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1964 in LGBT Rights

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In 1964, there were 6 recorded legal changes made affecting LGBT people. In the previous year, there were 4 changes made and 4 in the following year. A total of 89 legal changes were made in the 1960s.

  • November 17
    Right to change legal gender becomes ambiguous.
    The legal practice was initiated by a precedent-setting ruling of the Voivodeship Court for the Capital City of Warsaw (case no. II Cr 515/64), which permitted the rectification of a birth certificate based on an analogy to civil status regulations, but this was strictly conditioned on the applicant having already undergone surgical gender reassignment and produced legal effects only for the future (ex nunc). The first successful case in 1964 involved an individual who had struggled for four years to correct their documents, using American medical literature and personal biography as arguments. By the mid-1960s, a small number of similar cases appeared, involving individuals who had already completed full medical transition, including vaginoplasty or phalloplasty.
  • September 18
    Serving openly in military becomes illegal.
    Article 69 of Zambia’s Defence Act of 1964 criminalises military personnel from committing “indecent practices”. In practice, this is largely implied to include homosexuality, thus banning LGBTIQ+ people from serving in the military.
  • May 18
    Serving openly in military becomes illegal.
    Until 1986, "sexual deviance" was a reason for exclusion for military service. At that time, some men claimed to be homosexual to avoid the draft.
  • April 3
    Censorship of LGBT issues becomes other punishment.
    Article 402 of the Penal Code (1964) of Somalia prohibits the commission of any “obscene act” while Article 403 prohibits the sale, distribution, and exhibition of any “obscene object”. Article 404 deems acts and objectives as “obscene” where they, in the general opinion, are “offensive to modesty”. Article 409, which criminalises same-sex intimacy, is part of the same chapter on “offences against modesty” in the legislation.
  • Homosexual activity becomes illegal (imprisonment as punishment).
    Article 409 of the Somalian Penal Code of 1964 says that sexual intercourse with a partner of the same sex is punishable with an imprisonment of 3 months up to 3 years.
  • March 31
    Censorship of LGBT issues becomes state-enforced.
    On March 31, 1964, a coup d'état took place that implemented a military dictatorship in Brazil, the military regime was rigid and conservative, and this led to persecution by the military against the LGBT community, the community was completely censored by the media and the regime, any type of content related to "homosexuality" and "transsexualism" was punished with any type of punishment

LGBT Organizations Founded in 1964