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The rights of LGBTI people in the European Union
The rights of LGBTI people in the European Union
David de Groot, Members' Research Service
Summary
The prohibition of discrimination and the protection of human rights are important elements of the EU legal order. Nevertheless, discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people persists throughout the EU and takes various forms, including verbal abuse and physical violence. Recent findings from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights highlight increasing harassment and violence, with trans and intersex people particularly affected.
Sexual orientation is now recognised in EU law as a prohibited ground of discrimination. However, the scope of the provisions prohibiting such discrimination is limited and does not cover social protection, healthcare, education or access to goods and services, leaving LGBTI people particularly vulnerable in these areas. The proposed horizontal anti‑discrimination directive, intended to extend protection beyond employment, remains blocked in the Council.
Moreover, EU competence does not extend to introduction of marital or family status. In this area, national laws vary concerning the establishment of same‑sex relationships, adoption and access to assisted reproduction. Some Member States allow same‑sex couples to marry, some provide alternative forms of registration, and others offer no legal status for their relationships. These differences affect the legal recognition of relationships, including those between partners from Member States with different legal frameworks, and create obstacles for same‑sex couples and their families wishing to move to another Member State. Recent Court of Justice rulings have clarified Member States' obligations concerning cross‑border recognition of same‑sex marriages, parenthood and changes of name and gender for the exercise of rights under EU law.
Combating discrimination has become part of EU internal and external policies, and is the subject of numerous resolutions of the European Parliament. The Commission's new LGBTIQ+ equality strategy 2026‑2030 builds on the previous strategy, with objectives to protect, empower and engage LGBTIQ+ people. Parliament has called for stronger implementation and enforcement measures. However, action in this area remains challenging when it touches on issues pertaining to areas traditionally the preserve of Member States, such as marital status and family law.
This is a further updated version of a briefing first published in 2010, the previous edition of which was published in May 2025.
Glossary
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Bisexual: describes an individual who is physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to others irrespective of their gender.
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Discrimination: the less favourable treatment of one person or group than another on various grounds (direct discrimination), or the situation where an apparently neutral provision is liable to disadvantage a group of people in comparison to others (indirect discrimination).
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Gay: describes a man whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to other men, although the term can be used to describe both gay men and lesbians.
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Gender identity: each person's deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body.
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Hate speech: public statements that spread, incite, promote or justify hatred founded on intolerance.
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Homophobia: the irrational fear of and aversion to homosexuality and LGB people based on prejudice.
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Intersex: covers bodily variations in regard to culturally established standards of maleness and femaleness, including variations at the level of chromosomes, gonads and genitals.
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Interphobia or intersexphobia: irrational fear of and aversion to intersex people based on prejudice.
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Lesbian: describes a woman whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to other women.
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LGBTI: describes a diverse group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people who do not conform to conventional or traditional notions of male and female gender roles. LGBTI people are also sometimes referred to as 'sexual, gender and bodily minorities'. The acronym is sometimes extended to cover queer people explicitly (LGBTIQ) or other subgroups (LGBTI+ or LGBTIQ+).
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Sexual orientation: each person's capacity for profound emotional, affectional and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of a different gender or the same gender or more than one gender.
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Transgender: describes people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth and those people who wish to portray their gender identity differently to the gender assigned at birth.
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Transphobia: the irrational fear of and aversion to trans people based on prejudice.
Introduction
In some parts of the world, negative perceptions of LGBTI people (see glossary) are reflected in harsh laws. Consensual same‑sex acts between adults are illegal in at least 65 countries, and in seven of these, they are punishable by death.1 Since 2013, several countries have enacted new laws criminalising same‑sex conduct. Others, including some European countries, have either passed or discussed 'homosexual propaganda' laws. These have been criticised by the United Nations (UN) and the EU for limiting the rights of LGBTI people. Advocacy and human rights groups have also noted that such legislation can create a climate of intimidation, and encourage homophobia and hate crime.
