Gaycation.eu gay-friendly destinations across Europe

San Marino

At a glance

Rainbow Index: 28.52 % — San Marino's score in the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map, which rates 49 European countries from 0 to 100 % on their laws and policies for LGBTI people.

Venues
0
Cities
0
Reviews
0
Full legal context
San Marino scores 28.52 % on the Rainbow Map, which puts the smallest country on this site ahead of Italy, the country that surrounds it on every side. The comparison is worth making in detail: San Marino scores 44 % for family against Italy's 17 %, and 46 % for hate crime and hate speech against Italy's zero.

Sex between men has been legal since 1864. Article 274 of the criminal code, in force from 1974, nevertheless punished habitual homosexual acts causing public scandal with between three months and a year in prison. No prosecution under it is recorded. It was repealed in September 2004.

What followed came quickly for a country of thirty-four thousand people. In April 2008 the Great and General Council outlawed discrimination and hate speech on grounds of sexual orientation, with effect from 3 May, and made the motive an aggravating circumstance in the criminal code. Civil unions were approved on 15 November 2018, took effect on 5 December that year and became fully operational on 11 February 2019, carrying residency, citizenship, pensions, healthcare, succession and stepchild adoption. Marriage and joint adoption remain closed.

The most unusual step was taken by the electorate. In November 2018 a proposal to add sexual orientation to Article 4 of the Declaration of Citizens' Rights, the country's basic law, won 35 votes in the Council where it needed 39, which under San Marino's rules sent it to a referendum instead of killing it. On 2 June 2019, 71.46 % voted yes. Equality before the law there now reads: without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, personal, economic, social, political and religious conditions.

In 2022 Paolo Rondelli, elected Captain Regent, became the first openly gay head of state in modern history.

Venues in San Marino

No venues listed yet

We haven’t added any venues in San Marino yet. Know a great spot? Help us put it on the map.

Suggest a venue →
Travel tips
San Marino has no gay venues, and with thirty-four thousand residents on nine hills it is not going to have any. It is also one of the easier places in this part of Europe to arrive as a couple: civil unions have existed since 2019, sexual orientation is written into the constitutional text by a vote of the people, and the country had an openly gay head of state before several of its neighbours had marriage.

Practically, almost everyone arrives from Rimini, twenty-five kilometres away on the Adriatic, which has one of Italy's larger summer scenes with Riccione beside it. Come up for the day, walk the old town, and go back down for the evening.
Local resources
No LGBTQ organisation is based in San Marino.

The nearest support is over the border in Italy, where Arcigay has local chapters along the Romagna coast, Rimini included.
Timeline
1864: Same-sex acts cease to be a crime.
1974: Article 274 of the criminal code punishes habitual homosexual acts causing public scandal. No prosecution is recorded.
2004: Article 274 is repealed in September.
2008: Discrimination and hate speech on grounds of sexual orientation are outlawed, in force from 3 May.
2018: Civil unions are approved on 15 November and take effect on 5 December.
2019: The civil union law becomes fully operational on 11 February.
2019: On 2 June a referendum adds sexual orientation to Article 4 of the Declaration of Citizens' Rights, with 71.46 % in favour.
2022: Paolo Rondelli becomes Captain Regent, the first openly gay head of state in modern history.
More information
The gap in San Marino is equality, at 4.65 %. The 2008 law covers discrimination and hate speech, there is no comprehensive equality act across employment, goods and services of the kind the Rainbow Map measures, and there is no legal gender recognition procedure at all.

That is the pattern in the small states generally, and it is worth knowing before reading too much into any of these scores. A country of thirty-four thousand people does not build an equality commission, and the map cannot tell the difference between not needing one and not wanting one.