Though debates around gay marriage in Europe and North America can be fierce, some campaigners are concerned they may have overshadowed the lack of basic rights afforded to gay and lesbian citizens in other countries. We look at where imprisonment is still a penalty for homosexual acts and where anti-discrimination laws serve to protect individuals.

Recent changes

A succession of national legal changes have brought this issue to the fore once again:

India: A 153-year-old law passed under British rule was reinstated which makes sex between consenting adults of the same sex "unnatural" and punishable by up to 10 years in jail. LGBT protesters took to the streets in their thousands.

Australia: The country's first same-sex marriage law was revoked by the high court just days after being passed. As a result, same-sex marriages that had taken place in the Australian Capital Territory lost their effect.

UK: Couples prepare for the first day that gay marriage becomes legal in England and Wales on 29 March 2014. One couple hope to marry alongside a heterosexual couple to demonstrate solidarity.

From employment laws to hate crimes, the ILGA has attempted to show the wide differences in LGBT rights in this interactive map.

Click the image to go to the ILGA site and explore the trends

Death penalty

Only in Africa and Asia do individuals risk paying for their sexual orientation with their lives. In five countries, legislation remains in place that punishes homosexuality with the death penalty - Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In parts of Nigeria and Somalia too, the murder of gay and lesbian individuals is practised and not prohibited in state legislation.

But national legislation doesn't quite capture the full picture - in many places homosexuals are murdered by vigilantes while the state turns a blind eye. In Jamaica, where homophobia is deep-seated, Dwayne Jones, a "cross-dressing" 17-year-old was "chopped and stabbed to death" by a mob according to local media reports. Incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation is only prohibited in 26 countries.

Life sentences

The statistics on imprisonment further demonstrate the extremes in the protection of gay rights. In ten countries, the punishment for 'homosexual illegal acts' is a sentence anywhere between 14 years and life. In a further 55 countries. homosexuals can face imprisonment for up to 14 years - 27 of those countries are in Africa.

With a few notable exceptions such as South Africa, most African countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe had some form of legal persecution against homosexuals. Reading the text of the laws themselves, most sentences are accompanied by considerable fines to be paid to the state.

Image: ILGA Click to view full size



Click to view the full map on state-sponsored homophobia.

Different sexual orientations, different rules

In 15 countries, the age of consent was different for sexual intercourse between same-sex partners than it was for heterosexual ones. Even in countries where same-sex unions are recognised by the state (31 countries) a far smaller number (11 countries) offer those couples most or all of the rights afforded by marriage.

These numbers come from the ILGA, (the International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association) which is a network of local and national organisations around the world. It regularly speaks at the United Nations on LGBT issues.

Here are some of the examples provided in the report of discriminatory laws:

MAURITANIA: Penal Code of 1984

"Article 308. - Any adult Muslim man who commits an indecent act or an act against nature with an individual of his sex will face the penalty of death by public stoning.".

TOGO: Penal Code of 13 August 1980

Article 88 – "Impudent acts or crimes against the nature with an individual of the same sex are punished with imprisonment from one to three years and 100,000-500,000 franc in fine"

GAMBIA: Criminal Code 1965, as amended in 2005

"Article 144: Unnatural offences

(1) Any person who— (a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or (b) has carnal knowledge of an animal; or (c) permits any person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature; is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for a term of 14 years."

Visualising hate speech

Researchers at Humboldt State University tried to understand hatred by reading 150,000 geo-coded tweets. The result is an interactive map that shows where homophobic sentiment is strongest in the US. Click here to see the full size version.

Get the numbers and get involved

• Download the full spreadsheet

• Contact us at data@theguardian.com

• Follow us on Twitter

Mona Chalabi is teaching a Masterclass, Mastering spreadsheets: how to work with data, at the Guardian's London offices on 26-27 October. Learn more and book