Decriminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador

The decriminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador took place on November 25, 1997, when the Constitutional Tribunal issued a landmark decision in Case 111-97-TC declaring the first clause of Article 516 of the Penal Code - which criminalized same-sex sexual relations as a crime with a penalty of four to eight years of imprisonment - unconstitutional. The ruling put an end to more than one hundred years of criminalization of homosexuality and was the result of a claim filed by different LGBT groups as a response to the police abuses usually experienced by sexually diverse individuals in Ecuador.