Same-sex sexual activity was made legal in Czechoslovakia in Despite this, same-sex couples are granted limited legal rights. The country does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions.
Slovakia is generally seen as having less supportive public opinion for LGBT people compared to its neighbour, the Czech Republic. Opinion polls have shown highly fluctuating trends in support for same-sex marriage and civil unions. Transgender people in Slovakia experience difficulty in accessing healthcare, and a complete lack of regulation in legal gender change makes the process highly individual and difficult.
Same-sex sexual activity was legalized in , when Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia , after scientific research from Kurt Freund led to changes in public opinion see history of penile plethysmographs.
In , still as part of Czechoslovakia, the age of consent was equalized to 15, as it had previously been 18 for same-sex activity, different to heterosexual activity. Since , Slovak law recognizes a close person , defined as a sibling or a spouse.
A family member or a person in a relationship shall be considered under law a close person if an injury suffered by one of them is "reasonably felt by the other person as an injury suffered by him or her. There is no legal recognition of civil unions in Slovakia. Several bills for the creation of civil unions were introduced in , , , , and , but all were rejected by the Slovak parliament. Under the proposed bill, partnerships would have been open to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples and would have granted couples several rights and benefits enjoyed by married couples, namely in the area of inheritance and healthcare, among others.
