# LGBTQ rights in Guernsey

Part of a series on :
LGBTQ rights in the United Kingdom :
By location :
United Kingdom Scotland Northern Ireland :
Crown dependencies Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man :
Overseas Territories Anguilla Akrotiri and Dhekelia Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Gibraltar Montserrat Pitcairn Islands Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Turks and Caicos Islands :
Same-sex marriage by territory United Kingdom Scotland Northern Ireland Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man Akrotiri and Dhekelia Bermuda British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Gibraltar Pitcairn Islands Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands :
Policy aspects :
Sexual orientation
Adoption
Age of consent
Blood donation
Christian nation
Civil partnership
History of violence
HIV/AIDS
Military policy
Same-sex marriage :
Gender identity, sex and intersex
21st-century anti-trans movement
Transgender rights
Intersex rights
NHS Gender Identity Development Service
Gender Recognition Panel :
Legislation :
Criminality
Buggery Act 1533
Offences Against the Person Act 1828
Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Labouchere Amendment
Wolfenden report
Sexual Offences Act 1967
Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980
Homosexual Offences Order 1982
Section 28
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000
Sexual Offences Act 2003
Policing and Crime Act 2017
Alan Turing law
Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Act 2017
Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018 :
Protection and recognition
Public Order Act 1986
Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999
Adoption and Children Act 2002
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
Civil Partnership Act 2004
Gender Recognition Act 2004
Equality Act 2006
Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008
Equality Act 2010
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014
Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act 2019
Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 :
Litigation
Corbett v Corbett (1969)
X v United Kingdom (1978)
Dudgeon v United Kingdom (1981)
R v Brown (1993)
Sutherland v United Kingdom (1994)
Smith and Grady v United Kingdom (1999)
Goodwin & I v United Kingdom (2002)
HJ and HT v Home Secretary (2010)
National AIDS Trust v NHS Service Commissioning Board (2016)
Bell v Tavistock (2021)
AB v CD and others (2021) :
Culture :
By city
Brighton
Cardiff
London
Liverpool
Leeds
Manchester :
Gay villages
Birmingham Gay Village
The Calls
Canal Street (Manchester)
Old Compton Street
Pride Quarter, Liverpool
Vauxhall :
Gay male
Polari
Saunas
Cruising :
Organisations :
LGBT advocacy and support
Stonewall
Hall–Carpenter Archives
Black Gay Men's Advisory Group
Akt
Naz and Matt Foundation
FFLAG
LGBT Foundation
LGBT Network
Outright Scotland
Switchboard (UK)
NUS LGBT
LGBT+ Liberal Democrats
LGBT+ Conservatives
LGBT+ Labour
Labour Campaign for Trans Rights
Mermaids
Press for Change
The Gender Trust :
Pride events
BiCon (UK)
Big Gay Out
Birmingham Pride
Bourne Free
Brighton Pride
Bristol Pride
Doncaster Pride
GFest – gayWise LGBT Arts Festival
Glasgay! Festival
Homotopia (Liverpool)
Leeds Pride
Leicester Pride
LGBT History Month
BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival
Manchester Pride
Mr Gay UK
Mr Gay Wales
Northern Pride
Nottinghamshire Pride
Pride Cymru
Pride Glasgow
Pride in Hull
Pride in Liverpool
Pride in London
Pride Scotia
Reading Pride
Swansea Pride
Worthing Pride :
Former groups
OutRage!
Campaign for Homosexual Equality
Homosexual Law Reform Society
Gay Liberation Front
Gay Rights Working Party
Order of Chaeronea :
History :
Topics
Timeline
List of politicians
First LGBT officeholders
Violence against LGBT people
HIV/AIDS crisis
Death penalty :
Timeline 342 MSM activity made illegal 1533 Death penalty introduced for MSM activity 1543 Buggery Act extended to Wales 1828 Offences Against the Person Act 1828 1835 James Pratt and John Smith executed 1861 Death penalty for buggery abolished 1885 Labouchere Amendment introduced 1889 Cleveland Street scandal 1895 Oscar Wilde found guilty of gross indecency 1912 The Cave of the Golden Calf opens 1921 Plans to make lesbian activity illegal defeated 1936 Mark Weston transitions 1952 John Nott-Bower begins crackdown 1954 Pitt-Rivers, Montagu, Wildeblood imprisoned 1954 Alan Turing commits suicide 1957 Wolfenden report released 1967 MSM activity made legal (England & Wales) 1972 First British Gay Pride Rally 1976 Jeremy Thorpe resigns as Liberal leader 1981 MSM activity made legal (Scotland) 1981 First case of AIDS reported in the UK 1982 MSM activity made legal (NI) 1983 Gay men barred from donating blood 1984 Chris Smith elected as first openly gay MP 1987 Operation Spanner begins 1988 Section 28 comes into force 1989 Stonewall UK forms 1994 Age of consent for MSM becomes 18 1997 Angela Eagle becomes first openly lesbian MP 1998 Bolton 7 found guilty 1998 Lord Alli becomes first openly gay Lord 1999 Admiral Duncan bombing 2000 Gay men allowed in HM Armed Forces 2001 Age of consent equalised to 16 2001 MSM activity involving multiple men legal 2002 Same sex couples granted equal rights to adopt 2003 Section 28 repealed 2004 Civil partnerships introduced 2004 Gender Recognition Act 2004 2006 Discrimination made illegal 2008 Equalised access to IVF for lesbian couples 2008 Incitement to homophobic hatred made a crime 2009 Public apology to Alan Turing 2010 Equality Act 2010 2011 Gay men allowed to donate blood (1 yr deferral) 2013 Nikki Sinclaire becomes first openly trans MEP 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 2014 First same-sex marriages take place 2016 MSM activity not grounds for military discharge 2017 Turing law implemented 2017 Blood donation deferral 3 months (excl. NI) 2019 MPs legislate for gay marriage in NI 2020 Gay marriage legal across UK, incl. NI 2020 Blood donation deferral 3 months (incl. NI) 2021 Blood donation deferral equalised :
LGBTQ portal UK portal :
vte :
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the British Crown dependency of Guernsey have improved significantly in the past decades. Same-sex sexual activity for both men and women is legal in Guernsey. Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2 May 2017 in Guernsey, and since 14 June 2018 in its dependency, Alderney. Legislation approving the legalisation of same-sex marriage in its other dependency, Sark was given royal assent on 11 March 2020. Guernsey is the only part of the British Isles to have never enacted civil partnership legislation, though civil partnerships performed in the United Kingdom were recognised for succession purposes. Since April 2017, same-sex couples can adopt in the entire Bailiwick. Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been banned since 2004. Transgender people have been able to legally change gender since 2007.

