1969 in LGBT Rights

In 1969, there were 9 recorded legal changes made affecting LGBT people. In the previous year, there were 9 changes made and 3 in the following year. A total of 90 legal changes were made in the 1960s.

  • September 1
    Homosexual activity becomes legal.
    Section 175 of the Criminal Code was relaxed for persons over 21 years in East Germany in 1968, with West Germany following suit in 1969. However, although this meant that homosexual activity between men was decriminalized, it was not made legal.
  • July 19
    Homosexual activity becomes ambiguous.
    Iraq's Criminal Code does not explicitly mention homosexuality in its penal code, however certain articles such as article 401 can be used against LGBT community. The article criminalises “immodest acts” in public, and punishable by a period of detention of up to six months and/or a fine.
  • June 27
    Homosexual activity becomes legal.
    In 1969, Canada enacted the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69, which decriminalized private and consensual homosexual activities between adults aged 21 and over.
  • May 21
    Equal age of consent becomes unequal.
    Even though gay male sex was illegal for all ages, section 14 of the Immorality Act 23 of 1957, as inserted by the Immorality Amendment Act 57 of 1969, set the age of consent for gay male sex at 19, as opposed to 16 for straight sex. There was no age of consent for lesbian sex.
  • (date unknown)
    Gender-affirming care becomes restricted.
    In 1969, the first gender identity clinic opened in Toronto at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and the first gender-affirming surgery in Canada was performed in 1970. To qualify, applicants had to be employed, be straight, never have been convicted of a crime, have lived as their identified gender for at least two years, and have changed all their legal documents.
  • Gender-affirming care becomes restricted.
    In 1969, Bangladesh legalized sterilization, which de facto meant legalizing sex reassignment surgery, however, medical records regarding transsexualism had to be obtained abroad.
  • January 1
    Gender-affirming care becomes restricted.
    In 1969, the first gender identity clinic opened in Toronto at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry and the first gender-affirming surgery in Canada was performed in 1970. To qualify, applicants had to be employed, be straight, never have been convicted of a crime, have lived as their identified gender for at least two years, and have changed all their legal documents. In 1979, Canada adopted the ICD-9 classification, which included codes allowing for the diagnosis of transsexualism in adults. That same year, Canada legalized sterilization.
  • Serving openly in military becomes legal.
    legal under federal army. legal since
  • January
    Serving openly in military becomes ambiguous.
    There has never been any specific law banning homosexuals from serving in the army. However, Article 235 of 1969 of the Military Penal Code, which prohibits the "practice of a libidinous act, homosexual or not", was often used to persecute gays in the military and try to expel them.