Equality advocacy organisation, ILGA-Europe, has released its tenth annual review, in which it found there is an increasing level of hostility towards the continent’s LGBTQ+ community, as far-right politicians continue to push anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. The report says: “The trend of politicians verbally attacking LGBTQ+ people has grown considerably and spread widely, while many religious leaders have directly blamed LGBTQ+ people for Covid-19.”
It also suggested that several countries are ‘following in the footsteps’ Poland and Hungary, which are becoming increasingly dangerous for the LGBTQ+ community. Executive director of ILGA-Europe, Evelyne Paradis, said: “Our Annual Review shows that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted all of the gaps in terms of lived realities of LGBTQ+ people across Europe. LGBTQ+ organisations have had to skew their work towards provision of basic necessities like food and shelter as many governments left LGBTQ+ people out of their relief packages; and there has been a resurgence of authorities and officials using LGBTQ+ people as scapegoats while authoritarian regimes are empowered to isolate and legislate without due process.”
Katrin Hugendubel, ILGA advocacy director, added that despite the ‘worrying’ trends, the EU is cracking down on homophobia and transphobia in Europe: “In this worrying context, it was important in 2020 to see the European Commission resetting its commitment to protect and advance LGBTQ+ rights with the EU LGBTQ+ Strategy 2020-2025, and the Commission President finally finding very clear words condemning persistent discrimination and ongoing attacks on LGBTQ+ people. These are steps in the right direction, but they need to be followed by similar actions at national level, and the Strategy needs to be meaningfully implemented.”