Country Overview
Portugal
At a glance
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Portugal’s constitution explicitly bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, making it one of the few constitutions in the world that explicitly offers this protection. Same-sex couples may marry and adopt. A law came into effect in 2024 that prohibits “any practices aimed at the forced conversion of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.”
A law passed in 2018 bans nonconsensual medical interventions on intersex children and provides for legal gender marker change based on self-determination. However, in March 2026, the ruling coalition and the far right advanced three anti-trans bills seeking to revoke self-determined legal gender recognition, ban minors’ access to gender-affirming care, allow nonconsensual medical interventions on intersex children, and repeal trans-affirmative measures in schools. They await a committee review and a final vote.
Pride events are celebrated annually in multiple cities around the country. The 2023 Eurobarometer found that 79 percent of people in Portugal agree that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people should have the same rights as others. However, anti-LGBTIQ bullying, discrimination, and harassment remain prevalent issues. Anti-LGBTIQ political rhetoric has also increased with the rise of the far right and its normalization within the coalition government and the political center.
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