2024 LGBTQ rights global update: Some progress, some setbacks in Europe

Fifth in a series of updates about LGBTQ rights internationally, region by region

LGBTQ rights journalist Rob Salerno, an editor for Erasing 76 Crimes, surveys the status of LGBTQ rights and marriage equality in this series, which started with overviews of the Caribbean, Central America and South America.; Africa; Asia; and Oceania/Australia. (Click here to subscribe to his LGBTQ Global newsletter.)

Ana Brnabic, Serbia’s lesbian prime minister, resigned in 2024. (Houses of the Oireachtas photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Southeastern Europe

Greece: One of the biggest surprises of the year came from Greece, where newly reelected Prime Minister Mitsotakis fast-tracked his promise to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption within the next four years and actually got it done by February. The law also ended “forced divorce,” which previously required trans people to divorce their spouse if they wanted to legally change gender. Together with several other reforms over the past decade, Greece has quickly shot up the rankings of ILGA’s Rainbow Equality Map of Europe module – it’s now tied with Finland for sixth, behind only Malta, Iceland, Belgium, Spain, and Denmark.

The marriage law hasn’t come without controversy. Various far-right and religious leaders have condemned it, and the far right party surged during EU Parliament elections, leading Mitsotakis to slow down progressive reforms (he’s a conservative, by the way, which likely has mitigated some of the blowback). A constitutional court challenge of the law has been filed, but I think it’s unlikely to go anywhere.

But Greece becoming the first Eastern Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex marriage has inspired activists in other parts of the region.

Cyprus: I would have thought that Greece’s legalization of same-sex marriage would have sparked debate on the issue in Cyprus, at least on the Greek section of the island, though not one the breakaway Turkish sectors. But after an initial campaign from the country’s main advocacy group Accept LGBTI, there hasn’t been much news on the subject. The president has previously expressed support for equal marriage, though. The government has instead focused on creating a national LGBTI rights strategy to bring the country in line with EU standards. It also stiffened penalties for hate speech against LGBT people from a €5,000 fine to €10,000.

There was also talk that the government would bring forward legislation to update and simplify the legal gender recognition process, but that hasn’t happened from what I’ve seen.

In the breakaway Northern Cyprus, the biggest development was that the mayor of the capital Nicosia Mehmet Harmanci participated in the annual Pride parade for the first time. There was no progress made on resolving the five-decade-old dispute, in part because of developments in…

Türkiye: The narrow reelection of President Erdogan after he and his party campaigned hard against LGBT rights and “the West” was certainly not a good sign for peace or tolerance in the region.

LGBT organizations and Pride events faced crackdowns in 2024, and a film festival in Istanbul was cancelled after censors banned the film Queer from screening.

Erdogan has held a hardline stance on reunification of Cyprus, fueled strife in Syria and Libya, rattled sabers with Greece, and dragged out Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession until this year, all of which has put the country at odds with the EU. In addition to the deteriorating human rights situation, the country’s ambitions to eventually join the block remain effectively dead.

Albania: There was little progress on LGBT issues, although a lesbian couple staged a symbolic wedding in Tirana.

In September, Prime Minister Rama proposed creating a new “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” within Tirana, a sort of Vatican City for an Islamic sect. The proposal hasn’t really gone anywhere amid opposition from the public and some religious leaders. It would require a 2/3 majority in Parliament to amend the constitution to create it, and then recognition from other states, none of which has voiced support.

Kosovo: The government failed to pass its long-promised civil code reform, which would have legalized civil unions and opened the door to equal marriage. The Council of Europe punted its decision on allowing Kosovo to join.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: The EU agreed in principle to open accession talks with Bosnia, but it must meet certain criteria first.

Serbia: Ana Brnabić, Serbia’s longtime openly lesbian prime minister, resigned amid anti-government protests; she became president of the parliament. She had been PM since 2017.

The government says its still considering civil union legislation, first proposed in 2019, but has offered no timeline.

Serbia’s EU integration track seems to have stalled amid clear democratic backsliding.

Bulgaria: A major setback occurred in August, when Parliament passed an “LGBT propaganda” law banning discussion of LGBT issues in schools. Parliament has been basically deadlocked for years as successive elections, including two in 2024, yield no stable majority coalitions. But this was something they could apparently agree on.

