Support the European LGBTI movement

Advancing LGBTI equality: the best response to backlash!

“Despite intense anti-LGBTI attacks, equality is still advancing across Europe.” Launched in May, the findings in our Rainbow Map show that political determination to advance LGBTI rights is paying off in the midst of rising polarisation and violence of the public discourse. The largest gains on the map are for countries that introduced legal gender recognition using a self-determination model and those that introduced bans on intersex genital mutilation.

Giving the EU LGBTIQ Strategy a political boost. At the Swedish EU Presidency High Level Conference on LGBTI Equality, we shared our assessment of the implementation of the EU LGBTIQ Equality Strategy, giving clear recommendations on how the EU Commission and the Member States can live up to their political ambition.

Making European institutions work for LGBTI people at country level

Groundbreaking support to the infringement against Hungary. In April, the hard work we’ve been doing behind the scenes for the last two years culminated when 15 EU countries joining the legal case against Hungary’s anti-LGBTI law. Approved on 2021, the law prohibits the portrayal of LGBTI people in media and educational material addressed to minors. This is a violation of human rights and an infringement of EU law, says the European Commission, and the EU member states will be joining the lawsuit.

Another important European judgment on right to family. In a ruling published on 23 May, the European Court of Human Rights found that Romania breached the right to respect for the family life of 21 same-sex couples by failing to recognise their relationships. ILGA-Europe had supported the work led by Romanian LGBTI organisations by providing third-party submissions jointly with partner organisations.

The leverage of EU Accession. In April we launched our LGBTI Enlargement Review with a renewed format and now covering ten countries, after EU membership prospects were given to Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in 2022.  We have also been directly supporting the advocacy work of organisations in Ukraine on the adoption of same-sex partnership recognition.

EU Study visit with Turkish LGBTI activists. As part of our advocacy work to EU institutions, in May we organised a study visit with some LGBTI activists from Turkey, who met with Members of the European Parliament, and other key stakeholders in Brussels. In the face of anti-LGBTI backlash, as seen in the recent attacks on Prides in Turkey, it is essential to bring the realities and needs from the ground to decision-makers in Europe. 

Data to support evidence-based policy 

Intersections Data. We continue the publication of our Intersections reports series, deep-diving into the experiences of LGBTI people in the European region. Since March we have zoomed in on intersex experiences and on older LGBTI people’s experiences. Check out our previous reports and learn about the project here!

More and more resources going to the movement

Resourcing the movement. Since January we have awarded over 1.56 million Euro to LGBTI activists, in total 43 grants averaging 24,576 Euro. By the end of the year we expect to award 2 million Euro in grants. Thank you to all our donors who make it possible for us to provide financial support to frontline activists when and where help is most needed. 

Combining strengths in our country-based regranting. A significant part of our regranting is directed towards supporting national LGBTI groups, through a combination of multi-year grants to larger organisations and opportunity grants to support more focused and practical change initiatives and groups who respond to more specific needs of the community. Beyond funding, all our grantees receive learning support.

The example of Poland – While at the moment our country-specific work covers around 10 countries, the open call for Polish organisations recently launched is a good example of this approach: Polish LGBTI groups who lacked resources to implement ideas of how to bring concrete positive change had the chance to apply to our programme. We’ve received 12 applications with very interesting proposals, including some involving rural areas. Starting in September, six groups with an opportunity-based project will come together for over 18 months. We will support their work through funding, coordination and learning.

Boosting LGBTI activists’ skills. Alongside our rapidly-growing re-granting work, we continue to offer practical support to equip activists with new tools and knowledge. This spring we hosted two new Skills Boost sessions, one on effective fundraising campaigns and another on data visualisation.

Links:

• Find out what's behind the Rainbow Europe Map
• Listen to the ILGA-Europe Frontline podcast