On the global spectrum, the EU appears comparatively LGBTI‑friendly. The EU Member States are parties to a whole range of international instruments,2 including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which set out a catalogue of fundamental rights for all. At the same time, the EU boasts one of the most extensive sets of anti‑discrimination laws in the world. Moreover, the EU promotes the rights of LGBTI people internationally. Among numerous examples, it initiated a UN declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalisation of homosexuality.
However, when it comes to the reality experienced by LGBTI people in the EU, the picture is more mixed. For a number of years, the Eurobarometer discrimination survey has been capturing public opinion on the extent of discrimination against and social acceptance of LGBTI people.
The most recent survey from 2023, covering perceptions of discrimination based on sex characteristics as well as sexual orientation and gender identity, shows that 54 % of EU citizens consider discrimination against gay, lesbian and bisexual people to be widespread in their country (53 % in 2019); 57 % say the same about discrimination towards transgender people (48 % in 2019), and 47 % about being intersex (39 % in 2019).
Overall, social attitudes towards LGBTI people have become more positive across the EU, but there is also a wide variation between EU Member States when it comes to how comfortable respondents feel about working with an LGBTI colleague, having a child in a loving relationship with an LGBTI person or seeing an LGBTI person in high political office. In 2023, 72 % of EU citizens agreed that same‑sex marriage should be allowed throughout the EU.
Within the LGBTI community itself, the perception and experience of discrimination is also widespread and does not fully coincide with the results of wider public opinion surveys. In May 2024, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published the results of its third EU-wide survey on the extent and nature of discrimination, violence and hate speech experienced by gay, lesbian, bi‑, trans‑ and intersex people across the EU, following up on the previous surveys of this kind in 2012 and 2020.3 This third survey covered 100 577 respondents identifying as LGBTI from the EU‑27 Member States, as well as Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia.
About half of LGBTI respondents are now often or always open about being LGBTI (52 %), but 54 % of respondents still avoid holding hands in public with a same‑sex partner (61 % in 2019).
Overall, 37 % of LGBTI respondents felt discriminated against because of being LGBTI in the year preceding the survey, with substantial variations across countries. Discrimination at work or while looking for a job has gone slightly down compared to 2019 (from 21 % to 18 % for lesbian women, 20 % to 19 % for gay men, 18 % to 14 % for bisexual women, 18 % to 17 % for bisexual men, and 41 % to 34 % for transgender people, although for intersex people it has stayed at 38 %).
The share of respondents reporting harassment and violence has increased again. A majority experience harassment (54 %), but only 18 % went to report the incident to any organisation. As in previous surveys, the 2023 survey showed that trans and intersex people experience higher levels of discrimination, harassment and violence than the other LGBT subgroups, while intersex people are found to suffer more discrimination than any other LGBTI group. The majority of intersex respondents (72 %) experienced multiple hate‑motivated physical or sexual attacks. Similarly, 67 % of trans women, 65 % of trans men and 65 % of non‑binary respondents reported experiencing multiple attacks.
Respondents also reported being discriminated against on multiple grounds, for instance because they were women, had a disability or belonged to an ethnic minority, in addition to being LGBTI. These EU‑wide surveys on attitudes and perceptions are also supported by in‑depth legal and social analyses. The FRA report on homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the EU Member States – drafted at the request of the European Parliament in 2008 – and its subsequent updates in 2010 and 2015, confirm the extent of homophobia, transphobia and discrimination experienced by LGBTI people throughout Europe. According to these reports, verbal and physical attacks on LGBTI people have occurred in all Member States.4 Research also shows that attitudes towards transgender people seem to be particularly negative and levels of transphobic hate crime particularly high.5 The Council of Europe monitoring body, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), concluded in its 2017 and 2019 annual reports that homophobic and transphobic hatred remains present in Europe, and that its prevalence on the internet and in social media has helped fuel a rise in hostility towards LGBTI people.6 In its 2020 annual report, the ECRI added that the climate of opposition to LGBTI people's human rights has gained ground in certain European countries in 2020, linked to populist homophobic and transphobic rhetoric and the 'anti‑gender movement'.
