While on a country, identify the issue (such as "gay marriage") that you'd like to edit, and click "add an entry."

Date

Choose the dates that the law began and ended. If the law you're adding is the present day law, select "none" for an end date.

Law Status

Choose the status of the law during those time periods. These statuses are predefined and cannot be edited (see: The law status that I'm looking for isn't listed. What do I do?).

You can also use three special law statuses. Please use these only when applicable:

• Ambiguous: If the status of a law is debated or contested.
• Not applicable: If the law does not apply to the country (for example, "LGBT people serving in the military" in a country that does not have a military program would be labeled as "Not applicable".)
• Varies by region: If there are no laws defined at a national level, using this status will indicate that laws are defined by each of the country's states or provinces. Equaldex will display all state and province laws available for this issue.

Description

Descriptions can be used to give a reader significant information about the law. See: What are the guidelines for writing a description?

Sources

Sources help verify the data you are inputting. See: What are sources used for?

Currently, you can only mark a law as "not applicable" for a set date range. If you'd like to mark the entire law as inapplicable for a country, please contact a moderator and they can easily do this for you.

To start editing, simply select a country, choose an issue that's missing some information, and then add an entry to fill in the missing data (See: How do I add a new entry?).

If you need a starting point, Wikipedia has some great articles that can be used as a jumping-off point: LGBT rights by country and list of LGBT rights articles by region.

Law statuses are predefined. If you feel one is missing, or aren't sure which to choose, please ask in the Equaldex Editors Facebook Group.

Note that (when applicable) you can add exceptions to the "Notes" section of the entry.

Sources are trusted links and other resources that verify the data you are inputting.

Equaldex recommends using Wikipedia's guidelines on reliable sources.

Editors should not list Wikipedia itself as a source, as all of the information on Wikipedia (ideally) relies on its own sources.

The "description" section of an entry includes important details about the law.

When writing a description:

• Use grammatically correct, complete sentences and punctuation.
• Use little to no formatting. Line breaks may be used if the description needs to be split into two paragraphs.
• Descriptions must not reference other information on the page, as they may be displayed out of context in other areas of the site, or on external sites and apps.
• It's fine to repeat the date, region, or status of the law (example: "In 2005, same-sex marriage became legal in Canada after The Civil Marriage Act was passed.")

Content of descriptions should include:

• The law, bill, act, and/or section number of the legal document. If applicable, include a link to a web version of this document in the Sources field.
• Details on the significance of the law. For example, if it was the first European country to pass the law, if it put the country under international attention, etc.
• Significant events leading to the passing of the law, such as counter-measures or public outcry.
• If the law is not enforced.
• Penalties for breaking the law. For example, a law about homosexuality in a country where it is illegal might state that the penalty is life in prison.
• If there are exceptions to the law (for example, "Same-sex marriage is illegal in this country except in the country's capital city.")

All entries must include a description. If one is missing a description, please report the entry and supply a description.

For consistency, laws entered into Equaldex should always refer to the written law.

If a law is not enforced, it should be noted in the "notes" section of the law.

Unknown dates should only be used in rare cases when that data is unavailable.

If you absolutely can't find a specific date of when a specific law went into effect or ended, you can set the day or month as "unknown."

In these cases, the date will be displayed as "March 1994" or just "1994" respectively.

Note that some functions of Equaldex require an complete date, so these dates will be treated as day one of the month or the year (for example, "March 1994" will be treated as "March 1, 1994" and "1994" will be "January 1, 1994").

If you're logged in and you're unable to add or edit any content, your account probably does not have editing privileges.
While Equaldex is still growing, the site is limited to who can edit it, however, all logged in users can vote on content, report content, and add or comment on discussion topics.
On your profile, the text "editor" will display next to your name if you have editing privileges.
If you're interested in becoming an editor, contact Equaldex.
See also: What are the different user types?

On any region page, you can click the "Details" link under each entry and click the "inaccurate" button to report that entry.

If you see several problems or want to discuss the accuracy of an entry, you can consider discussing it with other editors by creating a discussion topic on the region page (available in the sidebar).

If something else is wrong, feel free to post in the Equaldex Editors Facebook Group.

If you see two entries with overlapping date ranges, please report one of the entries and explain what the correct dates should be.

A moderator will then review the report and make necessary changes.

Once a law changes, the law that's listed as the present law should be edited so that the end date is the day the law changed.

From there, a new change should be added and labeled as the present law.

Keep in mind that only moderators can edit changes. Contact a moderator to make this change.

The font page map only displays the current laws. If a specific law is not displaying information for a country, it's likely that there is no present law for that country.

Keep in mind that it's possible for a country to only have historical (past) laws but not have a law listed as the present law.

Member: A regular member. Regular members can can vote on entries, report entries, and add or comment on discussion topics. Regular members cannot add or edit entries.

Editor: A member who has the ability to add entries to the site (Alpha Testers are also Editors).

Moderator: A moderator has privileges to make advanced edits, such as editing and deleting existing entries.

Moderators:

• Have access to the moderation system to see reports made by users and revisions made to entries.
• Review and close reports on entries by making appropriate changes.
• Help settle edit debates between users.
• Answer questions from new editors.
• Delete entries if necessary.
• Correct spelling and grammar on entries.
• Participate in discussions about the future of the site.
• Revoke editing rights from users who abuse the site.
• Get a "Moderator" badge on your profile.

In an effort to get Equaldex out to the public sooner, Facebook is the only login method provided at this time.

An email-only authentication method will be offered in the future.

Some browser extensions, such as Avast, will block social network functions on external sites.

To Enable Social Networks on Avast Plugin

1. Click on Avast extension button on your browser. In Chrome, this is on the top right of the browser. In Firefox, it will be on the top left.
2. When the Avast menu appears, turn off the "Social Networks Blocked" option.
3. Equaldex should now work properly. You may have to reload the page.

Exact steps will vary by browser, but once you've found the settings section of the Avast plugin, you should see a "Social Networks Blocked" option to turn off.

Still can't login?

If you can't login, try a different browser to check if the problem is related to your browser (or a plugin installed on that browser).

Please email [email protected]equaldex.com if you're still having trouble.

Using this data, we'll be able to show which countries are progressing, which need the most help, how countries compare to each other, how the LGBT movement has progressed over the years, and display compelling stats and visualizations about the LGBT movement. My hope is that Equaldex will become the go-to resource for data about the LGBT movement.

Laws are just the start. More features will be coming that will give more insight into the LGBT movement, including how LGBT people feel, how the population feels about LGBT issues, who (specifically) is helping move us forward, and who is holding us back.

Equaldex and its editors add organization and companies that are relevant to the LGBT community. Organizations may be listed on region pages to provide assistance to LGBT people who are interested in supporting the LGBT community in a given country.

See also: How do I get my organization listed on Equaldex?