Same-sex sexual activity between males in Soviet Estonia was illegal and punishable under paragraph 118 of the penal code

A civil partnership law was passed and took effect on January 1, 2016, however the laws for the implementation of civil unions were never passed, leaving same sex couples with limited rights.

§ 1 (1) A marriage is contracted between a man and a woman.

Previous ministerial decree regulating legal gender recognition, the on the Establishment of Mandatory Processes for Gender Reassignment.

Transgender people were not required to undergo sex reassignment surgery, sterilisation or divorce their partner. Appointment with medical expert committee required.

The first transgender person to change their legal gender in independent Estonia did so on 6 April 1992. This followed a decision by a medical expert committee convened to assess her case.

Her birth certificate was corrected on this date, this was viewed as a pre-requisite to any surgery, which would have otherwise been considered mutilation under the law. While gender-affirming surgery was later carried out, it was not a pre-requisite for legal gender recognition.

The state of affairs was not regulated by law, but others were known to have been given authorization by the same medical expert committee to change their legal data.

This was ended in around 1994, since the Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of the Interior could not agree on whether surgery should be a pre-requisite for legal gender recognition. During that time, legal gender recognition was not possible.

This stand-off eventually resulted in the 1997 decree not requiring surgery for legal gender recognition, in exchange for the relevant minister signing off on every transgender person requesting such recognition.

Estonia was part of the Soviet Union during 1972 when the first sex change was performed and a trans man was granted legal gender recognition after completing surgery.

Estonia was a member of the Soviet Union in 1972 and before then legal gender recognition was not provided.

In 1999, gender affirming care was legal in Estonia but required a diagnosis before it could commence.

In 1983, transsexualism began to be professionally diagnosed in the Soviet Union, which allowed the prescription of hormone therapy.

In 1926, the Soviet Union's Ministry of Internal Affairs legalized sex reassignment surgery. Estonia would be incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940.

Before the 2009 Equal Treatment Act, there were no protections against discrimination.

In February of 2017, a lesbian woman successfully adopted her partner’s child. Since then, many other same-sex couples adopted their partners child.

In 2020 a same-sex couple adopted a child.

Theoretically, infertile couples may be able to jointly adopt non-biological but it is unclear if this applies to same-sex couples.

§ 148. (1) "A single person may adopt a child only alone."

Estonia has put in place a 4 month deferral period for MSMs in place of its life-time ban.

The indefinite deferral was changed to 12 months.

The Northern Estonia Blood Centre did not initially allow MSM persons to donate blood.

The age of consent of 14 years is equal for everyone.