LGBT Rights in Tunisia

Homosexuality: ⚢
✖ Illegal (imprisonment as punishment)
Gay Marriage: ⚭
✖ Unrecognized
Censorship: ✖ Imprisonment as punishment
Changing Gender: ✖ Legal, but requires surgery
Gender-Affirming Care: ✖ Restricted
Non-Binary Gender Recognition: ✖ Not legally recognized
Discrimination: ✖ No protections
Employment Discrimination: ✖ No protections
Housing Discrimination: ✖ No protections
Adoption: Unknown
Intersex Infant Surgery: ✖ Not banned
Military: Ambiguous
Donating Blood: N/A
Conversion Therapy: ✖ Not banned
Age of Consent: N/A

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Public Opinion

Suggest Public Opinion Data

Recent studies in Tunisia indicate societal resistance to LGBTQ+ rights.

OPPOSE

SUPPORT

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Homosexuals should be punished

(ELKA Consulting, 2016)

64.5%

Agree

10.9%

Disagree

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History

Homosexual activity in Tunisia

Homosexual activity in Tunisia is illegal (imprisonment as punishment).

Current status

Since Jan 1, 1913

Illegal (imprisonment as punishment)

Penal Code of 1913: Article 230: “The masculine homosexuality and feminine homosexuality that is not covered by any of the other previous articles, is punished with imprisonment for three years” (unofficial translation)

Details

Until Dec 31, 1912

Legal

Until 1913, homosexuality was legal in Tunisia, although taboo.

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Same-sex marriage in Tunisia

Same-sex marriage in Tunisia is unrecognized.

Current status

Unrecognized

The personal status code does not explicitly define marriage to be between a man and a woman, but it's implied according to its different article. Only that type of marriage is regulated. There is no law that regulates same-sex marriages or a civil unions. In 2020, Tunisian authorities approved the family reunification of a same-sex couple married abroad, a move initially reported as indirect recognition of the marriage,[27][28] but the government repeated that it does not recognize same-sex marriages and the approval may have been an administrative oversight.

Details

Censorship of LGBT issues in Tunisia

Censorship of LGBT issues in Tunisia is imprisonment as punishment.

Current status

Since Aug 2, 2004

Imprisonment as punishment

Article 226 of the Penal Code (1913) which was amended in 2004, criminalizes any act that publicly draws attention to the opportunity to “commit debauchery” through any form of writing, audio, or visual recording.

Details

Right to change legal gender in Tunisia

Right to change legal gender in Tunisia is legal, but requires surgery.

Current status

Since Jul 9, 2018

Legal, but requires surgery

Tunisian court granted legal gender recognition to a transgender man who received gender-affirming care in Germany, overruling a lower court’s verdict.

Details

Until Jul 9, 2018

Illegal

Until 2018, there was no legal gender recognition provided in Tunisia.

Details

Gender-affirming care in Tunisia

Gender-affirming care in Tunisia is restricted.

Current status

Restricted

There are no known legal restrictions on gender affirming healthcare in Tunisia. Access is difficult due to the lack of doctors with the knowledge required but there have been no known cases of doctors getting arrested for providing such care to trans Tunisians.

Details