Bulgaria joined the Schengen area, deepening its EU integration, although land borders will persist for at least another six months. Bulgaria also plans to adopt the Euro, but the changeover date keeps being pushed back – it’s now planned for Jan 2026 at the earliest, although that still has to be ratified by parliament.

Romania: Romania lost a case at the EU’s top court, which ruled that EU members must recognize any legal gender change performed/recognized in any other EU member state. The ruling impacts the entire bloc. But Romania has been known to ignore LGBT rights rulings, including an earlier one establishing that EU members must grant residency to same-sex spouses of EU citizens.

Romania has been under a political crisis after what appears to be a massive Russian influence op threw parliamentary elections and the first round of the presidential election to a relatively minor pro-Russian far-right extremist party. The constitutional court nullified the presidential election, which has yet to be rescheduled. The upshot is that the other person who advanced to the second round of the original election was progressive who’s moderate on LGBT rights. We’ll see if she continues to have success whenever the election happens.

Romania joined the Schengen area with the same limitations as Bulgaria. It has no immediate plans to adopt the euro.

Croatia: Multiple “outing” scandals this year, as the president outed an opposition cabinet minister, and Zagreb Pride outed ten politicians.

Croatia’s Oscar submission this year is a historical gay epic set in a communist-era prison colony. I haven’t seen it yet.

Montenegro: Nothing new to report, but I will note that ILGA seems to have recalibrated its map module so that Montenegro no longer outranks places like France and the UK on LGBT rights. EU accession is slowly simmering in the background, but the country’s apparent tie to Serbia in negotiations seems to be holding it back.

North Macedonia: Bulgaria is still blocking the beginning of accession talks with the EU over arcane concerns about the constitutional status of the Bulgarian minority and language.

Eastern Europe

Czechia: Czechia ended a long-running debate on same-sex marriage with a disappointing compromise that appeared to leave activists and lawmakers equally stunned. Instead of passing equal marriage, civil partnerships were instead enhanced to be equal to marriage in all aspects except joint adoption; step-child adoption will be allowed. The law comes into force on Jan 1, 2025. It’s possible that the question gets revisited after parliamentary elections expected in October.

Shortly after the bill was signed into law, some senators proposed a law that would criminalize same-sex couples creating a child through IVF. The bill is unlikely to go anywhere.

In May, the constitutional court ruled that surgical and sterilization requirements for trans people to change their legal gender are unconstitutional, giving parliament until June to change the law.

The government also ended discrimination against gay/bi blood donors in July.

Slovakia: Most of the news in Slovakia was about the incredibly homophobic government directly attacking LGBT rights and expression.

The Russia-allied government has proposed bills inspired directly from the Kremlin, including a “foreign agents” law and an “LGBT propaganda” law, both of which are intended to shut down political expression it doesn’t like.

Members of the government have been called out for disrupting plays with gay themes and threatening the national theatre over gay-themed work. The minister of culture was investigated for hate speech after she spouted a bunch of racist and homophobic shit in an interview. And the government revoked citizenship given to the husband of a male Slovak national.

A case filed in 2023 by legislators asking the constitutional court to find the government’s refusal to recognize same-sex couples unconstitutional has not advanced.

Poland: The new coalition government of Donald Tusk has basically failed to deliver on its promises to the LGBT community this year, amid disagreements between coalition members. In the fall, a civil union bill was finally introduced, though debate in parliament has not yet begun. It’s still a question whether President Duda, an ally of the previous anti-LGBT government, would sign the bill if it passes. The next Presidential election is expected in 2026.

Tusk also finally approved of a hate speech bill that would include protections for LGBT people in November, but it hasn’t been brought to Parliament yet. This bill was part of the coalition agreement, so it ought to be easier to get through.

The last of the “LGBT-Free Zones” passed by local councils during the previous administration was finally repealed in February.

Estonia: Same-sex marriage became legal on Jan 1, 2024, the first post-Soviet country to legalize it.

Estonia also ended discrimination against gay/bi blood donors in March.

The coalition government has so far been unable to come to agreement on a proposed LGBT-inclusive hate speech law.

Latvia: A civil union law passed last year came into effect in July, after opponents failed to collect enough signatures to force a referendum on it.

