State-Sanctioned Killing of Sexual Minorities: Looking Beyond the Death Penalty

Many readers will take for granted the acceptability of consensual sexual activity between persons of the same sex, and the total inappropriateness of the state interfering with—let alone prohibiting—such behaviour. It may come as a surprise, then, that around the world, numerous states are complicit in the most extreme response to sexual diversity: homicide.

This report examines the extent to which states sanction the killing of sexual minorities. We look beyond those countries that impose the death penalty for same-sex intimacy to the far greater number of countries in which state actors commission, condone, endorse and enable such killings. We argue that the state-sanctioned killing of sexual minorities is often perpetrated well beyond the boundaries of the law, and even in countries that do not criminalise such conduct.