The Human Dignity Trust has just released a report on nations that have criminalised lesbianism. Why have these countries gone down this path? In the United Kingdom and its core Commonwealth counterparts such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the United States, lesbian sex has never been directly criminalised. There were some suggestions that lesbianism should also be made illegal in the nineteenth century, when the Labouchere amendment criminalised male homosexuality within the Offences Against the Person Act 1867. Apparently,QueenVictoriavetoed it on the basis that (a) she believed that women were incapable of doing so; and (b) that if not, such legislation might give 'susceptible women' "ideas!" One Radclyffe Hall indeed did prove 'susceptible' and in 1928, she published theWell of Loneliness, which related her experiences as an upper-class butch lesbian woman tormented by conservative Catholic self-hatred over her identity. In 1921, Lord Birkenhead, then Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom, had opposed a bill that sought to criminalise lesbianism. Although the Well sparked 'obscenity' trials in Britain and the United States, lesbians could read bootleg copies smuggled into both countries from relatively liberal France, where publication was allowed due to its liberal censorship policy. Thereafter, the criminalisation of lesbianism was never seriously canvassed again in the western world. Of course, this didn't mean lesbians were immune from legal and judicial entrapment. As well as the above-cited heterosexist censorship policy, male homosexuality and lesbianism alike were treated as 'psychopathologies' due to conservative misinterpretations of Freudian psychology leading to involuntary psychological commitment and institutional abuse, butch lesbians were subject to anti-crossdressing 'sumptuary' laws in some jurisdictions (as were dragqueens), and without protective anti-discrimination laws, lesbians were liable to employment, accomodation and service provision discrimination as well as child custody and parenting discrimination if they came out. Discriminatory pub licensing laws were another avenue of anti-lesbian discrimination, as were anti-lesbian sexual violence and homophobic violence. However, this article is not about these experiences. While the situation of lesbians has improved markedly in western societies due to widespread antidiscrimination laws and more recent legislation that guarantees relationship equality, marriage equality and same-sex parenting equality, the same is not true of the non-western world. InBreaking the Silence: Criminalisation of Lesbians and Bisexual Women and Its Impacts,the Human Dignity Trust highlights forty-four jurisdictions where lesbianism is illegal. Seventy eight jurisdictions altogether criminalise same-sex relationships. While thirty four restrict this to male homosexuality alone, an additional forty four criminalise both lesbianism and male homosexuality. In ten cases, these anti-lesbian legal amendments to existing antigay laws are recent setbacks to LGBT equality. In most cases, these jurisdictions are somewhat backward when it comes to other indices of women's equality, and lesbians and bisexual women suffer particular harm due to their oppression as women as well as individuals in same-sex relationships and intimacy. Family structures, employment inequality and property ownership and inheritance inequalities cause greater economic dependency on men in these societies, forcing lesbians and bisexual women into straight marriages when their actual sexual preferences are discovered. This may lead to undesired pregnancy and childrearing due to their absence of economic and legal independence and autonomy. They are also subjected to anti-lesbian sexual violence within and outside such relationships if their sexuality is discovered to 'correct' their sexual identity. Much research, advocacy and legal activity has focused on gay men alone, and social control and invisibility have obscured lesbian suffering and oppression from adequate scrutiny, analysis, solidarity and attention outside their national contexts. Few international feminist organisations do, either, as they focus predominantly if unintentionally on the oppression of straight women in those societies. Eritrea (1957) seems to have been the earliest jurisdiction to criminalise lesbianism, followed by Somalia and Morocco (1962), Senegal (1965) and Algeria (1966). Thereafter, there was a lull until the early seventies, when another five jurisdictions followed suit- Cameroon (1972), Libya (1973), Oman (1974), Liberia (1978) and Togo (1980). There was a spate of criminalisation activity in the nineties- St. Vincent and the Grenadines (1990), Yemen (1994), the Comoros Islands (1995), Sri Lanka (1995), Antigua and Barbdua (1995), the Solomon Islands (1996), Guinea (1998), Dominica (1998), Malaysia (1998), Tanzania (1998), Trinidad and Tobago (2000), Uganda (n.d). Since the turn of the century, several additional criminalisations of lesbianism have occurred- Botswana (2003), St Lucia (2004), Ethiopia (2004), Tanzania (2004), Gambia (2005), Zambia (2005), Burundi (2009), Malawi (2011), Iran (2012), Nigeria (Kano state) (2014) and Brunei (2015?). The content of criminalising legislation has differed within these jurisdictions. Some criminalise lesbianism particularly in the context of hand/vaginal or clitoral contact or female-female oral sex, while others catch all of these sexual options under 'gross indecency' legislation that was previously used