LGBT rights in the State of Palestine

LGBT rights in Palestine
Map of the two Palestinian territories, highlighted in green: the West Bank (right) and the Gaza Strip (left)
StatusMixed legality:
  • West Bank – legal since 1951, equal age of consent
  • Gaza Strip – no consensus on applicability of British 1936 Sexual offences provisions to homosexual conduct
Family rights
Recognition of relationshipsNo recognition of same-sex couples

Homosexuality in the Palestinian territories is considered a taboo subject; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people experience persecution and violence. There is a significant legal divide between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the former having more progressive laws and the latter having more conservative laws. Shortly after the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank in 1950, same-sex acts were decriminalized across the territory with the adoption of the Jordanian Penal Code of 1951. In the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and under Hamas' rule, however, no such initiative was implemented.


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