Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Australia rank among the highest in the world; having significantly advanced over the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century. Opinion polls and the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey indicate widespread popular support for same-sex marriage within the nation. Australia in 2018, in fact was the last of the Five Eyes set of countries – including Canada (2005), New Zealand (2013), United Kingdom (2014) and the United States (2015) to legalize same-sex marriage. A 2013 Pew Research poll found that 79% of Australians agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, making it the fifth-most supportive country surveyed in the world. With its long history of LGBTQ activism and annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Sydney has been named one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world.
Australia is a federation, with most laws affecting LGBT and intersex rights made by its states and territories. Between 1975 and 1997, the states and territories progressively repealed anti-homosexuality laws that dated back to the colonial era. Since 2016, each jurisdiction has an equal age of consent for all sexual acts. All jurisdictions offer expungement schemes to clear the criminal records of people charged or convicted for consensual sexual acts that are no longer illegal. All jurisdictions of Australia have legally abolished the gay panic defence, based within common law, since 1 April 2021. Since October 2024, conversion therapy is legally banned in jurisdictions representing approximately 85% of the Australian population: Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. Since February 2025, extensive and comprehensive federal hate crime legislation explicitly includes “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status” – with up to 7 years imprisonment.
Australia legalized same-sex marriage on 9 December 2017. States and territories began granting domestic partnership benefits and relationship recognition to same-sex couples from 2003 onwards, with federal law recognizing same-sex couples since 2009 as de facto relationships. Alongside marriage, same-sex relationships may be recognized by states or territories in various ways, including through civil unions, domestic partnerships, registered relationships and/or as unregistered de facto relationships.
Joint and stepchild same-sex adoption is legal nationwide, with the Northern Territory the last jurisdiction to pass an adoption equality law in March 2018. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression is prohibited in every state and territory, with concurrent federal protections for sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status since 1 August 2013. Transgender rights in Australia and intersex rights in Australia vary between jurisdictions. Australians can legally register a "non-specific" sex on federal legal documents and in the records of some states and territories. It was formally announced within September 2024, that the 2026 Australian Census will include optional questions on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Terminology
The term LGBTI is increasingly used in Australia, rather than just LGBT, with the I denoting intersex people. Organisations that include intersex people as well as LGBT people include the National LGBTI Health Alliance and community media.LGBTI people to watch in 2014 , Gay News Network, 1 January 2014. Also used are the terms LGBTQI, and LGBTQIA, with the A denoting asexual people, and Q queer people. According to the 2020 Commonwealth Style Manual, Australian government agencies use both the LGBTI and LGBTIQ+ initialisms, with "SOGIESC" (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics) used by writers in relation to legal and policy issues.
Some far-right politicians have criticised longer initialisms for being too long, preferring LGBT over longer initialisms, such as Bob Katter, Pauline Hanson and Mark Latham.
Legality of same-sex sexual activity Colonial and 20th century persecution As part of the British Empire, Australian colonies inherited anti-homosexuality laws such as the Buggery Act 1533. These provisions were maintained in criminal sodomy laws passed by 19th century colonial parliaments, and subsequently by state parliaments after Federation. Same-sex sexual activity between men was considered a capital crime, resulting in the execution of people convicted of sodomy until 1890. The laws also punished sodomy between heterosexual partners, but did not apply to lesbian relationships. Oral sex as well as manual sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, public or private, were also criminal offences.
Different jurisdictions gradually began to reduce the death penalty for sodomy to life imprisonment, with Victoria the last state to reduce the penalty in 1949. Community debate about decriminalising homosexual activity began in the 1960s, with the first lobby groups Daughters of Bilitis, the Homosexual Law Reform Society and the Campaign Against Moral Persecution formed in 1969 and 1970.
Decriminalisation of homosexuality
In October 1973, former Prime Minister John Gorton put forward a motion in the federal House of Representatives, seconded by minister Moss Cass, that "in the opinion of this House homosexual acts between consenting adults in private should not be subject to the criminal law". The Wolfenden report of 1957, which revealed widespread homosexuality in the United Kingdom, was referenced during the debate, as well as high suicide rates amongst the homosexual community at the time. Member for Bennelong Sir John Cramer spoke against the motion, believing it would hasten social decay. All three major parties were given a conscience vote, and the motion was passed by 64 votes to 40.
+ Motion to decriminalise homosexuality, 18 October 1973 Party MPs Votes for Votes against Abstained/absent 66 38 20 Total 124 64 40 20
However, Gorton's motion had no legal effect as the legality of homosexuality was a matter for state governments. Over a 22-year span between 1975 and 1997, the states and territories gradually repealed their sodomy laws as support for gay law reform grew.
