Key LGBT+ Legal Milestones

Here is a roundup of key milestones in the advancement of LGBT+ rights across the UK. 

Decriminalisation of Homosexuality - 1967

Homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

The court stated that the UK had the right to determine the age of consent, which is why the UK law was not required to change; at the time for heterosexual sex the age of consent was 16 whilst it remained at 21 for homosexuals.

Extension of Sex Discrimination to include Gender Reassignment - 1996

In 1996 the European Court of Justice ruled in the case of P v S and Cornwall County Council that P had been dismissed unfairly after informing the employer that they were undergoing gender reassignment surgery. The UK tribunal viewed that the EU Equal Treatment Directive (1976) could be applied so asked the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. It was ruled that it was unfair dismissal based on gender reassignment as someone who was not going through a sex change would not be dismissed. Notably this was the first piece of case law in the world that protected transgender people in employment or vocational education.

This ruling left open the question of continuing employment where sex may be considered a key part of the job (‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’ is the phrase used in the 2010 Equality Act that includes gender reassignment in the characteristics protected in the Act.) The UK Government introduced the 1999 Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations as a result of this case, extending the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act to cover discrimination on grounds of gender reassignment in employment and vocational training.

Equal Age of Consent - 2000

In the case of Sutherland v. United Kingdom, the European Commission of Human Rights found, on 1 July 1997, that Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights were violated by a discriminatory age of consent. This was based on the grounds that there was no objective and reasonable justification for maintaining a higher minimum age for male homosexual acts. On 13 October 1997, the Government submitted to the European Court of Human Rights that it would propose a Bill to Parliament for a reduction of the age of consent for homosexual acts from 18 to 16.

After several battles between the House of Commons and the House of Lords the bill was finally passed in November 2000.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002

The Act gave same sex couples the right to adopt, and this became law in December 2005. If you are a same sex couple you don’t need to be in a Civil Partnership or married to adopt, you will need to show that you are living together in an enduring relationship.

Employment Equality -2003

The EU Employment Equality Framework Directive was issued and came into force in 2000. This included protection from discrimination in employment to the ground of sexual orientation. EU countries were given 3 years to bring this into law; the UK extended legal protection in the workplace to cover sexual orientation in 2003. This directive also provides the basis for the 2010 Equality Act.

Gender Recognition Act- 2004

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on 11 July 2002, in Christine Goodwin and I v The United Kingdom, that the UK Government had discriminated based on violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Goodwin had complained that the lack of right to change registered gender had led to embarrassment and humiliation as well as an unfair requirement to pay National Insurance to 65 rather than 60 because, before reassignment, Goodwin had been registered as a man. ‘I’ complained that she was unable to gain employment as a nurse due to not wanting to pass over the birth certificate which was registered in their pre-operative sex.

Their complaints covered their treatment in relation to employment, social security and pensions, and their inability to marry either as a man or a woman. Previous attempts to get court rulings in favour of transgender individuals or on the grounds of violating human rights had been unsuccessful.

The UK Government introduced the Gender Recognition Act in the House of Lords in the latter part of 2003, and it received Royal Assent on 1st July 2004. This meant that people who had undergone gender reassignment could legally change their gender. Up to this point the UK was criticised for being behind most other countries in Europe on recognising transgender individuals.  

Whilst this Bill was going through, the European Court of Justice made a preliminary ruling (2004) requested by the UK Court of Appeal that there was discrimination in the case of K.B v NHS Pensions Agency. In this case, the discrimination was on the grounds that K.B’s transgender partner was refused a widower’s pension because of being legally registered as female despite subsequent transition to be male. It was ruled that not being able to marry because there was no way to register changed gender was against the human right to marry contained within the European Convention of Human Rights.

Civil Partnership Act 2004 -2005

The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force in December 2005 across the UK. The Scottish Parliament voted in favour of allowing Westminster to legislate for Scotland in this Act. Civil Partnerships were introduced for same sex couples only, across the UK. At the time there were legal and social objections to calling a same sex relationship a marriage. The view was that marriage could only be between a man and a woman. Marriage remained available only to opposite sex couples.

The first Civil Partnerships took place in Northern Ireland on 19 December 2005, followed by Scotland on 20 December 2005 and then England and Wales on 21 December 2005. They were not permitted on religious premises.

Civil Partnerships were developed to give same sex couples the same legal status, rights and responsibilities as those given to opposite sex couples through marriage. These were given without the religious associations of marriage. Civil Partnerships give same sex couple partners a secure legal status, akin to civil marriage for heterosexual couples, in matters like life insurance, pensions, inheritance and caring for their partner’s children. They provide a legal basis for a partner to be respected as the next of kin in hospitals and within families. Their introduction meant same sex couples now had official and public recognition of their relationship.

Since 2011 Civil Partnerships have been permitted on religious premises in England and Wales. In Scotland a Civil Partnership ceremony can be conducted anywhere, civil or religious by someone approved to conduct a ceremony. Civil Partnership ceremonies are not permitted on religious premises in Northern Ireland.

In February 2018, the UK and Scottish governments began reviewing Civil Partnerships, with a view to either opening them up to opposite-sex couples or scrapping them entirely. In June 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that allowing only same-sex couples to enter a Civil Partnership is discriminatory and incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Following the Supreme Court judgment, the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Act 2019 opened the way for the first opposite-sex Civil Partnerships to take place in England and Wales from December 31st 2019. The Act was a victory for equal Civil Partnership campaigners. The Scottish Parliament also passed a bill in June 2020 to allow mixed sex Civil Partnerships.

Equality Act 2010

In 2010 the UK Government brought in the Equality Act covering 9 protected characteristics including sexual orientation and gender reassignment. It is the inclusion of sexual orientation equality which is of particular interest to lesbian, gay and bisexual people. It is, of course, quite possible that any lesbian, gay, or bisexual person may also have one or more other protected characteristic.

Aims of the General Duty

To comply with the general equality duty in the exercise of their functions public authorities must have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who do and do not share a protected characteristic
• Foster good relations between people who do and do not share a protected characteristic

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 introduced same sex marriage in England and Wales. It came into force on 13th March 2014. The first marriages took place on 29th March 2014. Section 9 granted any couple registered in a Civil Partnership the ability to convert that partnership into marriage. It came into force on 16th December 2014. The first marriages for couples in a Civil Partnership took place on the same day.

The Policing and Crime Act - 2017

This came into effect after being given Royal Assent. A section of the Act (known as the Alan Turing Law) officially gave posthumous pardons to the thousands of homosexual men from England and Wales who had been convicted under previous laws and gave those still living, the possibility to apply to have their conviction erased. 

Transgender Health Issues declassified - 2019

The World Health Organisation declassified transgender health issues as a mental illness. Graeme Reid (LGBT Rights Director at Human Rights Watch) said the changes would have a liberating effect on transgender people worldwide.

Conversion therapy ban introduced - 11 May 2021

As part of the State Opening of Parliament, Queen Elizabeth stated that the UK planned to ban conversion therapy aimed at altering sexual orientation. It can include talking therapies and prayer, but more extreme forms can include exorcism, physical violence and food deprivation. About 5% of the 108,000 people who responded to the government's UK-wide LGBT Survey in 2018 said they had been offered some form of conversion therapy, while 2% had undergone it. In 2022 the UK government announced it plans to ban conversion therapy for gay, bisexual and transgender people in England and Wales.

Blood donation ban lifted- 14 June 2021

The ban preventing any men who have had sex with other men in the last three months from giving blood is lifted ending decades of restrictions based on sexual orientation.