Kuwaiti LGBT organisation al-Hurriya has announced it intends to apply for a permit to become an official association this month.
The organisation will submit an official request with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Social Affairs, a representative of al-Hurriya told Kuwaiti newspaper al-Ray.
"Gay people are no different from anyone else and deserve the same rights," the representative said, adding that Kuwait has a sizeable LGBT population.
"We have known figures from various political, artistic and other fields among us."
The representative called for "the necessary legislative amendments to decriminalise the imitation of the opposite sex, and to enable transsexuals to change their sex in their official papers".
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The organisation had previously requested to set up an official LGBT organisation in 2007 but was rejected.
It was their hope at the time to obtain legal protection against prosecution.
Kuwait, along with the United Arab Emirates, is among the few countries in the world that explicitly criminalises gender non-conformity.
Homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in the Gulf country but gay people can be prosecuted under the "debauchery" law.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
