Criminal Laws
In 1951, a revision of the national criminal code decriminalized private, adult, non-commercial and consensual sodomy, with the age of consent set at 16.
Periodic government crackdowns on homosexuals tends to focus on male cruising, public displays of affection and prostitution. In 2008, Saad Manasir, Governor of Amman, pledged to continue with the crackdown until, "we eradicate any trace of male homosexuals in the society."
While legal, traditional Islamic morality deems it to be a sin and there have been reports of bias motivated crimes, including murder, directed at LGBT Jordanians. Often these crimes are vigilante honor killings directed at a family member whose "illicit" sexuality is seen as bringing shame to the family. In 1999, a Jordanian family living in the United States repeatedly beat their adult daughter and attempted to forcibly return her home after they discovered that she was gay.
This abuse does not appear to be official government policy, although the government seems reluctant to come to the aid of such an unpopular class of people. The Jordanian criminal code does provide lesser penalties for a man killing his wife or kin for engaging in "illicit" sexual relations.
Read more about this topic: LGBT Rights In Jordan
Famous quotes containing the words criminal and/or laws:
“No political party can ever make prohibition effective. A political party implies an adverse, an opposing, political party. To enforce criminal statutes implies substantial unanimity in the community. This is the result of the jury system. Hence the futility of party prohibition.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Always the laws of light are the same, but the modes and degrees of seeing vary.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)