to criminalise non-anal gay male sexual options such as gay male oral sex, mutual masturbation and rimming. "Carnal knowledge against nature' is another such legislative interdiction. As for the causal agents, Christian and Muslim religious social conservatism and cultural imperialism from Saudi Arabia and the United States has been particularly to blame in these societies, forging linkages with the burgeoning Pentecostal Christian and other fundamentalist churches and revivalist Islamism, especially in Africa and the Middle East. Africa has been a particularly fertile ground for such criminalisation, but the anti-lesbian contagion spread to the Middle East and Carribean. Malaysia, Brunei, Sri Lanka and the Solomon Islands seem to be outliers in this context, although Muslim social conservatism is strong within Malaysia and Brunei, Sri Lankan Buddhism is strongly conservative and the Solomon Islands appear to have been the sole Pacific Island nation where this malignancy has spread. Muslim Sharia law has criminalised lesbianism indirectly in jurisdictions such as Afghanistan, Indonesia (Aceh Province and South Sumatra), the Maldives, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These define lesbian sex as sihaq ("tribadism") ormushaqaand therefore as a 'criminal offence' in those jurisdictions. Finally, Iraq and Syria have weak central authorities and Islamist vigilantes and de facto governments also enforce anti-lesbian interpretations of sharia law in those areas under anti-government Islamist militia control, as well as against gay men there. Predictably, none of the above are particularly healthy democratic states. Some have entrenched one party states, others are military dictatorships, others have strong church or mosque interference in secular political affairs, others experience regular political instability, widespread government corruption, police corruption and absence of police accountability, and almost all of them have general histories of civil liberties and human rights repression in areas such as media freedom, judicial impunity from interference, arbitrary detention, torture and execution, indigenous peoples rights, freedom for religious minorities, and women's economic independence, freedom from sexual violence and spousal rape, employment rights and other areas. Anti-lesbianism is only one aspect of the democratic deficits such societies undergo. Many of the violations of womens rights occur in the context of families, within the so-called "private" sphere of conduct and social behaviour and are difficult to monitor. Penalties include imprisonment for specific periods, corporal punishment through public flogging or in the case of 'repeat offenders, " the death penalty (Iran, 2012). While lesbian sex is not criminalised specifically in India, weak central government authority has meant some criminal prosecution of lesbians under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code has occured in that nation as well. What are the specific effects of criminalisation of lesbianism on lesbian and bisexual women in these societies? The Human Dignity Trust lists these as the psychological stigma of criminal categorisation, arrest, detention and criminal prosecution, as well as police rape or physical assault in some cases, family control, persecution and violence against lesbians within that context, the absence of reproductive and sexual independence, forced marriage, child custody case discrimination, education and employment discrimination, mental health issues and suicidality. As women, they are also subject to anti-adultery laws and must also risk the consequences of backstreet abortion in jurisdictions where abortion is illegal due to spousal and/or other forms of anti-lesbian rape in those contexts. Due to homelessness, they may also rely on sex work, which is also often criminalised in such societies. Anti-lesbian rape is a particular ordeal not only in South Africa as reported in a previous Gaynz.Com politics column, but also in Cameroon, India, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Uganda- although Cameroon is the only cited nation where lesbianism itself has been criminalised. Anti-lesbian rape may not be reported due to victim-blaming and inadequate police interdiction systems, or fear of additional sexual violence or physical assault from male police officers themselves if their sexual identity is disclosed. In over half of these jurisdictions, spousal rape is still legal for lesbians trapped in marriages to violent and abusive straight men. In Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, lesbian suicide is commonplace due to the absence of any perceived alternatives or opportunities to escape family violence, entrapment or other consequences of grinding oppression in everyday lives. Finally, as serious as the above is, it is highly probable that violence, abuse, persecution and oppression of lesbians and bisexual women in these societies is underreported due to the stigma, censorship and cumulative injustices that these lesbians and bisexual women face as individuals in same-sex relationships, as women and any additional burdens of oppression due to class, ethnicity, religious minority status, disability et al that they may endure. Recommended: Human Dignity Trust: Breaking the Silence: Criminalisation of Lesbians and Bisexual Women and Its Impacts (May 2016):http://www. humandignitytrust.org/ uploaded/Library/Other_ Material/Breaking_the_Silence- Criminalisation_of_LB_Women_ and_its_Impacts-FINAL.pdf Craig Young - 4th June 2016