Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) rights in Western Australia have seen significant progress since the beginning of the 21st century, with male sex acts legal since 1990 and the state parliament passing comprehensive law reforms in 2002.

[4] Western Australia was one of the last Australian jurisdictions to pass a law allowing individuals to apply to have historical homosexual convictions or charges expunged from their criminal records.

[8][9] The legislation requires those applying for an expunged record to satisfy a mandatory test to ensure their conduct constituted a historical homosexual offence.

[10][11] Labor leader and Premier, Mark McGowan, also issued a formal apology in Parliament to the LGBTIQ community in Western Australia for the anti-homosexuality laws of the past.

[16] In August 2018, the government introduced legislation to the Parliament of Western Australia that repealed the requirement that one must be "unmarried" for a change of sex to registered on one's birth certificate.

[18] In November 2020, it was reported that transgender prisoners can be housed according to their own gender identity for strict health and safety reasons under recently implemented policies – so long as they commit no sexual offences on their criminal record.

[19][20] In April 2021, a suicide of a 15 year old transgender teenager in Perth caused mass outrage within the Western Australia LGBTIQ+ community – that has called for archaic WA legislation regarding sex or gender on a birth certificate to be reformed immediately.

[21][22] In October 2021, in a legal first precedent within Australia a family completely lost custody of their own children by a court order – for continuing abusing their own transgender child.

[36] Relationship declaration programs have been introduced by two local governments in Western Australia, namely the City of Vincent[37] and the Town of Port Hedland.

[49] The Act further stipulates (in Part 4, Section 26) that the de facto female partner of a pregnant woman conceived via assisted reproductive technology is automatically considered as the second legal parent of that child for the purpose of state law, once the birth has occurred.

[52] In August 2018, a bill was introduced in the Parliament of Western Australia to allow altruistic surrogacy for male same-sex couples and single men.

[65] In August 2022, it was formally announced that the Western Australian government is going to reform, update and overhaul the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 – to explicitly include both "gender identity and sex characteristics" and to also repeal the exemption, that legally allows LGBTIQ teachers and students being discriminated against within religious schools.

In April 2024, it was formally announced by the government that no bill would be introduced on reforming the WA Equal Opportunity Act – until after the March 2025 state election.

[76][78][79][80] After the federal Turnbull government announced that it would not renew funding for the program when it ran out in mid-2017,[76] Western Australia's political parties proposed different approaches in the run-up to the 2017 election.

[81] The 2017 election resulted in victory for the Australian Labor Party led by Mark McGowan and the defeat of outspoken Safe Schools opponents Peter Abetz and Joe Francis, among others.

[82][83][84] The election outcome was welcomed by LGBTI advocates, who also called on the incoming McGowan Government to encourage more Western Australian schools to adopt the program, which provides training resources for teachers.

[82] In October 2020, Margaret Court a 1970s tennis legend and religious pastor sued the WA government and lotterywest and went to the WA equal opportunity commission – because they refused to fund or give money to her charity Victory Life Church in Perth to feed the homeless people, due to her "outdated or archaic biblical views on marriage".

[90][91] In 2002, Attorney-General Jim McGinty of the Labor Party and Greens Western Australia Leader Giz Watson introduced a package of comprehensive LGBTI law reform, which included allowing same-sex adoption, parentage rights for lesbian couples with children, allowing same-sex couples to access the more cost-effective Family Court of Western Australia to resolve their disputes and equalising the age of consent at 16 years for both heterosexual and homosexual sex acts.

[92] Before their defeat at the 2017 state election a number of Liberal politicians, including Joe Francis and Peter Abetz, were outspoken in their opposition to LGBT rights such as same-sex marriage and anti-LGBT bullying programs.

[83][84] At the 2017 election, the incoming McGowan ALP Government promised it would continue funding for the Safe Schools anti-bullying program, introduce a conviction expungement scheme to clear historical offences for legalised sexual conduct and (in the then-absence of same-sex marriage under federal law) consider establishing civil unions under state law.