Show HN: Compare LGBT Rights Between Any Country, State, or Province | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Compare LGBT Rights Between Any Country, State, or Province

equaldex.com

50 pointsdanlev26 comments

This page says homosexual activity has been legal in the UK since 2000.

Where is it getting that, and which part of the UK does it apply to?

Same sex sexual activity was legalised in England and Wales in 1967; in Scotland in 1981; and 1982 for NI.

The age of consent was equalised in 2001 (for England, Wales, and Scotland) and 2009 for NI.

If you click on "Details" under the entry it'll show you the source, the user who added it, and the number of upvotes. It seems to be crowdsourced.

If you look at each country individually within the UK, it shows the correct details.

I suspect it is because in the original law, there were nuances such as "The privacy restrictions of the Act meant a third person could not be present and that gay men could not have sex in a hotel. These restrictions were overturned in the European Court of Human Rights in 2000"

I'm looking into that right now. Not sure why both of those entries are referring to the age of consent rather than simply homosexual activity being legal/illegal (the both received quite a few accurate votes too). Age of consent has a separate section further down the page.

Would be cool for the "Equality Index" to be 2 or multi dimensional. I feel like laws on adoption, gender/sex change, age of consent, blood donations, marriage etc. fall on the absolute/objective liberty spectrum. While stuff like anti-discrimination laws, housing policies, conversion therapy bans etc are interventionist regulations.

Also needs more categories/granularity.

http://get.lgbt you should get one :D

The text box for inputting countries seems to be a bit broken. Seems to stop giving suggestions after some time or it just me?

I've run into that issue a few times but I thought I fixed it. Before, reloading seemed to have fixed it. I'll look into it though. Thanks for pointing it out! :)

On the 'comparison' pages, the Equality Index score is listed as a horizontal bar chart, which makes at-a-glance comparison impossible. If you need to keep it as a bar, please consider making them vertical, so you can easily compare visually. Currently, I'm only able to compare that score based on color, so places with the same color aren't comparable on that metric. Personally, I'd prefer if you just put your number there.

Of course, I can just keep using right click -> Inspect Element :)

Great point about the Equality Index being vertical -- that's something I've been considering.

Regarding it being represented as a number, I originally wanted to include that, however, the way the Equality Index is calculated is pretty rudimentary. Creating a number representing the "amount of equality" people have is going to be pretty arbitrary, especially without enough public opinion data. Eventually, once it becomes more sophisticated/accurate, and I include more data points and surveys, maybe I will reconsider. For now, I purposely left it as an unlabeled bar so that it's a little clearer that it's a "rough visualization."

Why, for "Conversion therapy", being banned is the best status possible, according to this website?

"Conversion therapy" is a controversial therapy used to "convert" gay people "back to straight." The process is almost always heavily influenced by religion, and can be very harmful, psychologically. Some gay people are forced into this against their will, by their parents. There have been cases where people have committed suicide or had suicidal thoughts.

The organizations who run the therapy are super sketchy as well.

Wikipedia has some extensive information on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_therapy

Banning snake oil is never a part of a free society.

Whether you want to admit it or not, some people commit themselves to these centers and come out straight / believing they're straight/cisgendered/etc. Their motivations are generally because they come from a culture/family that is not accepting of who they really are. They themselves probably hate who they truly are. So they pay thousands of dollars for the chance of tricking themselves into believing that things are different.

Does it commonly fail? Of course.

But does there exist someone in the world who is living a happier life because they attended this therapy? I believe it's possible. And for that reason, I think banning it is wrong.

I imagine that choosing between being accepted by your community/family and being unhindered in expressing your sexuality is a very difficult and personal decision. I don't think any lawmaker has the right to make it for you.

> Banning snake oil is never a part of a free society.

The problem is parents forcing it on their kids. Set the minimum age to 22 or so (where most kids will be finished with college, since most kids are dependent on their parents for that now too), and it would be a lot more palatable.

I think it comes down to a game theory style argument. Most people who would undergo this would do so unwillingly by pressure from family, religion, etc. and face large downsides. The small minority that actually desires to do this are hurt by making it illegal, but the large majority that would otherwise be coerced into it are spared.

Many laws banning sexual practices are more justifiable under such laws. If society were different, such a law would be net negative, but instead it's a good idea. Thomas Schelling's "The Strategy of Conflict" talks a lot about ideas like these style arguments and I would recommend reading it. For example, it is often illegal to take or display a picture of your voting ballot, since making that universally illegal makes coercing votes harder.

That is a good argument for the existence of these laws, but anyway it is kinda strange that the LGBT movement promotes this kind of thing so enthusiastically. I don't imagine that people promoting these laws -- for example, the guy who made this website -- are aware of your argument.

I like it. Would be cool to apply the concept to more ideas, like free speech, religious/atheist freedom, gun rights, economic freedom/protections.

Homosexuality was never illegal in Poland. It wasn't regulated before 1932.

The site is crowdsourced, so if you click "Accurate?: No" on anything incorrect (on a country's page), you can supply details so that our moderators can look into it. :) Thanks!

> Any Country

Off the top of my head, where's Japan and China?

Here: http://equaldex.com/compare/china/japan

I can't even find my own home, although people do like to debate whether it is a country, state or province.

What country is that? Every country is included on the site, however, provinces aren't always available for the more minor countries.

Jersey.

You can simply type it in? Are you running into an issue typing it in?

Or just visit http://equaldex.com/region/china or http://equaldex.com/region/japan and compare from the sidebar there.

Amazing.

spain yusss

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