Lithuania: It was mostly a year of setbacks. A civil union bill that required only one final vote to pass stalled after various parties couldn’t come to agreement, and the supposedly left-leaning opposition refused to support it supposedly out of spite for the government. That party then won elections in October and is now in a coalition with a far-right party, so it’s unlikely the bill will pass soon.

Another government bill to repeal an old “LGBT propaganda” law failed in parliament largely for the same reasons, but in December, the constitutional court gave us a reprieve by ruling the law unconstitutional.

Hungary's homophobic Prime Minister Viktor Orban: losing support? ( Elekes Andor photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) — Hungary’s homophobic Prime Minister Viktor Orban: losing support? ( Elekes Andor photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Orbán_Viktor_Wikimedia Commons 2024 by Elekes Andor

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Hungary: Hungary’s own LGBT Propaganda law faced a hearing at the European Court of Justice in December; the court has not yet issued a ruling.

Hungary’s rabidly anti-LGBT PM Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party appear to be rapidly losing support amid multiple sex and corruption scandals, although elections aren’t scheduled until 2026.

Belarus: In April, the Ministry of Culture expanded the definition of pornography to include any portrayals of LGBT people. Production, distribution, and possession of pornography is criminal in Belarus.

Belarus’ basic dictatorship is set to continue with President Lukashenko expected to run for a seventh term in 2025. The last election was marred by widespread vote rigging and massive protests.

Moldova: The country overcame a massive Russian influence operation to narrowly reelect its pro-Western President Maia Sandu and to pass a referendum enshrining the country’s goal of EU accession into its constitution. Moldova was also scheduled to fully leave the Russia-led Commonwealth of Independent States by the end of 2024; I can’t find any confirmation that’s been made official yet.

The breakaway republic of Transnistria, which is essentially a Russian puppet, has come under increasing strain this year as the war in Ukraine has cut off its traditional trade routes and gas supply. Sandu appears to want to peacefully reincorporate the territory, but this problem has been intractable for decades.

Ukraine: The ongoing war remains a major human rights and security crisis. Reelected President Trump has pledged to end the war on day one – lord only knows how.

In the meantime, Ukraine has made little progress this year on a civil partnership bill; it passed through the health committee, but is now stuck in the legal committee.

Ukraine ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Fellow homophobes: Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov (left) shares a laugh with Russian President Vladimir Putin (File photo courtesy of The Telegraph)

Russia: Russia remains the biggest crisis country for LGBT people in Europe. In March, the government added the “international LGBT movement” to its list of “terrorist” or “extremist” organizations, following a ruling by the supreme court to that effect last year. That’s led to an increase in raids and crackdowns on LGBT clubs and organizations.

Russia has also actively intervened in elections around the world to promote extremist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-democracy, and pro-Russia candidates, particularly in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Georgia, across the Sahel, and, ahem, the United States.

President Putin won reelection after killing or barring all his opponents from running against him.

Georgia: Georgia’s democratic backsliding continued as the Russia-influenced Georgian Dream party passed a “foreign agents” law meant to crack down on opposition voices and media, and then a sweeping package of anti-LGBT bills that banned same-sex marriage and adoption, banned portrayals or discussion of LGBT people in media, and banned gender transition. The bill was passed while the opposition were boycotting parliament.

National elections in October were widely denounced as fraudulent, but Georgian Dream has clung to power and proposed draconian laws to crackdown on nationwide protests that have continued since.

The entire situation has essentially frozen Georgia’s bid for EU accession, only months after it was approved to begin negotiations by the EU.

In the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, essentially a Russian puppet, authorities recently proposed an “LGBT propaganda” law.

Armenia: Armenia continued its slow drift out of Russia’s orbit, as it announced it was considering applying to join the EU and was planning to formally leave the Russian NATO, the CSTO, having already suspended participation. Joining the EU would be incredibly difficult for Armenia, as it’s surrounded by hostile countries and 1,000 kms away from the nearest EU country.

Central Europe

Liechtenstein: One of the biggest developments came from one of the smallest countries, as Liechtenstein finally fully legalized same-sex marriage – taking effect January 1. Liechtenstein is the last German-speaking country to legalize same-sex marriage, and depending on if you count Nepal, is either the 37^th or 38^th country to legalize it worldwide. Adoption was already legal.

