United Kingdom Falls Several Places in Annual Ranking of LGBTQ+ Rights in Europe

Rainbow Europe has released its annual ranking of countries based on LGBTQ+ rights, and after a significant drop for the United Kingdom last year, the decline has continued. Initially in 10th place in 2021, the UK fell to 14th place in the 2022 ranking and has fallen even further to 17th place in this year’s results.

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The Rainbow Europe Map was set up as a way to analyze the state of LGBTQ+ equality across Europe. It is released annually, around IDAHOBLIT (the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia and Transphobia), with a complete list and full report detailing their findings. Ranking all 49 countries on a scale from 0% (highly discriminative) to 100% (full equality), each entry is rated based on laws and policies and the social climate.

The ranking is ultimately based on the analysis of the following 7 categories.

- Equality and non-discrimination

- Family

- Hate crime and hate speech

- Legal gender recognition

- Intersex bodily integrity

- Civil society space

- Asylum

The 2023 data shows that Malta takes the top spot, with a rating of 89% with regards to achieving success in the seven categories. Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Iceland make up the rest of the top 5. The bottom five countries in the Rainbow Europe Map are currently Belarus, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan (which has a rating of 2%).