Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Swaziland face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 residents.

Laws regarding same-sex sexual acts

Male same-sex sexual acts are illegal in Swaziland

Swaziland

Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...

, whereas female same-sex sexual acts are legal.

Discrimination protections

There is no protection against discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

 based on sexual orientation

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...

.

Living conditions

The U.S. Department of State's 2010 Human Rights Report found that “societal discrimination against the LGBT community was prevalent, and LGBT persons generally concealed their sexual preferences." The report also found that "gays and lesbians who were open about their sexual orientation and relationships faced censure and exclusion from the chiefdom-based patronage system, which could result in eviction from one's home" and that "chiefs, pastors, and members of government criticized homosexual conduct as neither Swazi nor Christian."

External links

• Swaziland at African Veil — African LGBT site
• "Swazi gays get first same-sex club in kingdom", GMax, 7 April 2005