## Law regarding same-sex sexual activity

Prior to 1983, same-sex sexual activity was illegal; after decriminalisation, the age of consent was set at 21 (in line with the UK at that time). In 2000, the age of consent for male same-sex sexual acts was lowered to 18. In 2010, the States of Guernsey backed, in principle, a proposal to equalise the age of consent at 16. Legislation to this effect was approved in 2011 and took effect on 5 November 2012. However, Guernsey retains some specific male homosexual offences in its criminal law, including a ban on homosexual sexual acts not conducted in private.

## Recognition of same-sex relationships

Guernsey has recognised civil partnerships performed in the United Kingdom and other relationships treated as such by UK law for succession purposes in inheritance and other matters respecting interests in property since 2 April 2012. A proposal to abolish state-sanctioned marriages in favour of a Union Civile (for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples) was rejected by the States in favour of a same-sex marriage law in December 2015.
In December 2015, the States of Guernsey approved a motion to legalise same-sex marriage by a vote of 37–7. A bill legalising same-sex marriage was drafted and formally approved by the States on 21 September 2016. It received royal assent later that year and went into effect on 2 May 2017.
The law did not apply to Alderney and Sark. Alderney previously recognised same-sex marriages from abroad for certain purposes (i.e. inheritance). On 18 October 2017, the States of Alderney voted 9-0 in favour of same-sex marriage. The law received royal assent 13 December 2017, and went into effect on 14 June 2018.
In December 2019 the Chief Pleas of Sark passed a bill legalising same-sex marriage. Royal assent was granted in March 2020 and the law came into effect on 23 April 2020.

