Homosexuality was decriminalised in Timor-Leste in 1975 upon independence and was not recriminalised under the Indonesian occupation the next year.

The Civil Code (Law No. 10/2011), states the following:

Article 1467 (Notion of marriage): Marriage is the contract concluded between two people of different sex who want to start a family through a full communion of life, in accordance with the provisions of this Code.

Article 1517 (Non-existent marriages): 1. It is legally non-existent: e) Marriage contracted by two people of the same sex.

In East Timor, there are no laws restricting the discussion or promotion of LGBTQ+ topics.

Transgender Timorese currently do not have the right to change their legal gender. The ability for Timorese to change their legal gender was not carried over after independence from Indonesia in 2002.

Gender-affirming care is not provided in Timor-Leste although not explicitly banned.

Article 12 of Decree-Law No. 2/2004 on Legal Regime for Civil Identification, states:

"Sex is written using the initials M and F, depending on whether the holder is male or female."

Within the penal code, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (and discrimination in general) is treated as an aggravating circumstances since 2009. Sexual orientation was also a protected characteristic from employment discrimination since 2002 until 2012.

There are other legal protections that explicitly include gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in areas such as health, employment, education, property rights, children and youth, gender-based violence, national police, social protection, media and hate speech:

-Article 7(i) of the Code of Conduct for Media Professionals for Presidential and Parliamentary Elections (2011)
-Article 4 of Law No. 5/2014 Social Communication Law.
-Article 7(i) of Government Decree No. 10/2017 Approves the Technical Procedures for Carrying out Journalistic Coverage Activities of the Presidential Election.
-Article 2(i) of Land Law No. 13/2017.
-Article 3 of Law No. 3/2017 on the Prevention and Fight against Human Trafficking.
-Guidelines No. 12/2017 on Prevention and combating sexual harassment in the Public Service.
-Article 3-2(o) of Law No. 13/2022, Second amendment to Law No. 10/2004 Health System Law.
-Article 3-B(e) of Decree-Law No. 88/2022, Third amendment to Decree-Law No. 14/2004 on the Exercise of Health Professions.
-Article 3(a) of Decree-Law No. 31/2023 on the Career Statute for Kindergarten Teachers and Primary and Secondary School Teachers (Teaching Career Statute).
-Article 4(2) of Decree-Law No. 32/2023, Legal Framework for the National Basic Education System.
-Article 4(2) of Decree-Law No. 33/2023, Legal Framework of the National Secondary Education System.
-Article 6(n) of Law No. 6/2023 on the Protection of Children and Young People in Danger.
-Article 7(k) of Decree-Law No. 22/2024 on One-off Support Allowance for Vulnerable People
-Decree No. 11/MSSI/V/2024 approving the Standard Operating Procedures for the management of child and youth protection cases.
-Decree No. 10/MSSI/V/2024 Approving the Standard Operating Procedures on Management and Coordination to Support Victims of Gender-Based Violence.
-Decree No. 6/2025 Regulates the Training of Kindergarten Teachers and Primary and Secondary Education Teachers.

There is protection against sexual harassment based on sexual preferences that applies only to the public sector.

Guideline No. 12/2017 on Prevention and combating sexual harassment in the Public Service. issued by the Public Service Commission, states that acts that may constitute sexual harassment include: telling lies or spreading rumors about a person's sex life; ask questions about a person's sex life; discussing one person's sex life with another; asking about another person's sexual fantasies, sexual preferences, or sexual history; making sexual comments about a person's clothing, anatomy or appearance; among others.

There are no protections from discrimination in housing provided to LGBTIQ+ people in Timor-Leste.

Article 1858 (Who can adopt) of the Civil Code (Law No. 10/2011), states the following:

1. Two people who have been married for more than four years and have not been legally separated from people and goods or in fact can adopt, if both are over twenty-five years old.

2. Those who are over thirty years of age can also adopt or, if the adopting is the child of the adopter's spouse, more than twenty five years.

3. Only those who are not over sixty years old on the date on which the minor was entrusted to them can adopt, and from the age of fifty the age difference between the adopter and the adopted person cannot exceed fifty years..

Surgery on intersex infants is legal in Timor-Leste but not reported.

There are no explicit legal prohibitions against LGBTQ people serving in the Timor Leste Defence Force according to:

-Decree-Law No. 3/2021 that Approves the Regulation of the Military Service Law.
-Decree-Law No. 33/2020 on the Statute of Military Personnel of Timor-Leste Defence Forces.

Regarding the National Police of Timor-Leste, there are three legal provisions that explicitly protect LGB people from discrimination:

-Decree-Law No. 44 /2020 Disciplinary Regulation of the National Police of Timor-Leste.
-Decree-Law No. 69/2022 Professional Statute of personnel with police functions of the National Police of Timor-Leste.
-Decree-Law No. 35/2024 Statute of the Police Officers of the National Police of Timor-Leste.

Article 3-B(e) of Decree-Law nº 14/2004 on the Exercise of Health Professions, Amended by Decree-Law No. 88/2022, states that the health professional must comply, in particular, with the following professional duties:

"Take care of people without discrimination based on nationality, ancestry, race, territory of origin, age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs, education and economic situation or social status."

Article 3-2(o) of Law No. 10/2004 on Health System Law (Amended by Law No. 13/2022), states that the health policy must comply with the access to family planning, reproductive, school, visual, oral and mental health and early diagnosis, without discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

According to articles 177 and 178 of the Penal Code, the age of consent is equal regardless of sexual orientation since independence in 2002.