How is LGBTIQ equality progressing across Europe amidst rising hostility? The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2024) reveals a paradox: while openness has increased, hate-motivated violence, harassment, and severe hardship persist.
Findings from FRA’s third LGBTIQ survey—one of the largest of its kind worldwide—show that despite years of legislative, policy, and advocacy efforts across the EU, member states, and civil society, equality remains precarious. Positive indicators emerge in gradual declines in discrimination since the baseline 2012 survey, greater openness regarding sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics, increased comfort holding hands in public, and more supportive classroom environments.
However, these gains stand in stark contrast to widespread backlash. Everyday harassment, anti-LGBTIQ online disinformation, school bullying, and hate-motivated violence are sharply increasing, predominantly occurring in public spaces. The survey notes that trans and intersex people, LGBTIQ individuals with disabilities, and those experiencing unemployment or belonging to minorities endure the most severe adversity, including restricted healthcare access, financial distress, homelessness, and harmful conversion practices. The human toll is alarming: more than one in three respondents reported experiencing suicidal thoughts in the past year, with rates climbing even higher among trans women and trans men.
Warning that faltering on current commitments risks unraveling decades of hard-won progress, the Agency stresses that EU institutions and member states must actively lead by example. The report calls for urgent measures to expand social safety nets, safeguard vulnerable youth, and secure the fundamental dignity and safety necessary for all LGBTIQ individuals to live openly and participate fully in society.
Learn more about this survey report here:
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. (2024). LGBTIQ equality at a crossroads: EU LGBTIQ Survey III. Publications Office of the European Union. https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2024-lgbtiq-equality_en.pdf