in Europe (dark grey)  –  [Legend]Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Switzerland are some of the most progressive by world standards.

In the 2010s, these groups had increasingly tended to make use of the initialism LGBTI (for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex") as an umbrella term for their respective areas of interest.

[8] In a national referendum on 17 May 1992, 73% of the voters accepted the reform of Swiss federal legislation on sexual offences, including the elimination of all discrimination against homosexuality from the Penal Code.

[13] The amendment originated with a bill by the Green Liberal Party of Switzerland MP Kathrin Bertschy providing for same-sex marriage.

[14] In Switzerland's system of semi-direct democracy, the statute was subject to a popular referendum if its opponents collected 50,000 signatures demanding one within three months.

Notable exceptions are the Law for Equal Treatment of Men and Women (German: Bundesgesetz über die Gleichstellung von Frau und Mann; French: Loi fédérale sur l'égalité entre femmes et hommes; Italian: Legge federale sulla parità dei sessi; Romansh: Lescha federala davart l'equalitad da dunna ed um) and Article 261bis of the Penal Code outlawing discrimination based on "race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation".

Because of this situation, private lawsuits against alleged discrimination in recent years have increasingly attempted to invoke the difficult-to-interpret prohibition of "personal injury" (Art.

This category was added by a 2018 law, adopted by Swiss voters in a referendum on 9 February 2020, to a provision that already prohibited discrimination because of race, ethnic origin or religion.

[30] This change in law was initiated in 2013 by Mathias Reynard, an MP of the Social Democratic Party, with a bill to outlaw all "discrimination and incitement of hatred" on the basis of "race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation".

In February 2017, the Committee of Legal Affairs of the National Council approved, in a 15–9 vote, an amendment to the bill adding "gender identity" as a prohibited ground of discrimination.

Outlining its decision to also include gender identity, the committee said transgender and intersex people were the victims of discrimination alongside homosexuals and bisexuals.

In August 2017, the Swiss Federal Council expressed opposition to a motion proposed by the Conservative Democratic Party which would force the confederation to count and register hate crimes committed against members of the LGBT community.

[54] After a referendum on 17 May 1992, the then Article 127 dealing with unnatural fornication in the military ("Who makes a lewd affair with a person of the same sex will be punished with prison ...") was abolished.

In that year, the case of a cook whose deployment to KFOR service was initially canceled after she came out as transgender was discussed in a high-profile TV programme.

As a result, the Army changed its policy to allow the service of transgender people if a medical examination determines that they are "in good physical and psychical health, sufficiently resistant to stress, resilient and able to be subordinate", and it established a diversity office.

Since 2019, the draft form has allowed draftees to indicate their gender identity separately from their assigned sex, a change proposed by LGBT rights organizations.

[3][61] Historically, Swiss legal practice until the end of 2021 only allowed transgender persons to change their officially registered gender through judicial proceedings.

The Swiss Government wrote in May 2018 that "the absence of any clear ruling in law means that transgender individuals continue to face enormous hurdles.

"[62] This situation developed as follows: a 1993 ruling by the Federal Supreme Court (BGE 119 II 264) allows for a legal procedure for the registration of sex changes.

[64] In May 2018, the Federal Council proposed amending Swiss legislation to allow transgender individuals to change their registered gender and first name(s) without "red tape", simply by making a declaration to civil status registry officials.

[67] On 2 December 2020, the Council of States approved the bill in its second reading but introduced a limit of 16 years of age for which the consent of a legal guardian is no longer required.

[68] In November 2019, the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt voted to include "gender identity" in its law on detention to better protect transgender people in regard to placement in correctional facilities.

The motions foresee a reparation scheme and free psychosocial counselling for the victims, as well as the dismissal of any doctor or physician who performs these procedures on intersex people without their consent.

[74] In June 2016, the Swiss Red Cross announced it would address a request to Swissmedic, Switzerland's surveillance authority for medicine and medical devices, and ask for the ban to be lifted.

In 2016, Conservative Democrat MP Rosmarie Quadranti requested the Swiss Federal Government to undertake measures to outlaw conversion therapy on LGBT minors.

[89][90][91] Despite its large Catholic and socially conservative base, the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC) has become increasingly supportive of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights in recent years.

[93] A 2016 poll commissioned by gay-rights organisation Pink Cross found that 69% of the Swiss population supported same-sex marriage, with 25% opposed and 6% undecided.

Other groups include Dialogai, founded in 1982 to offer helplines and advice, Zwischengeschlecht, an intersex association, Queeramnesty, and Rainbow Families (Regenbogenfamilien, Familles arc-en-ciel, Famiglie arcobaleno, Famiglias d'artg).

[107] In 2017, the rights group Rainbow Europe ranked Switzerland three places lower after delay in updating its anti-discrimination laws to explicitly include gender identity and sexual orientation.

[108] In 2018, a Chur bishop drew controversy after claiming that 90% of victims of child sex abuse and paedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church were of "a homosexual tendency".