LGBT rights in Kuwait

Consensual sexual activity between men is illegal. No laws specifically criminalise same-sex sexual activity between women.

• Article 193 of the Penal Code punishes "consensual intercourse between men of full age (from the age of 21)" with a term of imprisonment of up to seven years.^[1]

• Article 198 prohibits public immorality:

Whoever commits an indecent gesture or act in a public place or such that anyone in a public place can see or hear him, he shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year and a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees, or by one of these two penalties.

^[2]

In September 2013, it was announced that all countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council had agreed to discuss a proposal to establish some form of, as yet unknown, "testing" to detect homosexuality in order to deny entry to gay foreigners.^[3][4] However, it has been suggested that concern for hosting 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and fears of controversy over the possible screening of football fans, made officials backtrack on the plans and insist that it was a mere proposal.^[5]

In 2017 Instagram star King Luxy was arrested in Kuwait for allegedly looking too feminine. He spent two weeks in custody before he was released.^[6]

Discrimination

In 1988, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Public Health supported a study investigating the prevalence of unrecognised HIV infection in Kuwait, which found no infections in a sample of Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti men. A similar sentinel surveillance study was performed in 1997–1998, again detecting no HIV infection in its sample group.^[a] The incidence of HIV/AIDS has remained very low within Kuwait, under 0.1 percent over the entire period up to the latest reported figures in 2021. The segment of the population that forms the majority of those with HIV in Kuwait, is males aged between 25 and 49 years, at 47 percent of the total.^[7]

Foreigners found to be infected with AIDS/HIV are deported,^[8][9] but Kuwaiti citizens who are infected are entitled to outpatient medical care, organised by a specialized infectious disease hospital.^[10]

In 2004 a United Nations report on HIV in Kuwait found that about six percent of known transmission cases were the result of unprotected sexual contact between men.^[11]

In 1992, the National Assembly criminalised the knowing transmission of HIV to another person.^{[citation needed]}

No known association or charity exists in Kuwait to campaign for LGBT rights or to organize educational and social events for the LGBT community.^[12]

In 2007, the Al Arabiya news service reported that a group of Kuwaitis had applied for a permit to form a new association that would stand up for the rights of LGBT Kuwaitis.^[13] All such interest groups or clubs have to be approved by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which never formally replied.

In July 2019 the group announced that they would again apply for a permit from the ministry in response to a crackdown by the Ministry of Commerce on symbols representing homosexuality such as rainbows in shops.^[13]

• Human rights in Kuwait
• GCC homosexuality test
• LGBT in the Middle East
• LGBT rights in Asia