Nearly three decades since the decriminalisation of ‘homosexuality’ in Scotland in 1980, progress for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Scotland and the UK has gathered pace over the last decade.

Some of the key successes of LGBT law reform are:

• Discrimination law - now covers the sexual orientation and gender identity grounds in employment, training, further and higher education, and the provision of goods, facilities and services
• Gender Recognition - transgender people can now get their true gender recognised for all legal purposes and obtain a birth certificate that corresponds with their true gender
• Civil Partnership - allows same-sex couples to have their relationship recognised and their rights protected on par with marriage

You can download a factsheet below summarising LGBT equality law and other key legislation for LGBT people.

The purpose of these pages is to assist organisations that are working towards the LGBT Charter Mark to embrace a best equality practice approach to service design and delivery. This is based on knowledge of the relevant legal frameworks and an awareness that mere compliance with the law is not enough to provide services of an equally high quality and impact to all of your diverse range of service users.