User:Sandstein/Drafts/LGBT rights in Switzerland

Decriminalization of homosexuality
As elsewhere in Europe, homosexual acts were subject to criminal punishment, including by death, in the Swiss cantons up until the modern age. Homosexual conduct was briefly decriminalized when Switzerland became subject to the Code Napoléon in 1798 following the establishment of the Helvetic Republic, but criminal prohibitions were reintroduced when criminal law became a cantonal matter again with the Federal Treaty of 1815.

The federal criminal code, which supplanted the cantonal codes and entered into force in 1942, did not contain a prohibition of homosexual acts among adults. The federal government and parliament followed a proposal by law professor Ernst Hafter, who, based on research by the psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, argued that homosexuality was an innate disposition rather than a choice. The decision to decriminalize homosexuality was controversial, and was one of the reasons why the criminal code was contested in a popular referendum, in which it was however adopted by 54% of voters.

Nonetheless, the criminal code provided for an age of consent for homosexual activity that equaled the age of majority (then 20), while the age of consent for heterosexual acts was set at 16. Swiss courts treated homosexual activity with minors as an "immoral lifestyle" that could justify the appointment of a legal guardian for adults; and the Federal Supreme Court considered such acts "indecent" in a decision published as late as 1989. In 1992, the criminal code was reformed to treat homosexual and heterosexual conduct equally, harmonizing the age of consent at 16.

Changes in public attitude
Although homosexuality was no longer illegal, it remained taboo for a long time after World War II, and homosexuals continued to face social ostracism and legal dicrimination. Blackmail was frequent, and the police in some cantons continued to maintain "pink lists" of gay men until the 1980s. In contrast, transsexual people faced relatively few legal obstacles. The first known decision allowing a legal change of name and gender (by the government of the conservative canton of Nidwalden) dates to 1931, and by 1966 the Federal Supreme Court considered the permissibleness of such changes self-evident.

After the protests of 1968, gay and lesbian organizations were founded in the urban cantons, leading to the establishment of the umbrella organizations HACH (1973, since 1993 "Pink Cross") for gay men and Lesbenorganisation Schweiz (LOS, 1989) for lesbians.

In 1999, the revised Swiss federal constitution provided, in article 8, that "no person may be discriminated against, in particular on grounds of (.. ) gender, age, language, social position, way of life (...)." The term "way of life" (Lebensform, mode de vie) was included to protect sexual minorities in particular, with sexual orientation considered to be included in the broader term that would also protect, for example, cohabitation and nomadic peoples. In 2005, the Swiss people accepted a law providing for registered partnerships of same-sex couples in a national referendum, with 58% voting in favor. The law gave such partnerships substantially the same effects as marriage, but explicitly excluded the possibility of adoption and assisted reproduction.

Since then, several bills are in various stages of adoption to further expand the legal protection of LGBT persons. Notably, in 2013, the national parliament charged the government with proposing a change in law that would allow adults to adopt a child of their partner irrespective of their own legal status.