There are other signs that these social phenomena are reflected at the political level. The FRA has documented cases of incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence by politicians in some Member States. It found that, between 2010 and 2014, LGBTI pride events and other public demonstrations in favour of the rights of LGBTI people met with resistance from the authorities in at least four Member States, while demonstrations involving explicitly homophobic and/or transphobic hate speech continued to take place in EU Member States over this period. In 2018, the FRA reported on a worsening environment for civil society organisations and activists promoting human rights and non‑discrimination in the EU, including verbal attacks and negative narratives by public officials in some Member States. In December 2019, the European Parliament regretted attacks carried out by public authorities against LGBTI people during referendums and elections in several EU countries. The European Parliament and the European Commission have also strongly condemned the creation of the 'LGBTI-free zones' by local authorities in Poland. In response, in March 2021, Parliament declared the EU an 'LGBTIQ Freedom Zone'.
Attention has also turned to current laws and practices that may lead to discrimination against intersex people, including medical interventions, requirements for identity documents, and the relatively low awareness among professionals.7 In its 2025 study Being intersex in the EU, the FRA stated that the data 'shows that intersex respondents, more than any other LGBTIQ survey group, experience disproportionately higher rates of hate‑motivated violence, direct and indirect discrimination and victimisation, despite EU law and the efforts of several Member States to protect them and promote equality'.
This social and political context, combined with major differences in national laws (e.g. in respect of same‑sex unions and hate crime/speech), raises questions as to the actual extent to which LGBTI people can exercise their rights in the EU.
EU legal framework
Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in EU primary law
The principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation have an extensive legal basis in the EU Treaties (e.g. Article 10 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU)).
These Treaty provisions are complemented by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, which – under the Lisbon Treaty – has the same legal value as the Treaties. The charter was the first international human rights charter to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of 'sexual orientation' explicitly (Article 21(1)).
However, sexual orientation has acquired this status only recently. Until the 1999 Treaty of Amsterdam, the relevant EC Treaty provisions addressed discrimination on the grounds of nationality and sex only. At the same time, the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) defining the scope of the general principle of equality was not uniform; consequently, the question whether discrimination based on sexual orientation was prohibited under this principle remained contentious.
The breakthrough Article 13 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) – introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty (now Article 19 TFEU) – empowered the EU to adopt measures to deal with discrimination on other grounds, including sexual orientation.
Anti‑discrimination directives: Scope and implementation
Two landmark anti‑discrimination directives were adopted on the basis of Article 13 TEC in 2000:
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the Race Equality Directive, implementing the principle of equal treatment irrespective of racial or ethnic origin;
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the Employment Equality Directive, prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.
There is a notable difference in the scope of application of these two directives. The former has a very broad scope, as it obliges Member States to adopt relevant anti‑discrimination legislation in the areas of:
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social protection (including social security and healthcare);
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education;
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access to and supply of goods and services available to the public (including housing).
The Employment Equality Directive, on the other hand, is restricted to employment, occupational and vocational training. In January 2023, the CJEU ruled that the directive is also applicable in cases concerning recurring contracts with self‑employed entities.
However, LGBTI people also experience various forms of discrimination in the areas covered by the Race Equality Directive, including:
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refused entry to visit partners or children in hospital;
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higher premiums on health insurance;
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no access to social benefits reserved for married couples;
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bullying, harassment and discriminatory content in educational materials;
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degrading treatment by neighbours, or refusal to rent.8
Moreover, the question arises whether this difference in the scope of protection ('hierarchy of grounds') is legitimate and consistent with international human rights law.9
In 2008, the Commission sought to remedy the situation by presenting a proposal for a new horizontal anti‑discrimination directive that would extend the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation beyond employment to social protection, including social security and healthcare; social advantages; education; and access to and supply of goods and services available to the public, including housing. Parliament adopted its resolution on the proposal in April 2009 under the consultation procedure. However, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the proposal falls under Article 19 TFEU, which requires Parliament's consent and unanimity in the Council. Such unanimity has not been achieved, and the proposal thus remains blocked in the Council. Three Member States – Germany, Czechia and Italy – maintained their reservations about the directive during negotiations in 2025. The documented outstanding concerns include implementation costs, administrative impact, subsidiarity and legal certainty.
