The State of LGBT+ Rights in Europe: Overview and Country Comparison
How is the European continent as a whole doing when it comes to LGBT+ rights? Since Europe is made up of dozens of countries, it's hard to generalize – but there are clear maps, such as those on the ILGA-Europe website, that tell us where each country stands on which rights!
Protection against discrimination
This includes things like prohibiting unequal treatment of queer people. This is of course a very broad category and different countries implement protection against discrimination in different ways.
According to ILGA-Europe, Iceland has the highest level of protection of LGBT+ people, at 87%. This Nordic island nation protects LGBT+ people from discrimination in the workplace, in the provision of goods and services, in healthcare, in education and beyond. However, unlike many other countries that score lower in terms of protection against discrimination, it does not have this protection enshrined in its constitution.
The worst countries in terms of protection against unequal treatment of queer people are Russia, Turkey and Monaco. The first country persecutes LGBT+ people under the pretext of preventing the spread of Western ideology, in the second people can at least participate in pride marches, such as the giant one in Istanbul. The third country is a tax haven, but at the same time a monarchy in which the prince, the head of state, has very extensive powers, even forming the government cabinet himself, which is responsible to him, not to parliament.
Many countries fall somewhere in between – and the Czech Republic scores 45%. In addition to enshrining a ban on discrimination against LGBT+ people in its constitution, this country is also yet to adopt a ban on conversion therapy or allow men who have sex with men to donate blood.
Marriage and adoption
Rainbow families have been a frequent topic in the Czech media in recent years, and so the Czech Republic is often compared to other countries in one way or another.
Three European countries scored 100% here: Sweden, Belgium and Malta. What do they have in common? Specifically, that two adults can marry here, regardless of their official gender, and all married couples have the same rights and obligations. This also applies to adoptions and foster care. All three of these countries are also very open to artificial insemination from sperm donation and do not force transgender parents to give up their children.
At the other end of the scale are many more countries, including Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. None of these countries, which scored even a single percentage point, have universal marriage or registered partnerships, or any of the other things listed above.
The Czech Republic has a score of 16%, thanks to the existence of registered partnerships, the recognition of persons living in a common household, and the fact that the Czech Constitution does not define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Hate speech and hate attacks
Do European countries protect LGBT+ people from verbal and physical attacks motivated by queerphobia? Well, which ones…
The winner in this category is again Malta, which received an exemplary 100% score. The Mediterranean island nation prohibits hate attacks based on sex (including intersex people), gender and sexual orientation.
A number of countries received a zero score, namely Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. If you are attacked in one of these countries based on your gender identity, being intersex or having a non-heterosexual orientation, the act will be judged exactly the same as if the hate was not a factor there.
Recognition of official genders
This category includes the ability to change one's official gender at any age, not only to male or female, but also to neutral.
No country achieved a perfect score this year, but Malta came closest (at 94%). In this country, it is possible to change your legal gender without the need for castration or medical consecration, but there is no neutral legal gender option.
Monaco, San Marino, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan scored zero. Once you're born here and assigned an official gender, you're out of luck for the rest of your life, unless you move out and acquire citizenship in another, warmer country.
The Czech Republic allows for a change of official gender, but with a few caveats: the person requesting it must undergo a multi-year process of taking hormones, culminating in castration. If they are married or in a registered partnership, they must leave that union. The Czech Republic does not recognize a neutral official gender. It is therefore not surprising that its score this year is only 21%.
Bodily autonomy of intersex people
How are European countries doing in terms of protecting intersex people from unwanted surgeries aimed at making intersex people "proper" men or women?
Greece is the best, with only 60%, but it is actually revolutionary compared to other European countries: As long as intersex children cannot consent to cosmetic surgery, they cannot be operated on. On the other hand, there is no mechanism in this country to monitor compliance with this right, and victims of such procedures from the times when this ban did not exist are not entitled to compensation.
The vast majority of European countries, including the Czech Republic, have a score of zero. Intersex people have their bodily autonomy violated and must somehow fit into the male or female box.
Civil society
While in the area of bodily autonomy of intersex people, it is difficult to find a European country that would at least partially respect the rights of intersex people, in terms of association activities, public events in support of LGBT+ people that were not dispersed by the police, and external funding of associations, on the contrary, there are a number of countries in Europe that have earned 100%, including the Czech Republic.
On the other hand, Russia received a zero, which, as we said above, is really not friendly towards LGBT+ people.
Asylum procedure
Because not all countries in the world respect queer people, some decide to flee their country and go to a better place. However, this does not mean that such a country will grant the person refugee status.
The most welcoming European countries are again Malta and, surprisingly for some, Montenegro. Both of these countries received a 100% rating, thanks to both countries accepting refugees on the basis of discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation and sex (including intersex people). However, according to a detailed report by ILGA-Europe, problems persist in the countries: in Malta, some discriminatory countries are still considered safe, so refugees can return to them, and in Montenegro there have been attacks on Russian LGBT+ refugees.
Several countries received a zero score, including the Czech Republic, which is sometimes described as one of the countries with the strictest refugee policies and where it is very difficult to obtain asylum.