Switzerland: Next door, the terminally slow legislative process did not yield any major advances at the national level, but the cantons of Valais and Vaud banned conversion therapy, bringing the total to three. Bans are also under consideration in Zurich and Geneva. A national ban was rejected by parliament, which wants the government to finish researching the issue before taking action.

The European Court of Human Rights rapped Switzerland for attempting to deport a gay Iranian refugee on the basis that he’d be safe as long as he was discreet/closeted.

Austria: The far right FPO came first in parliamentary elections, but all other parties refused to cooperate with them, so grand coalition talks are ongoing between the mainstream right and left groups. Progress on LGBT issues, like a proposed conversion therapy ban, is unlikely to advance in this environment.

Germany: The government passed a gender self-determination law in April, ending forced sterilization and medicalization of trans and nonbinary people.

Late in the year, the government fell, triggering early elections in February 2025. Polling currently suggests the right-wing CDU will win, with the far-right AfD coming in second.

Slovenia: In December, the Constitutional Court ruled that laws barring single women and lesbian couples from accessing assisted reproduction are unconstitutional and gave Parliament one year to fix them. The government welcomed the ruling, so this should be fixed early in 2025.

Western Europe

Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meets with President Biden in 2023. (Photo courtesy of the White House)

Italy: On the other hand, the far-right government of PM Georgia Meloni took steps to ban same-sex parenting in Italy. First, the government banned listing same-sex parents on birth certificates and forcibly withdrew birth certificates that had been issued by local authorities in some cities. Then, the government criminalized surrogacy, in a move that is widely perceived as targeting gay male couples. This comes even as support for same-sex marriage and adoption has hit record highs according to polls.

Italy, San Marino, and Monaco are now the only countries without equal marriage in Western Europe.

Meloni also allegedly demanded that references to LGBT rights be removed from this year’s G7 communique.

The region of Apulia (the heel of the boot) passed a local LGBT anti-discrimination law, bringing the total to 9/20 with similar measures.

Martinique : Christian lesbian finds growing acceptance

Vatican City: The Pope taught us all a new word, frociaggine.

Malta: Parliament passed a law allowing non-binary options on government ID.

Netherlands: The biggest news here was the Kingdom’s Court of Cassation ruling that Aruba and Curacao were required to allow same-sex marriage. That leaves only Sint Maarten where equal marriage is not (yet) the law.

The government ended a deferral period for blood donations from men who have sex with men at the beginning of 2024.

A proposed ban on conversion therapy stalled this year, despite polls showing wide support for it. The government formed over the summer following last fall’s elections is a largely right-wing coalition that includes the far right, so don’t expect much progress over this term.

Belgium: Parliament passed first-in-the-world legislation granting sex workers real employment rights, including insurance, pensions, and maternity leave.

Luxembourg: The government’s own review of its progress on LGBT rights found that it needed to do more work on trans rights in particular. We’ll see if any progress turns up in 2025.

France: Gabriel Attal briefly became France’s first openly gay and youngest ever prime minister, but he resigned after his party lost snap parliamentary elections called after the far-right National Rally came first in EU elections. The elections turned quite nasty, with President Macron briefly wading into dealing in anti-trans nonsense. France’s parliament has been in chaos since, split in three factions that basically refuse to work with each other.

But earlier in the year, France amended its constitution to protect abortion rights. The lower house of parliament also passed a bill to compensate victims of historical anti-gay laws, but it hasn’t yet cleared the senate. Broadly, the senate wanted to apologize to victims but not compensate them.

The senate passed a bill that would ban medical gender care for trans minors, but the bill went nowhere in the lower house and is opposed by the government.

First lady Brigitte Macron was awarded €8,000 in damages after a court found two women guilty of slander for calling her trans on YouTube.

Monaco: The country’s top court upheld the state’s ban on recognition of foreign same-sex marriages, overturning two lower court decisions.

Shortly after, the country’s first LGBT advocacy group, Mon-Arc-en-Ciel, was formed specifically to push for advances on recognition of couple and family rights. The country’s human rights commissioner submitted several reports to the government calling on it to amend regulations to enhance LGBT couples’ rights in accordance with European case law, although she stopped short of calling for equal marriage or other legislative changes.