Nevertheless, when implementing the Employment Equality Directive, the majority of Member States already extend protection on the basis of sexual orientation to cover some or all fields to which the Race Equality Directive applies.
Moreover, there is a general tendency among Member States to create a single equality body dealing with all grounds of discrimination, but it is only the Race Equality Directive and the 2004 Equal Treatment in Goods and Services Directive that provide for the creation of such an institution. In December 2022, the Commission made two proposals to strengthen the equality bodies. Both directives were adopted in May 2024.
The Victims' Rights Directive, adopted in 2012, also explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
EU anti‑discrimination legislation and same‑sex unions
Recital 22 of the Employment Equality Directive states that the directive does not affect national laws on marital status and benefits granted to it. In the same vein, the proposal for the horizontal equality directive leaves the establishment of marital or family status, adoption and reproductive rights to national law, reflecting diverse national traditions and policy choices.10
Indeed, there are substantial differences between the Member States in terms of their social perceptions of same‑sex marriage and the adoption of children by same‑sex couples. National laws also vary considerably with respect to the legal recognition of same‑sex unions and adoption.11 Some Member States (Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) have constitutional provisions against same‑sex marriage.
The CJEU has addressed the application of the Employment Equality Directive to benefits linked to marital or comparable legal status and has argued that the refusal of those countries that do not allow same‑sex couples to marry to grant such couples certain benefits in the areas covered by the Employment Equality Directive is a discriminatory practice.
According to CJEU case law, when a Member State has created some form of union that is comparable to marriage, what this means for same‑sex partners is that they should not be treated under this form of union in a way that is arbitrarily different from their treatment if marriage was open to them. This does not mean, however, that the Employment Equality Directive compels Member States to create such an institution.12 It should be noted, however, that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled, following its 2015 judgment in Oliari v Italy , in its Grand Chamber judgment in Fedotova e.a. v Russia on 17 January 2023, that 'Having regard to its case‑law ... as consolidated by a clear ongoing trend within the member States of the Council of Europe …, the Court confirms that in accordance with their positive obligations under Article 8 of the Convention, the member States are required to provide a legal framework allowing same‑sex couples to be granted adequate recognition and protection of their relationship'. The ECtHR has since issued similar judgments requiring the introduction of a registered partnership (i.e. a 'legal framework') concerning Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine.
Adoption rights are still more restricted, even in countries offering same‑sex marriage, although the number of states making provision for it has expanded. Full joint adoption by same‑sex couples is legal in 17 EU countries: the Netherlands (since 2001), Sweden (2003), Spain (2005), Belgium (2006), Denmark (2010), France (2013), Malta (2014), Luxembourg (2015), Austria (2016), Ireland (2016), Portugal (2016), Finland (2017), Germany (2017), Croatia (2022), Slovenia (2023), Estonia (2024) and Greece (2024). In Italy, decisions on stepchild adoption are made on a case‑by‑case basis by the courts. Croatia allows registered and unregistered life partners to become partner‑guardians of their partner's child (2014). In its case D.B. e.a. v Switzerland of November 2022, the ECtHR in essence ruled that (stepchild) adoption rights should be available to same‑sex couples to enable them to regularise parenthood established abroad. By adopting this ruling, it de facto broke with older case law as established by cases such as Gas and Dubois v France .
