Switzerland has a long history regarding the movement of equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens. Prior to the 20th century, sodomy and other types of sexual intercourse between people of the same sex was held in various levels of legal contempt. Today, the modern LGBT rights movement in Switzerland is related to the larger international movement which developed largely after 1969.

Pre-modern history

With the Christianization of Switzerland from the 3rd century AD, sodomy (anal intercourse), and especially homosexuality, were seen as two of many sins. The first ever unequivocal legal basis for the punishment of homosexuality in Switzerland is the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, variations of which were introduced in many cantons of the Confederation by 1532. Even before that, in the 13th century, criminal prosecution and execution of men accused of practising the "sodomite vice" and penalties for sodomy increased significantly in Europe. Between 1400 and 1798 in the Canton of Zürich alone, out of a total of 1,424 death sentences, 179 were given after sodomy allegations, making it the third most common offence punished by the death sentence after theft and homicide. Even so, the number of people condemned to death for homosexual acts in the Swiss Confederation was relatively low compared to that in Italian cities in the fifteenth century.

In the German-speaking cantons of the Confederation, homosexuality was considered a "Gallic" sin. Men who were convicted of sodomy often admitted to have taken to French-or Italian-speaking countries to practise their homosexual behaviour. Conversely, abroad the Swiss were often reviled and, insulted as a people who had sex with cows, as a play on their rural origins. (Note: in modern Germa, "Sodomie" refers to bestiality, whereas in contrast, in the Middle Ages the term was used to refer to very different practises which were seen as "unnatural" at that time, mainly anal intercourse, so care must be taken in translation.) At the time of the Reformation, Catholics were often referred to as homosexuals, while those in favour of the Reformation were insulted in turn as "Kuhgeiger" ("cowfuckers").

As in other parts of Europe, most homosexual acts performed in the Confederation were pederastic (inter-generational). In court, it was more important what age the participants were rather than who had penetrated, in contrast to cities in southern Europe. Children and young people could escape a punishment. In 1416 in Basel, the Dominican Heinrich von Rheinfelden was protected from prosecution by the Grand Council by his order, despite evidence of homosexual acts.

The number of people who were sentenced to death for sodomy was very dependent on the will of the holder of the judiciary to uncover and prosecute such offenses. Thus, during the term of office of Hans Conrad Heidegger (1649–1721) as the provincial governor of between 1694 and 1698, 22 young people were executed for sodomy. When Heidegger moved on to the Upper Vogt of Höngg, this series ended. In the surviving court records, there is a documented linguistic distinction between the sodomy offences, where sodomia was used for homosexual acts and intercourse with animals was referred to as bestialitas.

19th century

Helvetic In the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803), marked by the values of the French Revolution, homosexuality was not prosecuted. With the end of the Helvetic Republic, homosexuality was made an official offence in most Cantons, and penalised with up to several years of imprisonment.

"Liberal champion"

The history of LGBT emancipation began in 1836, with the publication of a book by Heinrich Hössli, a cloth merchant from Glarus, defending homosexuality and love between men. In his two-volume work, «Eros. Die Männerliebe der Griechen» (Eros. The male love of the Greeks) (published in Glarus in 1836 and in St. Gallen in 1838) he presented, from the idea of liberalism, the demand that the recognition of homosexuality was a test of liberal democracy and civil rights. In the German-speaking world outside Switzerland during the mid-19th century, two liberal champions of gay rights made their ideas public. Johann Jakob Bachofen wrote about lesbianism and pederasty in Das Mutterrecht in 1861. His focus being on a connection between female homosexuality in Sappho and the island of Lesbos.

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in the Kingdom of Hanover gave the name "Uranism" to the concept of same-sex love in 1864, followed in 1868 by Karl Maria Kertbeny from Austria-Hungary, who first called it "homosexuality."

In the 1880s and 1890s, Jakob Rudolf Forster from Brunnadern SG (1853–1926) was prosecuted by the St. Gallen authorities for his open homosexuality. In 1893, he presented the Federal Assembly with a petition for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Homosexuals («Beseitigung der Diskriminierung der Homosexuellen»). Karl Heinrich Ulrichs submitted an application for pardoning Forster to the St. Gallen authorities, but was turned away.

20th century From the beginning of the 20th century, increasing numbers of cantons no longer treated sodomy as an official offence, and pursued charges only on request. For a conviction, the offence had to be proved through witness statements, leading to a drastic decline in the number of convictions. The usage of the term sodomy also changed.

