The UK, once the most LGBTQ-friendly country in Europe, drops to 22nd place
Hungary and Georgia have also seen sharp declines after the introduction of anti-LGBTQ legislation
The UK has fallen six places to 22nd place on ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map, which ranks European countries for their levels of LGBTQ-friendliness.
Announced yesterday, the latest ranking also saw sharp declines for Hungary and Georgia following the introduction of anti-LGBTQ legislation.
The findings point to a wider trend of democratic backsliding and the erosion of LGBTQ rights across Europe, say ILGA-Europe.
The news follows UK Supreme Court judges ruling unanimously last month that the word woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law, a move that will have a huge knock-on effect on trans and gender-diverse people.
The UK was once the highest-ranking country, but has been sliding for several years.
Hungary previously made headlines when it became the first country in the European Union to ban Pride. Georgia, meanwhile, introduced a law last year nullifying same-sex marriages performed abroad, while also banning gender transition and adoption by gay and transgender people.
“Democracy is being eroded quietly across Europe, like a thousand paper cuts”
In a statement, ILGA-Europe’s Advocacy Director, Katrin Hugendubel said: “The big headlines about the UK and Hungary draw attention, but democracy is being eroded quietly across Europe, like a thousand paper cuts.
“Centre and far-right actors in the EU are targeting NGO funding to weaken organisations that defend rights, while at the national level we are seeing laws introduced that do not address any genuine societal need but are designed purely to marginalise. Hungary’s constitutional amendment stating that ‘the mother is a woman and the father is a man’ and that ‘gender is defined by birth’ is a clear example.”
Citing Russia’s infamous gay propaganda law (known officially as For the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values) Hugendubel furthermore added: “Along with mirroring the Russian playbook, these developments closely echo the tactics seen in the US so far under Trump’s second term. Measures such as his executive orders restricting access to trans-specific healthcare and the rollback of DEI initiatives in federal agencies seek to undermine protections for trans people and limit LGBTI inclusion.
“Similar moves in the UK, Hungary, Georgia and beyond signal not just isolated regressions, but a coordinated global backlash aimed at erasing LGBTI rights, cynically framed as the defence of tradition or public stability, but in reality designed to entrench discrimination and suppress dissent.”