| Location Header: | the Americas |
| Legal Status: | Legal in 30 out of 35 states; equal age of consent in 26 out of 35 states Legal in all 21 territories; equal age of consent in 16 out of 21 territories |
| Gender Identity Expression: | Legal in 13 out of 35 states Legal in 8 out of 21 territories |
| Recognition Of Relationships: | Recognized in 11 out of 35 states Recognized in 18 out of 21 territories |
| Recognition Of Relationships Restrictions: | Same-sex marriage constitutionally banned in 7 out of 35 states |
| Adoption: | Legal in 7 out of 35 states Legal in 13 out of 21 territories |
| Military: | Allowed to serve openly in 14 out of 29 states that have an army Allowed in all 21 territories |
| Discrimination Protections: | Protected in 22 out of 35 states Protected in 14 out of 21 territories |
Laws governing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights are complex and diverse in the Americas, and acceptance of LGBTQ persons varies widely.
Same-sex marriages are currently legal in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, United States and Uruguay. Free unions that are equivalent to marriage have begun to be recognized in Bolivia. Among non-independent states, same-sex marriage is also legal in Greenland, the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, all French territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, French Guiana, Saint Martin, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon), and in the Caribbean Netherlands, Aruba, and Curaçao, while marriages performed in the Netherlands are recognised in Sint Maarten. More than 800 million people live in nations or sub-national entities in the Americas where same-sex marriages are available.
On 9 January 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an advisory opinion that states party to the American Convention on Human Rights should grant same-sex couples accession to all existing domestic legal systems of family registration, including marriage, along with all rights that derive from marriage.[1] The Supreme Courts of Honduras,[2] Panama,[3] Peru[4] and Suriname[5] have rejected the IACHR advisory opinion, while the Supreme Courts of Costa Rica and Ecuador adhered to it. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay are also under the court's jurisdiction, but already had same-sex marriage before the ruling was handed down.
However, five other nations still have unenforced criminal penalties for "buggery" on their statute books. These are Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, of which Guyana is on mainland South America, while the rest are Caribbean islands. They are all former parts of the British West Indies. In addition, in Anguilla, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Paraguay, Montserrat, Suriname and the Turks and Caicos Islands, the age of consent is higher for same-sex sexual relations than for opposite-sex ones, and in Bermuda, the age of consent for anal sex is higher than that for other types of sexual activities.
The British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonists, who settled most of the Americas, brought Christianity from Europe. In particular, the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants, both of which oppose legal recognition of homosexual relationships. These were followed by the Eastern Orthodox church,[6] the Methodist Church,[7] [8] and some other Mainline (Protestant) denominations, such as the Reformed Church in America[9] and the American Baptist Church,[10] as well as conservative evangelical organizations and churches, such as the Evangelical Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention.[11] [12] [13] Pentecostal churches, such as the Assemblies of God,[14] as well as restorationist churches (like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons), also take the position that homosexual sexual activity is ‘sinful’.[15] [16]
However, other denominations have become more accepting of LGBT people in recent decades, including the Episcopalian church in the United States, the Evangelical Lutheran Church (also in America), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church of Canada, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Society of Friends (Quakers), as well as some congregations of the Presbyterian Church in America. Most of these denominations now perform same-sex weddings or blessings. Furthermore, many churches in the United Methodist Church (in the US) are choosing to officiate and bless same-sex marriage despite denomination-wide restrictions.[17] In addition, in the United States, conservative Judaism, reform Judaism, and reconstructionist Judaism now welcome LGBT worshippers and perform same-sex weddings.