There appeared to be some indignation in the national press at Monaco’s consistently low ranking on ILGA Europe’s Rainbow Map. It appears at least one legislator is prepared to act, and she’s proposing some form of recognition of foreign marriages, and possibly inheritance rights.

Portugal: A law banning conversion therapy, which was passed last year, came into effect in March. The country also ended a ban on trans people and people living with HIV serving in the military.

Spain: The constitutional court spiked a sweeping anti-LGBT law passed by the Madrid region’s right-wing/far-right coalition government. In response, the government introduced a new bill to “clarify” the law, by basically abandoning it.

The constitutional court also upheld the legality of local governments flying Pride flags from public buildings.

The current left-leaning national government proposed a series of constitutional amendments to guarantee abortion rights and LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage, but these are unlikely to gain the required supermajorities in parliament to pass.

UK: What a year it’s been in the UK.

Anti-trans hysteria has not abated and may have even become more mainstream in the wake of Labour’s landslide election victory that ended 14 years of disastrous Conservative Party rule.

Usually, we expect Labour to be more LGBTQ-friendly than the Conservatives, but one of their first initiatives on this file was to indefinitely extend a ban on hormonal treatments for youth gender care brought forward by the Conservatives in line with the controversial Cass Review that was released earlier in the year. They’ve promised that the ban is only meant to last through a scientific review of the treatments that they plan to initiate next year, but that’s not terribly promising.

Labour has promised to finally introduce a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban that languished for years under the Conservatives. They launched consultations on the bill in July. The planned bill would apply across England, Scotland, and Wales. In Northern Ireland, the Assembly called on the executive to bring forward a conversion therapy ban bill, and when it didn’t, a legislator introduced a bill in December.

Before Labour took office, the Conservatives banned sex education in schools in England for children under 9.

The Church of England began performing same-sex marriages this year, following a vote last year.

In Scotland, a hate crime and hate speech law that was passed in 2021 came into effect in April.

Some developments in UK territories and dependencies:

The Isle of Man banned conversion therapy in March, as part of a new sexual offences law that was approved back in 2021.

Jersey passed a law that will provide for automatic parenting recognition for children of same-sex couples. It also announced it was considering a pardon and compensation scheme for men convicted under historic anti-gay laws and began drafting hate crime legislation.

Gibraltar codified the rights of same-sex couples to adopt – they’ve been legally able to since a 2013 court ruling, but even though the territory has equal marriage, the adoption law wasn’t amended. The government also announced it was considering adding “gender identity” as a protected category under hate crime legislation.

Ireland: Parliament passed the country’s first hate crimes law but refused to make amendments to existing hate speech law to include protections for “gender identity.”

Openly gay Prime Minister Leo Varadkar resigned from office in April. He had been the highest or second-highest person in government since 2017.

Norway: A law banning conversion therapy came into effect Jan 1, 2024. The government had planned to end discrimination against gay and bi blood donors this year, but in February announced an indefinite deferral of the new policy.

Denmark: Denmark ended discrimination against gay/bi blood donors in July; now all donors are screened for risky sex practices without discriminating between gay and straight anal sex. The government also announced a suite of proposed legislative and policy changes to help LGBTQ people start families, including revisions to parenting and inheritance laws to recognize non-biological parents and facilitate assisted reproduction.

Greenland’s parliament passed a Law on Equal Treatment and Anti-Discrimination in May, prohibiting all discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, [and] gender characteristics.” The law also creates an Equal Treatment Board to manage discrimination complaints and an Equality Council to promote non-discrimination.

Sweden: In April, Sweden passed a controversial gender reform law. The new law lowers the age at which legal gender can be changed without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from 18 to 16, though 16-17-year-olds must still have parental consent. The law still limits some forms of sex reassignment surgery to those 23 and older, but is seen as a liberalization of the gender change process, which was previously onerous and could take up to 7 years.

Sweden was finally able to join NATO this year, after a long blockade by Hungary and Türkiye was finally brought to an end.

Finland: A citizen’s initiative to ban conversion therapy has stalled in parliament, because half the governing coalition is made up of far-right parties opposed to LGBT rights. Earlier in the year, Finns voted for a conservative for president over his openly gay rival, 52-48.