ruling also prompted me to do a bit of a Wikipedia dive updating entries on LGBTQ rights in numerous Caribbean countries, to clarify or update that they no longer bar gay servicemembers in their laws.
Dutch Territories: Sint Maarten is the last Netherlands territory where same-sex marriage is not yet legal, after the constitutional court made it legal in Aruba and Curacao last year. It seems like all it will take is a court challenge to bring equal marriage to Sint Maarten, but I don’t believe one has been filed yet.
UK Territories: Gays scored a surprise win in Turks and Caicos Islands, where a binational couple won a court of appeal ruling that the government must recognize overseas same-sex marriages for the purposes of immigration. The court explicitly did not rule on whether same-sex marriage must be legalized or recognized – the constitution specifically restricts it.
In the Cayman Islands, the UK Privy Council upheld the territory’s civil partnership law, which was imposed by the governor in 2020 after a similar bill failed in the legislature by one vote.
A long-threatened referendum on banning same-sex marriage in the UK Virgin Islands’ constitution failed to materialize. The territory is in the process of overhauling its constitution, and it may eventually emerge as part of a reform package.
None of Britain’s Caribbean territories recognize same-sex marriage.
South America
Argentina: The country’s far-right drift continued with the encouragement of the US President. In February, President Javier Milei banned gender care for minors by decree, but the federal court overturned the ban two months later. Legislators have since proposed an omnibus anti-trans bill, which we should watch out for in 2026.
Earlier this month, the government introduced a bill that would stiffen penalties for anti-LGBT hate crimes as part of a broader crime reform bill.
Brazil: The superior court of justice ruled in favor of a nonbinary person who wished to have their gender recorded as such in the civil registry. The decision was limited to the individual plaintiff, but ought to form a precedent for future cases. Brazil already allows a X marker on passports.
The supreme court also invalidated local laws that banned discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in schools, and ruled that a domestic violence law that was originally drafted to only apply to women in heterosexual couples also applies to same-sex couples and trans women.
Meanwhile, the federal council of medicine issued a regulation banning gender-affirming care for minors, but simultaneously lowering the minimum age for genital surgery from 25 to 21. The regulation is being appealed.
Congress is also very slowly debating a bill that would finally codify same-sex marriage and adoption into federal law, following the supreme court ruling on the issue way back in 2013. Look for this to come to a vote in late 2026/27.
Chile: Another country that’s fallen to the extreme right-wing regional drift following presidential elections last month.
But before that happened, outgoing President Boric signed a new adoption law that finally ends discrimination against same-sex couples and couples in civil unions in adoptions. Previously, married heterosexual couples were given priority in adoptions.
Congress defunded the Gender Identity Support Program over the objections of the President Boric. It’ll continue for now under the Ministry of Health, but is a likely target of incoming President Kast, whose objections to LGBTQ rights are well documented. The constitutional court ruled in favor of the mother of a 10-year-old trans girl who wanted to update her daughter’s legal identity, although the law only allows that after age 14. The ruling was limited to the specific case.
Colombia: Congress failed again to pass a conversion therapy ban, though a new bill is pending.
Guyana: LGBTQ issues became a surprise issue in national elections this year, with nearly all parties pledging to repeal the country’s sodomy law. Reelected President Ali pledged to work with the local queer advocacy group on repealing the law and improving laws for the community, though same-sex marriage appears off the table for now. One to watch in 2026.
Guyana has become an incredibly rich nation basically overnight due to the new exploitation of off-shore oil fields, which has led to an influx of visitors, investors, and tourism, which may be helping drive some of this – not to mention the string of successful court challenges to sodomy laws in the near Caribbean. But that attention also came with a threat of annexation by neighboring Venezuela earlier in the year, though that appears to have subsided amidst ongoing threats of a US invasion of that country.
Peru: Bills seeking civil unions or same-sex marriage failed to advance in congress in 2025, but an administrative court for the first time recognized a same-sex marriage for the purposes of dividing property. About eleven cases are pending in courts across the country seeking same-sex marriage or recognition of foreign marriages.
Congress passed a bill that eliminates the concept of “gender” from law and replaces it with biological sex only. The law also eliminates the goal of “gender equality” and replaces it with “equity” and “equality of opportunity.” The law has been roundly condemned by the international community as retrograde and endangering the rights of women and girls.
Congress was also working on a bill to ban trans women from public bathrooms.
Suriname: In February, a review panel overturned a 2023 ruling by the constitutional court and ordered the government to record two same-sex couples who’d married overseas into the civil registry, essentially requiring recognition of same-sex marriage. The ruling also ordered the government to amend legislation to allow it, although a new civil code that came into effect in May specifically bans same-sex marriage. For now, the ruling only applies to the two couples, but others can sue for the right to be registered as well. The decision can still be appealed, but I haven’t seen any news on it since.
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