Despite the fact that queerness has been historically recorded all over the world, with some instances dating back to 480 BCE, the modern world does not look favorably towards LGBTQ+ people. Today, 64 jurisdictions criminalize sexual activity between men, and 40 countries do the same for women (Human Dignity Trust).
Countries like Jamaica, Egypt, and Malaysia criminalize LGBTQ+ people, and countries like Uganda, Qatar, and Yemen impose a death penalty if caught. These death sentences include death by stoning. Many of these countries also criminalize gender expression of transgender people, including Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.
Even in places where being queer isn’t de jure, it is often de facto, as seen with the rates of hate crimes towards LGBTQ+ people. In the United States, more than one in five hate crimes are motivated by anti-queer bias, and hate crimes in the UK have gone up 186% based on anti-LGBTQ+ bias and 112% based on anti-trans bias over the last five years.
However, there are many countries that are making advancements in civil liberties for queer people. Thailand is on the way to being the first south-east Asian country, and second Asian country (after Taiwan), to allow same sex marriage, as the bill has passed in the lower house of their parliament. Sweden has recently changed the age to change one’s legal gender from 18 to 16.
Even with the criminalization of queerness in so many countries, some are slowly making progress toward a more just and polychromatic world.