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1970 in LGBT Rights

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In 1970, there were 6 recorded legal changes made affecting LGBT people. In the previous year, there were 8 changes made and 32 in the following year. A total of 224 legal changes were made in the 1970s.

  • June 1
    Right to change legal gender becomes ambiguous.
    The Castration Act (Kastroimislaki 282/1970) entered into force. While this legislation was primarily designed to regulate severe medical interventions and did not explicitly contain provisions for altering a person's legal civil status, it created a state-sanctioned pathway for authorized sex reassignment surgeries under the supervision of the National Board of Health. Because the physical transition was legally regulated and recognized by medical authorities, some individuals who underwent these extensive anatomical changes managed to obtain administrative updates to their gender markers on a purely ad hoc basis. However, there was no guaranteed, standardized, or statutory legal right to official gender recognition during this period, leaving the practice entirely up to the discretion of individual civil registry offices.
  • January 27
    Homosexual activity becomes male illegal, female legal.
    The 1969 Crimes Act took effect in the Cook Islands in 1970 and criminalised sodomy with up to 7 years in prison.
  • (date unknown)
    Gender-affirming care becomes legal.
    Before July 2020, minors and adults alike were allowed to access gender affirming care, including hormones and puberty blockers and surgery for adults.
  • Same-sex marriage becomes banned.
    In 1970, Hong Kong adopted the Marriage Reform Ordinance, which explicitly requires marriage to be between one man and one woman. In September 2023, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the government is required to adopt legislation granting same-sex couples alternative legal rights comparable to marriage. The government has until October 27, 2025, to implement appropriate legislation. In the same decision, the CFA found that Hong Kong’s lack of recognition of same-sex marriages performed either domestically or abroad was not in violation of the right to equality in the constitution.
  • January 1
    Homosexual activity becomes legal.
    Consensual same-sex acts were legalized in 1945 after the end of WW2 by the Polish Penal Code. In 1970, homosexuality was completely decriminalized by removing the provision on homosexual prostitution from the penal code. From 2019 until 2025, several municipalities declared themselves to be "LGBT-free zones", but this had no legal impact.
  • (date unknown)
    Serving openly in military becomes illegal.
    During the apartheid regime, the military often sent homosexual soldiers to psychiatric hospitals for shock therapy and in some cases, sexual reassignment surgeries. Between 1967 and 1991, all white males over the age of 16 were conscripted in South Africa.

LGBT Organizations Founded in 1970