ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Map has some headscratching findings

A happy for Nepali lesbian couple who were denied marriage license

IGLA-Europe released its annual “Rainbow Map” module tracking LGBT rights progress across the continent yesterday, along with a press release that paints a worsening forecast for queer rights across the continent.

I’ve been critical of this module in the past, so I’ll start with a compliment this time. The idea to allow users to track the module by category and issue, with different maps for each one, is a great step to improve transparency in how ILGA is rating the countries. It makes it much easier to figure out which countries are doing what.

Still, there are some headscratchers here.

ILGA has to use some kind of cut-off for when new developments will apply to the map, but it appears to be kind of arbitrary. The UK Supreme Court decision on gender from April 16 has caused the UK to lose a bunch of points, but the Lithuania Constitutional Court’s decision to create civil unions on April 17 has not netted that country any points. (By contrast, Latvia’s civil union law helped it rise four spots in the rankings).

I don’t think I’m being cynical to suggest that the UK court decision was included in this year’s chart to better fit ILGA’s narrative. It appears that ILGA has also somewhat overdetermined what the court ruled. That decision found that trans women are not considered “women” under the narrow confines of how the Equalities Act reserves certain spaces and privileges for “women.” Trans people can still change their legal gender and enjoy nondiscrimination protections under the act. But ILGA now says the UK lacks *any* legal framework for recognizing legal gender, lumping the UK into an exclusive club that only includes Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia, and Hungary – this is a big part of why the UK has fallen to 22^nd this year – it was first in the rankings just 15 years ago.

Also odd, Georgia, once again near the bottom of the rankings, received points for having “no obstruction on freedom of association,” even though the country has enacted laws banning foreign-funded NGOs and specifically targeting LGBTQ advocacy.

An annual oddity with the rankings is that countries that have full same-sex marriage rights are penalized if they don’t also continue to offer one or more other, lesser forms of civil partnership or cohabitation. This statistical oddity affects almost every equal marriage country in the rankings, which seems to be backward.

As always, the Rainbow Map is useful as a quick visual reference tool, but take its findings with a grain of salt. There were actually huge gains across Europe last year too.

And now, the rest of the world

Nepal: The lesbian couple who were denied a marriage license and then forcibly separated by police last month have been granted a marriage registration. Hopefully this helps make the next marriage registration go smoother.

Taiwan: Legislators have introduced bills that would open assisted reproduction to single women and lesbian couples. Currently, only married heterosexual couples can access it.

India: The Supreme Court has directed the national government to seek expert opinion on removing the ban on LGBTQ people donating blood.

Ireland: The country has celebrated “around 6000” same-sex marriages since they became legal following a referendum in 2015.

Kenya: An MP says he intends to bring forward a law that would criminalize LGBTQ advocacy and stiffen penalties for gay sex. It’s unlikely that criminalizing advocacy would stand up in court.

Trinidad & Tobago: An open letter calls for enshrining LGBTQ rights into the constitution.

In Memoriam

Uruguay: Former President Jose Mujica passed away Tuesday at the age of 89. The icon of the Latin American left instituted major reforms during his tenure, including legalizing same-sex marriage in 2013.

Meanwhile, in the States

Democratic representatives are calling on RFK and the Trump administration to save the LGBTQ suicide hotline.

Colorado: Governor Polis has signed into law a voting rights bill that includes protections to ensure LGBT people are not disqualified from voting by local policies.

Florida: A federal appeals court has upheld a preliminary injunction against the state’s law banning drag performances.

Montana: A court has struck down the state’s law banning gender care for trans youth as unconstitutional.

Texas: The state house gave final passage to two anti-trans bills yesterday. One amends child abuse law to state that misgendering or deadnaming a child is not considered abuse; the other aims to make gender transition care more expensive by requiring insurers to cover unlimited liability for gender care. The former goes to the senate, and the latter to the governor.