Freedom here, punished by death there: LGBTI rights worldwide

LGBTI rights have made significant progress over the past few years – but only in some parts of the world. In many places, LGBTI people still face widespread stigmatization and persecution, and in a surprising number of countries the penalty for same-sex relationships is prison or even death.

There are 73 countries – mostly in the Middle East, Africa and Asia – where homosexual activity between consenting adults is illegal, according to Equaldex, a collaborative LGBTI rights website. The websites Equaldex maps LGBTI rigts worldwid.

Transgender people will no longer be considered mentally ill after the World Health Organization reclassified 'gender incongruence.' In a new catalogue, covering some 55,000 diseases, the condition is no longer listed under "mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders" but instead under "conditions related to sexual health". The reclassification "will reduce stigma so that it may help better social acceptance for these individuals," according to the WHO.

Recently, in a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice granted same-sex spouses of EU citizens the same residency rights as heterosexual spouses under the bloc’s freedom-of-movement laws.