with the incorporation of the British Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 into Cyprus law. For the first time since 1858, this made male homosexuality a criminal act in Cyprus. Female homosexuality was not recognised or mentioned in the law.

With independence from Britain in 1960, Cyprus retained British colonial law on the island almost in its entirety, with the relevant parts of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 becoming articles 171 to 174 of Chapter 154 of the Cypriot Criminal Code

Nationwide.

The Civil Registry Law No. 141(I)/2002 entered into force, establishing a direct and solid legal basis for the official alteration of personal data. Section 40(1) of this legislation explicitly defines the modification of the registry as an act that includes the simultaneous change of name and sex. This provision, operating in conjunction with Section 41 which authorizes the updating of factual circumstances, ensures that the procedure is fully legally grounded through established administrative channels. To utilize this legal framework, the applicant must submit a sworn affidavit regarding the change of name to the District Administration, alongside a medical certificate confirming that gender reassignment surgery has been performed. Following the successful review and approval of the medical documentation by the Ministry of Health and the Director of the Civil Registry and Migration Department, the state officially recognizes the transition by issuing entirely new primary identification documents, including a passport, identity card, and electoral identity booklet with the updated gender marker. Although the original birth certificate itself is not retroactively amended and the procedure strictly requires the applicant to hold a single or divorced marital status, the 2002 law indisputably guarantees a highly functional, state-sanctioned, and legal pathway for the official recognition of gender in all major everyday identification documents.

The Cypriot legal system provided no statutory mechanisms or administrative procedures allowing for the alteration of the gender marker in official documents. State registers relied on strict biological determinism, treating the sex assigned at birth as an immutable characteristic, which resulted in the absolute absence of any legal avenue for the official recognition of one's gender identity.

Incitement to violence or hatred based on sexual orientation or gender identity has been criminalized since 2015 in Cyprus.

In Cyprus, there is no protections on LGBTQIA+ people from hate crimes prior to 2015.