The revolution of 25 April 1974, also known as the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

, is credited as being a crucial point in the change of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

representation within

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Despite the overthrow of Portugal's dictatorships, the LGBT community was still sparsely discussed until the change of Portugal's

Penal Code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

which decriminalized homosexuality as well as other things. From this point on, the LGBT movement made a slow climb into the public light and when Portugal joined the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

in 1986, their antidiscrimination policy caused substantial growth within the movement. While there was a variety of different movements and problems that arose during the 90s in relation to the LGBT movement, real change didn't happen until 2001 when parliament approved a law that "recognized cohabitation regardless of sexual orientation". Within the next decade and a half Portugal would go on to legalize

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

, adoption and established the procedure for legally changing an individual's gender.

De Facto Union

A de facto union, also known as

common-law marriage Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civil ...

, is when two individuals who have been together for two years or more are considered legally married without the marriage being on paper. On 11 May 2001 Portugal's parliament approved a change to the de facto union law that extended the unions to same-sex couples.Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2015, January). Reply of Portugal to the OHCHR’s request for information on the implementation of HRC resolution 27/32 on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Discrimination/LGBT/Res_27_32/Portugal.pdf

Same-Sex Marriage

On 31 May 2010 the law 9/2010 legalized and recognized the marriage of same-sex couples. This piece of legislation put Portugal at eighth in the world to legalize same-sex marriage and set them at the front of the LGBT citizenship rights within Europe.

Transgender Legislation

On 15 March 2011, law number 7/2011 established the process for those who identify with the opposite sex to legally change their gender and name within the civil registry. This legislation specifically allows individuals who are transgender to change their identity without gender changing surgery as long as they have obtained an official

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...

diagnosis. However, the diagnosis has to be made by a team of experts that specializes in "medical sexology", works within public or private medical offices in Portugal or another country, and the diagnosis must be reviewed and signed off by a psychologist and physician.

Same-Sex Adoption

On 29 February 2016, law number 2/2016 made is illegal to discriminate against same-sex couples who wanted to adopt. This legislation also prevents discrimination when trying to acquire a civil sponsorship or any other family legal relationships. Prior to this law being passed in March 2014, there was an attempt to grant same-sex couples the same adoption rights as opposite sex couples but lost the 107 who were in favor lost in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

to the 111 who were against it.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:LGBT history in Portugal Social history of Portugal