### Religious same-sex marriages

In January 2022, the Methodist church of Sark allow for the recognition and practice of same-sex marriage effective immediately with a motion passed at an annual conference. Both the Anglican church and the Catholic church are legally prohibited and banned from both Sark law and Canon law regarding same-sex marriage.

## Discrimination protections

In 2004 a law was passed that would allow the States of Guernsey to pass Ordinances on the topic of discrimination, including sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2005 was used to ban discrimination based on gender identity, as part of the Sex Discrimination (Employment) (Guernsey) Ordinance, 2005. As of 2020, however, no equivalent Ordinance has been passed to specifically outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Anti-discrimination protections that cover sexual orientation and gender identity have existed in child welfare proceedings in Guernsey and Alderney since 2008 and in Sark since 2016.
In September 2022, the Guernsey lawmaking body passed an extensive anti-discrimination bill into law voted unanimously (33-0) - to explicitly include "sexual orientation". All amendments were rejected regarding exemptions for small businesses with 5 employees or less and religious affiliations. The legislation will formally go into effect from 1 October 2023.

## Adoption and parenting

Lesbian couples can access IVF and artificial insemination since 2009.
In May 2015, Guernsey's Chief Minister announced that a review of the Adoption (Guernsey) Law, 1960 which barred unmarried couples from jointly adopting was scheduled for 24 June 2015. The Chief Minister hoped to extend full adoption rights to couples in overseas civil partnerships and unmarried couples who have lived together for some time. On 24 June 2015, the States of Guernsey agreed by a vote of 38 to 2 to bring about changes to its adoption law.
Since April 2017, same-sex couples can jointly adopt in Guernsey. The Population Management (Guernsey) Law, 2016, which took effect on 3 April, contains provisions allowing same-sex couples who are married, in a civil partnership or in a "subsisting relationship akin to marriage or civil partnership" to adopt. The law only applies to the island of Guernsey. However, adoption applications from Alderney and Sark are dealt with in Guernsey courts, as such same-sex adoption is legal in the entire Bailiwick.

## Gender identity and expression

Since 2007, transgender people can legally change their gender on their birth certificates. However, Guernsey law only allows a new birth certificate to be issued, it does not amend or remove records from existing birth certificates.

## Blood donation

Gay and bisexual men have been allowed to donate blood, provided they haven't had sex in a year, since 2011.
In June 2021, it is proposed that the Channel Islands will be implementing the "UK-model on risk based assessments" of blood donation. It is not clear on when the policy goes into effect yet.

## Local LGBT charities and organisations

Liberate is the only organisation in the Channel Islands that represents the local LGBT community. It was established in February 2014 with the aim to "include, inform and support the local LGBTQ community", as well as to reform discriminatory laws in the Bailiwick.

## Summary table

| Same-sex sexual activity legal | (Since 1984) |
| Equal age of consent (16) | (Since 2012) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in employment only | (Since 2004, for gender identity; since 2023 for sexual orientation) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services | (Powers to outlaw this have existed since 2004 but have not been used) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech) | (In some areas, e.g. child welfare proceedings) |
| Same-sex marriage | (Since 2017 in Guernsey, 2018 in Alderney, and 2020 in Sark) |
| Recognition of same-sex couples | (Since 2012 in Guernsey, 2016 in Alderney, and 2020 in Sark) |
| Stepchild adoption by same-sex couples | (Since 2017) |
| Joint adoption by same-sex couples | (Since 2017) |
| LGBTQ persons allowed to serve openly in the military | (UK responsible for defence) |
| Right to change legal gender | (Since 2007) |
| Access to IVF for lesbian couples | (Since 2009) |
| Commercial surrogacy for gay male couples | (Banned for heterosexual couples as well) |
| MSMs allowed to donate blood | / (1 year deferral period) |