The UK is now second-worst country for LGBTQ+ rights in western Europe

Once hailed as a trail­blaz­er for LGBTQ+ rights in Europe, the UK has slid to 22^nd place in the lat­est ILGA-Europe rank­ings – a dra­mat­ic fall from its num­ber one spot just a decade ago. 

The Rain­bow Europe Map and Index – pub­lished annu­al­ly by ILGA-Europe – eval­u­ates the legal and pol­i­cy land­scape for LGBTQ+ peo­ple across 49 Euro­pean coun­tries. This year, the UK scored just 46%, mak­ing it the sec­ond-worst per­former in west­ern Europe and Scan­di­navia – ahead of only Italy.

The decline is being attrib­uted in large part to last month’s Supreme Court rul­ing, which inter­pret­ed ​“sex” in the 2010 Equal­i­ty Act as strict­ly bio­log­i­cal, effec­tive­ly exclud­ing trans peo­ple from pro­tec­tion under the law. For leg­is­la­tion relat­ing specif­i­cal­ly to the recog­ni­tion of gen­der iden­ti­ty, the UK now ranks 45^th – down with coun­tries like Hun­gary, Geor­gia, Bul­gar­ia, and Russia.

• Read next: Lon­don Trans+ Pride is break­ing records

In 2015, the UK topped the index with an 86% rat­ing. Since then, it’s been on a slow but steady decline. This year alone, the UK dropped sev­en spots.

“The time to push back is now, before the tar­get­ed attacks we’re see­ing in coun­tries like Hun­gary, the UK, and Geor­gia become the norm rather than the excep­tion,” said ILGA-Europe’s exec­u­tive direc­tor, Chaber.

While Scotland’s recent intro­duc­tion of the Hate Crime and Pub­lic Order Act added some pro­tec­tions, its effect on the over­all UK score was min­i­mal due to lim­it­ed jurisdiction. 

A spokesper­son for TGEU, the Euro­pean trans­gen­der rights net­work, said the UK now has a Supreme Court, a prime min­is­ter, and an equal­i­ties watch­dog ​“singing from the same hymn sheet as anti-trans campaigners.”

• Read next: Meet the trans-led hair­dressers pro­vid­ing Lon­don with gen­der-affirm­ing trims

They added that the Court’s deci­sion not only strips trans peo­ple of legal cer­tain­ty but also opens the door to dan­ger­ous exclu­sions – from hos­pi­tal wards and pub­lic toi­lets to refugee shel­ters and oth­er essen­tial spaces.

Rebec­ca Don Kennedy, chief exec­u­tive of the Equal­i­ty Net­work, called the drop ​“shame­ful”, stat­ing: ​“For our treat­ment of trans peo­ple after the Supreme Court rul­ing, we are now known as one of the worst coun­tries in Europe. The UK must do better.”

Vic Valen­tine of Scot­tish Trans echoed the alarm: ​“From the out­side, the UK is viewed as a cau­tion­ary tale of how things can go back­wards rather than forwards.”

Mal­ta con­tin­ues to lead the index with a score of 89%, fol­lowed by Bel­gium, Ice­land, Den­mark, and Spain. Oth­er nations now above the UK include Fin­land, Ire­land, Croa­t­ia and Estonia.

The mes­sage from LGBTQ+ advo­cates is clear: progress is not per­ma­nent, and rights can be erod­ed if left unguard­ed. ​“This isn’t inevitable,” said Valen­tine. ​“Gov­ern­ments can – and must – act to reverse this decline.”

Ella Glos­sop is Huck’s social lead. Fol­low her on Bluesky.

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