Other directives with implications for LGBTI people
Discrimination against transgender and intersex people
EU law does not provide for a specific prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of transgenderism. Some Member States treat discrimination against transgender people it as a form of sex discrimination. This approach is supported by the extensive case law of the CJEU, which has adopted a definition of sex discrimination covering people who have undergone sex reassignment. In other Member States, this type of discrimination is treated as discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. A third group of Member States treats it as neither sex discrimination nor discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. Transgender people in these Member States can only rely on the general principle of equality and cannot benefit from the more far‑reaching protection of the anti‑discrimination directives.
Discrimination against intersex people is a particularly complex form of sex discrimination. It remains unclear whether intersex people are implicitly covered by the existing EU anti‑discrimination legal framework. EU gender equality legislation is silent on the issue, and no case of discrimination against intersex people has yet reached the CJEU. The notion of 'sex characteristics' as a protected ground remains underdeveloped in national law, with few Member States including specific references to gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics in their equality legislation.
Sources: Fundamental Rights Agency, 2009, 2015, 2019; European Commission, 2012, 2018, 2019, 2025.
Among the EU instruments with implications for the rights of LGBTI people, three directives deserve particular attention on account of the specific problems encountered in their interpretation:
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the Free Movement Directive: owing to the definition of 'spouse' and 'members of the family', and the recognition of same‑sex marriages concluded and registered partnerships entered into in other Member States;
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the Family Reunification Directive: in connection with the entry and residence rights of LGBTI third‑country nationals;
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the Qualification Directive: with regard to the granting of asylum on the basis of belonging to a specific 'social group', including explicit references to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Same‑sex marriage and civil partnerships: Member States' rules
Sixteen Member States currently allow same‑sex marriage: the Netherlands (since 2001), Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), Sweden (2009), Portugal (2010), Denmark (2012), France (2013) Luxembourg (2015), Ireland (2015), Finland (2017), Malta (2017), Germany (2017), Austria (2019), Slovenia (2022), Estonia (2024) and Greece (2024).
Most other Member States recognise unions similar to marriage, or some form of contract or registration. These include Cyprus (2015), Croatia (2014), Hungary (2009) and Czechia (2006) and Latvia (as of July 2024). Italy passed a law recognising civil unions between same‑sex couples in May 2016 after the ECtHR judgment in Oliari v Italy .
Five Member States – Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – do not offer any legal recognition to same‑sex relationships. However, the Lithuanian Constitutional Court decided on 17 April 2025 that the absence of a registered partnership violated the Constitution.
Various open questions remain concerning the interpretation and application of these directives. Given the divergence between Member States when it comes to the legal recognition of same‑sex relationships, significant practical issues arise and same‑sex couples and their families may currently experience significant and disproportionate obstacles when moving around the EU,13 as was highlighted in a 2021 study commissioned by the European Parliament. A case brought before the CJEU has clarified the EU's position on family reunification rights when same‑sex couples in a recognised partnership move to a Member State that does not provide for legal recognition of same‑sex relationships (Case C‑673/16 – Coman ). In June 2018, the CJEU ruled that EU countries that have not legalised same‑sex marriage must at least respect the residency rights of same‑sex spouses who want to live together in their territory. In the Wojewoda Mazowiecki (Case C‑713/23), the Court held that a Member State must recognise, for the purposes of exercising rights derived from EU law, a marriage lawfully concluded in another Member State between two EU citizens of the same sex. Where transcription in the civil‑status register is the only means available under national law to ensure such recognition, EU law precludes a refusal to transcribe the marriage on the ground that national law does not provide for same‑sex marriage.
In another case (Case C‑490/20 – V.M.A. ), the CJEU ruled that where a child is issued a birth certificate by a Member State that names two mothers, the child's Member State of nationality is obliged to do two things: (i) issue the child an identity card or passport without first requiring a birth certificate from its national authorities, and (ii) recognise the document from the host Member State – as it would from any Member State – that allows the child to exercise the right to move and reside freely within the Member States with both mothers. On 7 December 2022, the Commission proposed a private international law instrument facilitating the recognition of parenthood established in a Member State. Concerning transgender people, the Court held in October 2024, in Case C‑4/23 – Mirin , that a Member State must recognise and enter in the birth certificate of a national who has made use of free movement rights the name and gender change established in another Member State. In C‑43/24 – Shipova , the Court considered that EU law precludes 'national legislation which does not permit the amendment of gender data, such as the sex, family name, patronymic, first name and personal identification number, recorded in the civil status registers of the Member State concerned, of a national of that Member State who has exercised his or her right to move and reside freely in another Member State'.
