Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Pakistan face legal and social difficulties and persecution compared to non-LGBTQ persons.

Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) defines ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’, as punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment for a period of 2 years to life.

Sharia law carries heavy penalties for homosexuality from imprisonment for 2–10 years or for life, or of 100 lashes or stoning to death if the person is married.

[14][16] Due to a lack of anti-discrimination protections and widespread homophobia among authorities, LGBTQ are generally reluctant to be open about their sexuality as they may face abuses such as forced marriage, honor killings, humiliation, societal discrimination and harassment.

The section of the Penal Code criminalising consensual same-sex relations was inherited from the colonial rule of the British Raj; it was enacted on 6 October 1860 and went into force on 1 January 1862.

Written by Lord Macaulay, the then-named Indian Penal Code 1860, made male same-sex sexual acts illegal under the British law of "Unnatural Offences".

[5] As part of the Islamization in Pakistan under Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the Hudud Ordinances were enacted in 1979, stipulating severe punishments for adultery, fornication, consuming alcohol and sodomy.

However, since 2018, discrimination on the basis of gender identity is prohibited in a wide range of areas, including employment, education, health care, access to goods and services, housing and public office.

Sociologists Stephen O. Murray and Badruddin Khan have written that the penal laws themselves are rarely enforced directly, but are used by the police and other private citizens as a form of blackmail.

There was no notion of responsibility that allowed duty bearers to selectively hold out on protection.In most South Asian nations, there is a concept of third gender where members are referred to by society as neither man nor a woman.

[34] Thought to be born with genital dysphoria and afraid that they might curse one their fate,[35][36] people listen to their needs, give them alms, and invite their presence at various events and functions, e.g., birth of a child, circumcisions, or weddings.

[38] A 2008 ruling at Pakistan's Lahore High Court gave permission to Naureen, 28, to have a sex change operation, although the decision was applicable only towards people suffering from gender dysphoria.

[45] Under the Transgender Person (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 (Urdu: مُتَجَنَّس افراد کے لیے (تحفظ حقوق) قانون 2018ء), Pakistanis may choose to self-identify as male, female, both or neither.

[49][50][51] The act defines "transgender person" as someone with a "mixture of male and female genital features or congenital ambiguities", or, a male who "undergoes genital excision or castration", or, more broadly, "any person whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the social norms and cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at the time of their birth," which allows people to self-identify as such.

The department told its officials to include their gender when they are being admitted to schools and give equal importance to transgender children during enrolment drives.

[63] In 2005, Ali Saleem, 28, the son of an army colonel, appeared on Geo TV's Hum Sub Umeed Se Hain as cross-dressed Benazir Bhutto.

So loved were his performances that he has taken to act to extremes on-air and presents his own talk show where he appears as a dragged-up character named Begum Nawazish Ali.

[72] In January 2017, Sid discussed a new movie she was starring in, Rani, in which she played a transgender woman who finds an abandoned baby and raises it as her own.

[75] Kami Sid's participation in the PR campaign Change The Clap has also been critiqued for appeasing neoliberal forces and ignoring local practices of the Khawaja Sira community.

In early 2019 the word transgender appeared for the first time in the Urdu language, translated as مُتَجَنَّس (mutajannis) by the Lahore-based organisation, HOPE - Have Only Positive Expectations.

In 2005, a man named Liaquat Ali, 42, from the Khyber region bordering Afghanistan married fellow tribesman Markeen, 16, with the usual pomp and show associated with tribal weddings.

[90] While there has been a small degree of progress in representation of male homosexuality in society, lesbianism has lesser exposure in the country and publicised events of women indulging in same-sex relationships are rare.

Even though the Government has passed laws in favour of transgender people, the locals tend to not accept them and deny them basic education and healthcare.

[92] The morning after Alisha's death, an activist group called Trans Action posted a status on Facebook directed to the local authorities saying, "Kill all of us.

[94] In 2017, in an interview with Manchester Evening News, a 40-year-old woman who used the name Zayna talked about her life as a lesbian Muslim in Pakistan before she moved to the United Kingdom.

A United Nations vote cast on 25 April 2003 on issues of LGBTQ human rights was derailed at the last minute by an alliance of five disapproving Muslim countries, including Pakistan.

[98] The countries delayed their votes to stall the process and proposed amendments that were meant to kill the measure deliberately, removing all references to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, rendering the resolution meaningless.

However, in the Pakistani version of the International New York Times (Express Tribune), the picture accompanying the article was censored and a blank space was left on the front page of the newspaper.

[109] Where there was no public call for tolerance or acceptance of LGBTQ people, the subject of sexual orientation and gender identity are becoming more openly discussed, especially in light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The US Deputy Chief of Mission Ambassador Richard Hoagland replied back to the backlash saying that the US will fight for equal rights for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation and that the embassy will support anyone from the LGBTQ community.