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LGBT rights opposition

Opposition to legal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people exists throughout the world. LGBT rights opponents may be opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality; laws permitting civil unions or partnerships or supporting LGBT parenting and adoption, LGBT military members, access to assisted reproductive technology, and access to sex reassignment surgery and hormone replacement therapy for transgender individuals.

Organizations influential in LGBT rights opposition frequently oppose the enactment of laws making same-sex marriage legal, the passage of anti-discrimination laws aimed at curtailing anti-LGBT discrimination, including in employment and housing, the passage of anti-bullying laws to protect LGBT minors, laws decriminalizing same-gender relationships, and other LGBT rights-related laws.[1] These groups are often religious or socially conservative in nature.[6] Such opposition can be motivated by homophobia,[1][4] transphobia,[1][4] bigotry,[7] animosity,[9] religion,[10] moral beliefs,[11] political ideologies,[12] or other reasons.


According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "natural law theory offers the most common intellectual defense for differential treatment of gays and lesbians".[13] Dag Øistein Endsjø, Norwegian scholar and professor of Religious studies, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief have stated that religious belief underlies most forms of LGBT rights opposition.[14]