There are no national estimates of sexual and gender minorities in Kuwait. There are number of laws prosecuting sexual and gender minorities in Kuwait, and the Kuwaiti government occasionally partakes in investigations and arrests of suspected sexual and gender minorities. Homosexuals are prosecuted under the "debauchery law," a penal code containing general provisions against immorality (Smith, 2016). Article 198 criminalizes "imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex" and imposes fines, imprisonment, and arbitrary restrictions upon individuals' rights to privacy and free expression (Smith, 2016). More recently, in 2013 an official of the Kuwait Health Ministry reported to a local newspaper that the Kuwaiti government was developing a "medical test" to identify sexual minorities to prevent them from entering Kuwait (Scull, 2017).
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples
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Civil Unions
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Joint Adoption
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Second Parent Adoption
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Employment Nondiscrimination Laws
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Broad Protections
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Criminalization of Violence
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Ban of Conversion Therapy
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Consensual Same-Sex Acts are Legal?
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Gender
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Max Penalty (Yrs in Prison) - over age 21
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Max Penalty (Yrs in Prison) - under age 21
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*Kuwait's `gay tests` aimed at keeping LGBT expats out of gulf. (2013, Oct 11). Free Press Journal
Studies:
Scull, N. C., & Mousa, K. (2017). A Phenomenological Study of Identifying as Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual in an Islamic Country. SexualityandCulture, 21(4), 1215+. https://link-gale-com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/apps/doc/A511174626/AONE?u=duke_perkins&sid=AONE&xid=1292c551
Reports:
Human Rights Watch. (2012). They HuntUs Down for Fun: Discrimination and Police Violence Against Transgender Women in Kuwait. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/kuwait0112ForUpload.pdf
Wong, T. (2016). The Secret Life of the Queer Muslim: An In-Depth Cross Cultural Analysis of Repression. Senior Projects Spring 2016. 403. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=senproj_s2016
Articles:
Hillier, B. (2020). This trans woman sparked Kuwait’s biggest LGBTQ movement in history. The World. https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-06-17/trans-woman-sparked-kuwaits-biggest-lgbtq-movement-history
Smith, C. B. (2016). Caught up in Kuwait: was a Lesbian couple's imprisonment the matter of a bungled drug trial, or were they locked up for being gay? TheAdvocate, (1085), 30+. https://link-gale-com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/apps/doc/A454783167/ITOF?u=duke_perkins&sid=ITOF&xid=cdf6fe6f
Younes, R. (2020). Kuwaiti Transgender Woman’s Video Sparks Worldwide Solidarity. The Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/10/kuwaiti-transgender-womans-video-sparks-worldwide-solidarity