Following the murder of George Duncan in Adelaide, suspected to have been committed by police officers, there was widespread public outrage in South Australia and calls for male homosexuality to be decriminalized. Premier Don Dunstan had been working quietly behind the scenes for a number of years on the issue, preferring to not be publicly associated with it. Opposition member of the upper house Murray Hill introduced a private members' bill decriminalizing homosexuality. Members were allowed a conscience vote on the bill, however Ren DeGaris moved an amendment in which homosexual activity remained a criminal offence, but provided a legal defence if both men were in private, consenting and over the ages of 21. This law commenced on 9 November 1972.
In 1975, Peter Duncan introduced another private members bill decriminalizing male homosexuality and this bill passed on 17 September 1975, making South Australia the first jurisdiction to decriminalise male homosexual activity from 2 October 1975 when the law took effect.
The Australian Capital Territory's decriminalisation, first proposed in 1973, was approved by the Fraser Federal Government with effect from 8 November 1976. Victoria followed on 1 March 1981, although a "soliciting for immoral purposes" provision added by conservatives saw police harassment continue in that state for some years.
Other jurisdictions to decriminalise male homosexuality were the Northern Territory (1 January 1984), New South Wales (8 June 1984) and (after four failed attempts) Western Australia (23 March 1990). In exchange for decriminalisation, Western Australian conservatives required a higher age of consent and an anti-proselytising provision similar to the United Kingdom's section 28, both repealed in 2002.
Queensland legalised male same-sex activity with effect from 19 January 1991 after the long-standing Nationals government had lost power.
The Tasmanian Government refused to repeal its sodomy law, which led to the case of Toonen v Australia, in which the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that sodomy laws violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Tasmania's continued refusal to repeal the offending law led the Keating government to pass the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994, which legalised sexual activity between consenting adults throughout Australia and prohibited laws that arbitrarily interfered with the sexual conduct of adults in private.
In the 1997 case of Croome v Tasmania,. Rodney Croome applied to the High Court of Australia to strike down the Tasmanian anti-gay law as inconsistent with federal law; after having failed to have the matter thrown out, the Tasmanian Government decriminalised homosexuality with effect from 14 May 1997, becoming the final Australian jurisdiction to do so.
Table State/Territory Date male homosexual activity made legal (Date law came into effect)Australian Capital Territory8 November 1976New South Wales8 June 1984Northern Territory1 January 1984Queensland19 January 1991South Australia2 October 1975Tasmania14 May 1997 Victoria1 March 1981Western Australia23 March 1990
Age of consent equalisation
The age of consent laws of all states and territories of Australia apply equally regardless of the gender and sexual orientation of participants. The age of consent in all states, territories and on the federal level is 16, except for Tasmania and South Australia where it is 17. The age of consent was equalised in 2002 by Western Australia and in 2003 by New South Wales and the Northern Territory. The last state to equalise its age of consent was Queensland in 2016, when it brought the age of consent for anal intercourse into line with vaginal intercourse and oral sex from 18 to 16 years of age.
Historical conviction expungement All Australian jurisdictions have passed legislation that allows men charged or convicted under historical anti-homosexuality laws to apply for expungement, which clears the charge or conviction from their criminal record, and in South Australia, men can apply to have their convictions spent, but not expunged. After expungement, the conviction is treated as having never occurred, with the individual not required to disclose it and the conviction not showing up on a police records check. Without expungement laws, men who had been convicted of historical sodomy offences were at a disadvantage, including being subject to restrictions on travel and in applying for some jobs.
The dates when these laws took effect were as follows:
South Australia – 22 December 2013; New South Wales – 24 November 2014;. Victoria – 1 September 2015; Australian Capital Territory – 7 November 2015; Tasmania – 9 April 2018; Queensland – 30 June 2018; Western Australia – 15 October 2018; Northern Territory – 14 November 2018.
Recognition of same-sex relationships
Australian law allows the recognition of same-sex relationships in a multitude of forms, depending on the couple's wishes. Same-sex couples can marry, enter into a civil union or domestic partnership in most states and territories, or can simply live together in an unregistered de facto relationship. Couples who enter into a civil union or domestic partnership are recognised as being in a de facto relationship for the purpose of federal law. According to the 2021 Census, there were around 78,000 same-sex couples living together in Australia.
Federal de facto relationship recognition