On the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia, Interphobia and Biphobia (May 17), the European lobby organization for the rights of this community (ILGA) published the so-called rainbow map again.
The rainbow map shows the status of legal protection of LGBTQ+ people across Europe. There is the question of how equal their rights are with heterosexual persons, how protected they are from hate crimes and discrimination, included in social activities and what their rights are to gender self-determination.
The small Mediterranean island, Malta, has been in first place for years with 88 out of 100 possible points. This means that members of the community enjoy 88 percent of the rights enjoyed by other citizens.
Followed by Iceland (83), then Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Denmark, Finland and Greece, each with over 70 points.
Roughly speaking, it can be said that the further north and west the countries in Europe are, the stronger LGBTQ+ rights are.
The lowest places in the ranking are occupied by Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Of the countries in the region, Slovenia and Croatia are ranked best with 50 percent, as well as Montenegro (48), Bosnia and Herzegovina (40). Serbia, Albania and Kosovo all have a percentage of 36, followed only by North Macedonia with 31.
In the European Union, Poland ranks last with 18 points after ten years of nationalist rule. After the change of government last year, the ranking could improve next year. Because the rainbow map is based on data from 2023.
Worsening in Italy
The situation in Italy (25 points) worsened after the right-wing extremist coalition Brothers of Italy, Lega and Forza took power.
Italy has been in the bottom third of EU countries for years, because many legal provisions on parenthood, adoption of children and marriage are simply missing for everyone, says Katrin Hugendubel, director of legal policy at ILGA.
The government of the Prime Minister, Đorđe Meloni, uses these legal loopholes to impose a family image of parents exclusively of the opposite sex. "Laws are simply important to protect us from political change. And right now we don't see much upward movement," says Hugendubel in an interview with DW.
A small improvement
Overall, according to Hugendubel, the ranking of European countries has hardly changed, because there are hardly any new initiatives to translate community rights into laws.
The exception is Germany (66 points), where a law on self-determination of gender identity has now been passed. Such self-determination is possible only in eleven of the 49 European countries where research was conducted.
"While some countries, including Germany, have made progress, in many other countries there is simply stagnation, which means that no new laws are passed," complains the associate of the European LGBTQ+ Association.
"This is very dangerous at a time when we see hate and violence growing, when governments are trying to undermine human rights, especially LGBTQ+ people."
More visibility, more hostility
The European Union Agency for Human Rights (FRA) presented a comprehensive study on the occasion of the Day against Homophobia. She wanted to know how queer people viewed their own situation. One hundred thousand people across Europe participated in an online survey.
According to research, LGBTQ+ people are more open about their identity. There is more talk about these issues in schools than five years ago, when the last major study of this kind was conducted.
At the same time, discrimination, mobbing or bullying have increased in everyday life, according to the interviewees. More than one in ten LGBTQ+ people have been physically assaulted. This is a slightly higher value than five years ago.
"We see that openness has increased. LGBTQ+ people show more of who they are. They demand more participation in social life. And because they do this and are more visible, especially young people, the trend is that they are increasingly the target of violence and harassment," explains Miltos Pavlou from European Agency for Human Rights, who led the study.
More hate on the internet
"Hate and violence do not only apply to LGBTQ+ people, but also to the general spread of hatred on the Internet. We hope that the EU will use new legal means to fight this more effectively," Pavlou told DW.
The Agency for Human Rights did not make a ranking list of European countries. "We are not pointing the finger at countries, because in all countries there are problems such as mobbing or bullying in schools".
In addition, it varies greatly from country to country as to whether hate crimes and discrimination are reported at all.
Katrin Hugendubel from the LGBTQ+ association ILGA also points out that the legal framework in a country, social reality and social acceptance are not always the same.
In legally very restrictive Hungary with a national-conservative government, there is no marriage for everyone, but according to polls, more than half of Hungarians are in favor of it.
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