The ILGA European LGBT Equality map for 2013 has just been released and the UK is still the best place to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans, scoring a whopping 77% on the scale in terms of human rights and equality.
Taking account of equalities legislation, familial rights, hate crime legislation, legal gender recognition, freedom of assembly and the granting of asylum, the UK beats the rest in spite of plans to kick the public sector equality duty into the long grass. The passing of the first phase of the same sex marriage bill will undoubtedly have helped.
Belgium and Norway are the second and third best places to be LGBT, according to ILGA, scoring 67% and 66% respectively. Last year Germany and Spain came joint third.
Spain and Portugal remain high at 65%, with France shooting up the scale to 64% due to its equal marriage legislation. France’s figure would be higher were it not for the violence that resulted from the recognition of same sex marriage. Germany by contrast has dropped from second to twelfth, with only 54%. This is thought to be a result of its failure to adopt hate crime legislation, joint same-sex parent adoption and Angela Merkel’s shunning of equal marriage laws.
In the former western Europe, Italy remains a basket case at 19%, with no registered or civil partnerships, no hate crime legislation, no laws to protect LGBT employees and a ban on same sex adoption. Only San Marino and Monaco fare worse.
Of the former eastern countries, Hungary leads at 55% in spite of a rise in nationalism and homophobic crime, with Croatia and the Czech Republic close behind. Albania has shot up the scale thanks to its anti-discrimination legislation, adopted in the past year, to 38%.
Russia is at the bottom of the table with 7%, falling one place behind Azerbaijan and Armenia, with whom it drew last year, as a result of its anti homosexual propoganda bills and the rise in hate crime. ILGA describes it as a place where there are “gross violations of human rights”.
To see the map go here