With regard to the right to asylum, the 2004 EU Qualification Directive referred explicitly to sexual orientation; its amended version, adopted in 2011, marks further progress in ensuring LGBTI applicants' rights by adding gender identity as a cause of persecution. The 2024 Qualification Regulation added to this gender expression. In 2022, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) published a report on national guidance and practices relating to the asylum procedure for claims based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics. In 2024, it also published three practical guides.
In response to a Hungarian law that bears similarities to a Russian 'homosexual propaganda' law found to be in violation of the ECHR, the Commission launched infringement proceedings and referred the matter to the Court of Justice, considering that the Hungarian law violated, inter alia, Article 2 TEU. On 21 April 2026, the Court ruled that the contested Act 'is in breach, in a way that is both manifest and particularly serious, of the rights of non‑cisgender persons – including transgender persons – or non‑heterosexual persons, as well as the values of respect for human dignity, equality and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities, as referred to in Article 2 TEU, with the result that it is contrary to the very identity of the Union as a common legal order in a society in which pluralism prevails' (para 556).
Specific EU programmes and funding
It has been recognised that legislative protection against discrimination is not in itself sufficient to effect change. Accordingly, the EU has also adopted a series of strategies setting out active measures to promote non‑discrimination and equal opportunities. In November 2020, the Commission adopted the EU LGBTIQ equality strategy 2020-2025, building on the lessons learned from the actions carried out from 2015 to 2019 to advance LGBTI equality. It included a mix of legislative and non‑legislative measures in four areas: tackling discrimination, ensuring safety, building inclusive societies and leading the call for LGBTIQ equality around the world.
The EPRS implementation overview of the LGBTIQ equality strategy concluded that the Commission had, overall, made considerable efforts to follow up on many of the action points and that, while progress had been made in different areas, some proposed action points still needed to be implemented.
The current Commissioner for Equality, Hadja Lahbib, presented the Commission's new 2026-2030 LGBTIQ+ equality strategy on 8 October 2025.This strategy is structured around three strategic objectives under the headings 'protect', 'empower' and 'engage'. In a study for the European Parliament, Prof. Cannoot considered that 'the LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026‑2030 represents a continuation rather than an expansion of the EU's equality agenda. It consolidates previous achievements and seeks to safeguard existing rights in an increasingly hostile political and social environment. Yet, without stronger legislative and enforcement measures, the EU risks falling short of its ambition to ensure full and effective equality for all LGBTIQ persons across Member States.'
In the EU multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021‑2027, LGBTI rights are covered in Heading 2 – Cohesion, Resilience and Values – under the Justice, Rights and Values Fund. This fund is subdivided into the Justice programme (JUST) and the Citizens, equality, rights and values programme (CERV). The CERV programme receives €641.7 million (current prices) plus an additional top‑up of €912 million as of 2022, making a total of €1 553.7 million. This is triple the budget of the previous Rights, equality and citizenship programme (2014‑2020). Additionally, according to the progress report, more than 100 projects focused on promoting LGBTIQ equality have been funded under the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes.
European Parliament's position
The European Parliament has addressed the issue of LGBTI rights on numerous occasions, starting with the adoption of a resolution on the rights of homosexuals in the workplace back in 1984.
