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This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1996.

• Homosexuality is decriminalised inBosnia and Herzegovina, althoughRepublika Srpska did not remove homosexuality from its criminal code until 1998.

• 8 – South Africa becomes the first nation in the world to explicitly prohibit discrimination based onsexual orientation in its constitution.^[1]
• 20 – InRomer v. Evans, theSupreme Court of the United States rules 6–3 thatColorado's Amendment 2, which would have voided existing gay rights laws in Colorado and prevented any new gay rights laws from taking effect, is unconstitutional.^[2]
• 21 –Hungary legalizes same-sex unions, first among the ex-communist countries, and fifth country worldwide. The Parliament voted 207–73 in favor for the bill.^[3]

• 17 – TheUnited States Supreme Court, in light of its decision inRomer v. Evans, vacates and remands theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit inEquality Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, et al. v. The City of Cincinnati, which had found the city's anti-gay Issue 3 constitutional.^[4]

• 1 – TheUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacates and remands the district court inAble v. United States of America, which had ruled the military's gay-exclusionary "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional.^[5]

• 10 – TheUnited States Senate passes theDefense of Marriage Act (85–14) and rejects prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the private sector (49–50).^[6]
• 15 – TheEuropean Parliament calls for an end to anti-gay discrimination.
• 21 – United States PresidentBill Clinton signs theDefense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law. DOMA allows individual states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions^[7] and creates federal definitions for the terms "marriage" and "spouse".^[8]

• 3 – InBaehr v. Miike Hawaii judge Kevin S.C. Chang rules in favor of the plaintiffs and enjoins the state of Hawaii from refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.^[9] The following day Chang stays his ruling, acknowledging the "legally untenable" position couples would be in should the Hawaii Supreme Court reverse him on appeal.^[10]

• November 18 –Evelyn Hooker, whose research helped lead to declassifying homosexuality as a mental illness (b. 1907)^[11]

• Timeline of LGBT history – timeline of events from 12,000 BCE to present
• LGBT rights by country or territory – current legal status around the world
• LGBT social movements

• LGBTQ rights by year
• 1996 in LGBTQ history

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