Panama

Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Panama since 2008, when Presidential Decree No. 332 repealed the law criminalizing sodomy on constitutional nondiscrimination grounds. However, legal recognition of LGBTIQ people remains limited. Same-sex couples cannot marry or adopt, and in March 2023, Panama’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is not a human right under the constitution, effectively foreclosing domestic legal avenues for marriage equality.

Panama has no laws explicitly prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex characteristics. Efforts to amend Panama’s general antidiscrimination law to include these categories were blocked by the National Assembly in 2024, claiming they were implicitly covered within the existing framework. This absence of legal protection leaves LGBTIQ people vulnerable to harassment, violence, and discrimination, none of which are formally recognized as hate crimes. Conservative religious actors and lawmakers have consistently opposed LGBTIQ-inclusive reforms, and discriminatory practices persist within state institutions, including reports of police abuse against trans women and internal police regulations that continue to characterize homosexuality as a “grave offense.”

Legal gender recognition is possible only after gender-affirming surgery, a requirement that violates international human rights standards and places legal recognition out of reach for many trans people. Intersex people face even greater legal invisibility: Panama provides no specific protections for intersex people’s rights, and nonconsensual, medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants and children are not prohibited, leaving children vulnerable to irreversible harm.

In 2025, Panama faced increased international pressure during its Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, where multiple states urged the government to adopt explicit antidiscrimination protections, reform gender recognition procedures, and strengthen safeguards against violence targeting LGBTIQ people. While civil society advocacy and public visibility and support continue to grow, meaningful legal reforms remain stalled, and Panama continues to lag behind much of Latin America in protecting LGBTIQ people’s rights.