Parliament has strongly condemned all forms of discrimination against LGBTI people, including the practice of LGBTI conversion therapies and the pathologisation of trans and intersex people, stressing the urgent need to tackle increasing levels of hate speech and hate crime motivated by bias against a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, and putting forward concrete proposals to combat hate speech, including online, but also harmful stereotypes in the media and foreign interference. Other proposals include the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality. It has regretted the ongoing backlash against LGBTI rights in a number of EU Member States, and urged Member States to ensure that these rights are protected and recognised in the framework of democracy and the rule of law. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, Parliament has declared the EU an LGBTIQ Freedom Zone. In the first resolution dedicated to LGBTI rights during the current legislative term, Parliament again sent a strong message about the need for the EU and the Member States to uphold LGBTI rights and take action to uphold them.
Regarding the legislative framework for combating discrimination, Parliament has continued to call for movement on the proposed horizontal anti‑discrimination directive, which remains blocked in the Council. In 2009, while supporting the Commission's proposal, it suggested numerous amendments, including an extension of the directive's scope to include discrimination based on assumptions about a person's religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, and discrimination based on a person's association with people with one or more of those characteristics. Parliament has also called for monitoring to ensure proper transposition and implementation of existing EU legislation. In addition, it has urged the Member States to include the grounds of gender identity and sex characteristics in their own national equality legislation, to allow legal recognition of a person's preferred gender, and to introduce legislation prohibiting 'sex‑normalising treatments and surgery' on intersex people.
On family and free movement issues, Parliament has encouraged the EU and the Member States to 'reflect on the recognition of same‑sex marriage or same‑sex civil union as a political, social and human and civil rights issue'. It has furthermore called for further action to ensure that same‑sex couples and their families can truly exercise their right to free movement across the EU, including automatic cross-border recognition of adoption orders, without discrimination. Moreover, it has called on the Commission to propose legislation requiring all Member States to recognise, for the purposes of national law, the adults mentioned on a birth certificate issued in another Member State as the legal parents of the child, regardless of the legal sex or the marital status of the adults. Parliament has also called for the EU to end child statelessness by affording universal access to birth registration and certification regardless of the parents' status, including for LGBTQI+ families. Parliament also pushed for a right to paternity leave for equivalent second parents, as recognised by national law, to be included in the Work-Life Balance Directive.
Parliament has also drawn attention to the human rights situation for LGBTI people outside the EU, and the need to ensure that their situation is taken into account in asylum procedures.
A 2018 EPRS study carried out for Parliament quantified the serious impact of discrimination on LGBTI individuals and wider society (including increased health risks, estimated lost earnings of between €19 million and €53 million, lost pension incomes of between €1.5 billion and €3.1 billion, and a gross domestic product (GDP) loss of between €25 million and €71 million). It also highlighted the inconsistent treatment of protection in the current EU anti‑discrimination legislation, and recommended the adoption of the horizontal directive, along with revisions to existing directives to include sexual orientation and gender identity consistently as protected grounds.
A 2026 report, 'The Investor Guide to Growth Markets', presented by a coalition of many global companies, showed that LGBTI discrimination costs Member States up to 1.75 % GDP annually.
In its resolution of 8 February 2024 on the implementation report on the EU LGBTIQ equality strategy 2020-2025, Parliament called on the Commission to draw up a new LGBTIQ+ equality strategy for 2025‑2030, that is 'driven by a more robust instrument, accompanied by a target‑oriented implementation plan, a strong mainstreaming structure ensuring LGBTIQ+ rights are mainstreamed across all EU policies including all grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics and resource allocation; to include a timeline and milestones, ensuring the monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning processes, including the consultation of LGBTIQ+ organisations'; [and] further call[ed] 'on the Commission to pay particular attention to groups in vulnerable situations, such as LGBTIQ+ children and youth'. It also called on the Commission to secure a portfolio for an Equality and Diversity Commissioner in the 2024‑2029 term, and encouraged the introduction of an LGBTIQ+ rights coordinator in the Commission.
Stakeholder opinions
The issues debated in Parliament have also been debated by major stakeholders.