1930s: The scene arises In the 1930s, dance clubs were created in Basel and Zürich. When the Nazis rose to power in Germany, Berlin's reputation across Europe as the most liberal and attractive city for LGBT people changed abruptly. Police in several Swiss cities began to create registers of homosexuals, to which they added people in raids on meeting places. In Zürich in 1931, some women founded the Damen-Club Amicitia (Amicitia Ladies Club). Soon, men were allowed to join too, and in 1932 the club started publishing a magazine called Freundschafts-Banner ("Friendship Banner"), whose name was changed in 1933 to the Schweizerisches Freundschafts-Banner ("Swiss Friendship Banner") and in 1937 to Menschenrecht ("Human Rights"). It repeatedly called on its readers to act against slander in the press and work for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

1940s: Exemption from punishment and retreat In 1942, during the Second World War, the first Swiss penal code came into force after 24 years of preparation. Article 194 only penalised acts with "underaged persons of the same sex older than sixteen years". Since the age of majority was 21 in Switzerland at the time, in effect this meant that same-sex sexual acts between adults aged 21 and older were legalised. However, Article 191 legalised different-sex acts from the age of 16 and older, thus leading to a discriminatory, unequal age of consent.

Due to the Nazi occupation in Europe and the new freedom in Switzerland, Zurich rose in importance as a European gay capital.

With the decriminalization of homosexuality, the combative tone of the magazine Human Rights began to soften. In 1942, the new editor Karl Meier renamed the magazine Der Kreis/Le Cercle ("The Circle"), and turned it into a culture magazine, now only targeted to gay men. His Der Kreis club organised parties several times a year. Both the bi-monthly magazine and the parties were known throughout Europe.

1950s: Adapted and hidden Karl Meier believed that it would take years for society to call for legal recognition of LGBT people, and that LGBT people could only achieve this by living in an adjusted and normal fashion. The Circle was the first magazine to feature edifying texts in German, French and English, and artistic photos of men. Members and subscribers referred to each other using pseudonyms rather than their real names.

Nevertheless, the Der Kreis club, being one of the first LGBT civil rights movements and groups founded in Europe, influenced and even inspired the formation and development of similar movements throughout Europe by the time of the Second World War. Examples are Die Runde (The Round) camaraderie in Reutlingen, Germany, the Journal Arcadie in France, the Cultuur- en Ontspannings Centrum in the Netherlands, Kredsen af 1948 in Denmark, and the Mattachine Society in the United States of America.

1960s: The end of the Ice Age In 1960, the Der Kreis club was wound up. This occurred after a series of murders of gay men brought the attention of the Zürich press, who published their address. Major events were no longer possible, and the climate was more liberal in some European countries, causing subscribers to fall away. The last issue of Der Kreis appeared at the end of 1967, whereupon young men from sources close to Der Kreis immediately founded the new Journal Club 68, which was renamed hey ab in 1970. The topic of homosexuality was first mentioned by Swiss Television, under the theme of "youth protection", in programmes broadcast in January and February 1967. The Swiss Organization of Homophiles (SOH) was founded in this environment in 1970. The SOH was the first gay umbrella organization, and was regarded as rather conservative, and "adjusted". Above all, it could not reach left-wing gays and gay students. The period of history between the founding of the Freundschafts-Banner in 1932 and the SOH is known as the first LGBT movement.

1970s: Second, radical LGBT movement Since the 1970s, a second gay and lesbian civil rights movement has formed, which has led to many forms of discrimination against LGBT people being abolished (for example, equalising the age of consent, Registered Partnership, elimination of different tax laws for homosexual and heterosexual members of the army).

In the early 1970s, the first news about the Stonewall riots by American LGBT people against police brutality filtered through to Europe. This particularly inspired and mobilised young, left-wing LGBT people. In 1970, Rosa von Praunheim showed his film «Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt» (It's not the Homosexual who is perverse, but the situation in which he lives) at the universities of Zürich, Basel and Bern. Following the screenings, the LGBT groups in Zürich (HAZ), Basel (initially called HAB, then HABS) and Bern (HAB) were established. Politically, the HA groups were close to the Marxist–Leninist PO-groups.

In 1973 in Zürich, men in the leather subculture joined together to form the group Loge70. In 1974, the HA groups founded their first national governing body, the Homosexuellen Arbeitsgruppen Schweiz (HACH) (Homosexual Working Groups of Switzerland). There were a variety of groups and offerings on the commercial scene. The social climate changed significantly in favour of LGBT people. Large employers made rules stating that employees can no longer be dismissed because of their homosexuality. However, the police still maintained their register of LGBT people.

In 1975, gays marched with a banner on the 1 May (May Day) rally in Basel, the first time LGBT people had drawn attention to their concerns to the wider public. Part of the political left was very irritated by the participation of homosexuals.

24 June 1978: The first Christopher Street Day (CSD) in Switzerland The ‘Homosexuellen Arbeitsgruppen Schweiz’’ (HACH) (‘’Gay Working Groups of Switzerland’’), the ‘’Schweizer Organisation der Homophilen’’ (SOH) (Swiss Organization of Homophiles) and the ‘’Homosexuelle Frauengruppe’’ (HFG) (Gay Women's Group) organized the first ‘’Christopher-Street-Liberation-Memorial Day’’ (CSD) in Switzerland at the Zürich Platzspitz to commemorate the Stonewall riots. Christopher Street Day is the name for LGBT Pride parades in Germany and Switzerland (they are called Rainbow Parades in Austria). It started by collecting 5,500 signatures to call for the total abolition of the police register of homosexuals. This was accompanied by calls for the abolition of the register in the press, which together forced the destruction of the files.