ILGA Europe: 'The lived reality of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people in Europe and Central Asia is complex, diverse, multi-faceted. In a world where attention-grabbing headlines and short social media feeds too often gloss over this complexity, the work of documenting the political, legal and social developments – both positive and negative – which affect the lives of LGBTI people becomes essential.

For it is indeed essential for policy-makers, for civil society, for any person who cares about advancing equality to grasp that positive change for LGBTI people can take many forms, and often actually needs to take different forms if the specific needs of people are to be met. It is crucial to realize that change is not a linear process but that the road to equality, sadly, can take us backwards and that we therefore always need to be vigilant.

This is why the ILGA-Europe team has been so committed to producing this annual documentation of the human rights situation of LGBTI people across the region since 2011. This 2019 edition of the Annual Review perfectly captures the multiple layers of the “state of play” for LGBTI people in Europe at the moment.

In recent years, trans and intersex activism has provided much optimism. In 2018 again, thanks to the tireless work of advocates for the human rights of trans people and of intersex people, the number of governments adopting legal gender recognition laws moving towards respecting the on principle of self-determination again increased and more and more governments are starting to discuss how to ban intersex surgeries. It was also the year of the landmark Coman case on freedom of movement of married couples within the EU, a powerful marker of progress when it comes to the recognition of same-sex couples in Europe.'

Read the annual review here, and find the results per country.

Rainbow Europe brings together both the legal index of LGBTI equality based on our Rainbow Europe Map and an overview of the social climate for LGBTI people in each country based on our Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People in Europe.

Rainbow Europe ranks all 49 European countries on a scale between 0% (gross violations of human rights, discrimination) and 100% (respect of human rights, full equality). We rank the countries on the basis of laws and policies that have a direct impact on the LGBTI people’s human rights in under 6 categories: equality and non-discrimination; family; hate crime and hate speech; legal gender recognition and bodily integrity; civil society space; and asylum.

Source: https://www.rainbow-europe.org/

The colour assigned to each country gives you an indication of where the countries are positioned on a scale between 0% (gross violations of human rights, discrimination) and 100% (respect of human rights, full equality).

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