LGBTQ rights in South Australia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Status | Always legal for women; legal for men since 2 October 1975 |
| Gender identity | Change of sex marker on a birth certificate requires appropriate clinical treatment since 2017[1] |
| Discrimination protections | Both state and federal law |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships | Same-sex marriage since 2017; Domestic partnerships since 2007; Registered relationships since 2017 |
| Adoption | Full adoption rights since 2017 |
The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Australian state of South Australia are advanced and well-established. South Australia has had a chequered history with respect to the rights of LGBT people. Initially, the state was a national pioneer of LGBT rights in Australia, being the first in the country to decriminalise homosexuality and to introduce a non-discriminatory age of consent for all sexual activity.[2][3] Subsequently, the state fell behind other Australian jurisdictions in areas including relationship recognition and parenting, with the most recent law reforms regarding the recognition of same-sex relationships, LGBT adoption and strengthened anti-discrimination laws passing in 2016 and going into effect in 2017.
Since 2007, same-sex couples have been able to enter into domestic partnership agreements and since 2017 they have been able to enter into registered relationships. Changes to the law in 2017 also mean that same-sex couples have legal equity with respect to adoption, surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology rights. South Australia was the last state in the country to abolish the gay panic defence, passing reforms through its Parliament in December 2020 that went into effect in April 2021.[4][5] Hate crime laws that explicitly include "sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex characteristics" within South Australian sentencing legislation were passed and implemented in November 2021.[6] The state parliament recently passed legislation explicitly banning gay conversion therapy in October 2024.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since December 2017, after passage of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 in the Australian Parliament. The 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, designed to gauge public support for same-sex marriage in Australia, returned a 62.5% "Yes" response in South Australia.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Carbery, Graham (2010). "Towards Homosexual Equality in Australian Criminal Law: A Brief History" (PDF) (2nd ed.). Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives Inc. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ Opray, Max (30 January 2016). "How Britain's same-sex marriage laws awoke South Australia to its own injustices". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
- ^ "South Australia becomes final state to abolish 'gay panic' murder defence". ABC News. 1 December 2020.
- ^ Jones, Ruby (22 March 2017). "South Australia becomes last state to allow gay panic defence for murder". ABC News. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ "LZ". 22 November 2021.