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Now 55% of countries with anti-gay laws are mostly Muslim vs. 39% that are mostly Christian
More than half (36) of the world’s 66 countries that have anti-LGBT laws are nations where a majority of the citizens are Muslims.
By comparison, 26 Christian-majority countries account for 39 percent of the countries that still have anti-LGBT laws on their books.
Two years ago, in contrast with the current 55%-39% split, the tally of countries with anti-homosexuality laws was 50%-44% Muslim to Christian.
In recent years, the number of Christian-majority nations with anti-homosexuality laws has shrunk.
Many of those laws were overturned through court rulings (Dominica in 2024; St. Lucia in 2025; Namibia in 2024; Mauritius in 2023; Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda in 2022; Belize in 2016.
Others were repealed by through legislative action (Niue in 2024; Cook Islands in 2023; Singapore in 2022; Angola and Botswana in 2019; Seychelles and Nauru in 2016; Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Palau in 2014).
In Trinidad, a court in 2018 overturned the nation’s anti-gay law, but an appeals court reversed that decision in 2025.
Similar laws have been dropped in Hindu-majority Mauritius (2023), Buddhist-majority Bhutan (2021) and in Hindu-majority India (2018).
No Muslim-majority nation has repealed an anti-LGBT law recently. In fact, Muslim-majority Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger all enacted anti-LGBT laws in the past two years.
Explanations for that trend include:
African nations’ unflagging resentment toward their former colonial masters in Europe, where LGBT rights are widely accepted, and
Islam’s traditional hostility to homosexuality. As the Middle East Forum website stated last year:
“Homosexuality is a sin punishable by death, according to the Quran, hadith, and Islamic Law.
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“Within many Islamic societies, such a stance on homosexuality is unequivocal: It is a major sin with no room for reinterpretation. … The Australian National Imams Council, representing over 200 imams in a country that prides itself on its liberalism, asserts that homosexuality is a forbidden action and anyone who partakes in it is a disobedient servant to God. Their view represents the rule rather than exception among Islamic scholars and institutions. …
“While some argue for a re-examination of Islamic teachings on same-sex relationships, suggesting that traditional interpretations may be misinformed or contextually outdated, these perspectives remain marginal within the broader Muslim community.”
Click here to see lists of Muslim-majority, Christian-majority and other nations with anti-homosexuality laws.
Map of the 66 countries where sexual relations between people of the same sex are illegal. YELLOW countries have sodomy laws that are currently being challenged before local courts. Sri Lanka, in PINK, currently has a bill before its parliament to repeal its sodomy law. Indonesia, in ORANGE, has laws that criminalize homosexuality only in some subnational jurisdictions. All states in RED have nationwide sodomy laws and no known legislative efforts or court challenges to remove them.
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