The European Parliament's LGBTIQ+ Intergroup – an informal forum for MEPs – monitors the Commission's work on LGBTI rights as one of its five priorities for action. At the end of the 2014‑2019 parliamentary term, it summarised voting patterns on LGBTI issues and issued four overviews of what the EU, Parliament and the Intergroup itself had done for LGBTI rights, while also setting out priorities for the 2019‑2024 term. During that term, it highlighted the difficulties faced by same‑sex spouses, transgender parents and their children wishing to exercise their right to free movement.
ILGA-Europe – the European chapter of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) – paints a mixed picture of the situation for LGBTI people in the EU. On the one hand, more progressive laws are being proposed, while on the other, the COVID‑19 pandemic and its consequences have highlighted the gaps in terms of lived realities of LGBTI people across Europe and Central Asia. Furthermore, a stark rise of abuse and hate speech is reported. The association strongly supports the proposed horizontal anti‑discrimination directive. It considers, however, that the references to marital and family status and reproductive rights in the proposed directive are not justified and could be harmful to protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and on other grounds. ILGA‑Europe has also commented extensively on the Free Movement Directive and the Coman judgment, arguing that:
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restricting the notion of 'spouse' to opposite‑sex spouses amounts to discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation; the prohibition of such discrimination is enshrined in the preamble to the directive, which – although not binding – the CJEU will take into account when interpreting it;
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if the national law provides for registered partnerships, the national legislation must extend the right to enter and reside to individuals who formed such a partnership in another Member State.
ILGA‑Europe has also drawn attention to the potential impact of the reform of EU asylum law.
ILGA‑Europe and OII, the European Intersex Organisation, both welcomed the European Parliament's 2019 resolution on the rights of intersex people.
While noting that the EU has limited competence, Transgender Europe (TGEU) identifies 10 key areas, including an EU action plan for LGBTI rights and an internal human rights strategy, in which it could contribute further to advancing transgender people's human rights.
A 2013 Pew Research Centre report investigates the divide in attitudes across the world, illustrating how (non‑)acceptance of homosexuality correlates with factors such as age, gender and religiosity. Pew has also explored divides in attitudes to transgender issues. Reference to LGBTI rights meets with particularly strong resistance when it takes place in the context of laws on marriage or family. This is illustrated by the fierce opposition and mass protests in France sparked by the law of May 2013 that granted same‑sex couples the right to marry and jointly adopt children. Similar opposition has been expressed by a number of different religious authorities.14
Further reading
- Altan, L., Lawlor, N., Stokenberga, L., Maillart, I. and Proli, P., Implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, complementary impact assessment of the proposed horizontal directive on equal treatment, EPRS, European Parliament, 2014.
- Brink, M. v. d., Timmer, A., Dunne, P. and Burri, S., Trans and intersex equality rights in Europe: a comparative analysis, European network of legal experts in gender equality and non‑discrimination, European Commission, 2018.
- Chopin, I. and Germaine, C., A comparative analysis of non-discrimination law in Europe 2020, European network of legal experts in gender equality and non‑discrimination, European Commission, 2020.
- de Groot, D., Bans on conversion 'therapies': The situation in selected EU Member States, EPRS, European Parliament, 2022.
- de Groot, D., Free movement rights of rainbow families, EPRS, European Parliament, 2023.
- Eisele, K., The 2020-2025 LGBTIQ equality strategy: Implementation overview, EPRS, European Parliament, 2023.
- European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, A long way to go for LGBTI equality, 2020.
- Kogovšek Šalamon, N., Mapping of studies on the difficulties for LGBTI people in cross-border situations in the EU, European Commission, 2019.
- Tryfonidou, A., Cross-Border Legal Recognition of Parenthood in the EU, Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, European Parliament, 2023.
- Tryfonidou, A. and Wintemute, R., Obstacles to the Free Movement of Rainbow Families in the EU, Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, European Parliament, 2021.
Endnotes
Classification
Policy areas: Gender Issues, Equality and Diversity
Regions: European Union
Committees: Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM)
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