In 2015 the UK was at the top of the European Rainbow Index, we were leading the entire continent for our progressive ideals, the action we were taking to make life for the queer community better, and were the envy of other nations. It was a time where LGBTQ+ people felt more hopeful, where it felt like the historic hatred and oppression we'd been subjected to was going to be a thing of the past and future fights for our equality would be easier. However, just a decade later the UK has been relegated to 22nd place on this list, and not because we've stayed consistent and other countries have out paced us, but because we've become one of the leaders for rolling back LGBTQ+ rights, protections, and representation in Europe.
The Rainbow Index is compiled by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association Europe (ILGA-Europe) each year, and tracks the various laws and legislations of 49 countries to see how LGBTQ+ they are, ranking them based upon the freedoms, equality, and safety of its queer population. 2025 marks the UK's lowest point on this ranking system, with us having fallen from 16th to 22nd place in just a single year.
The UK's score on the Rainbow Index now sits at 46%, with the top countries ranking much higher, Malta at 89%, Belgium at 85%, Iceland at 84%, Denmark at 80%, and Spain at 78% make up the top five countries. The UK has also fallen dramatically on the Trans Rights Map, created by Trans Europe and Central Asia (TGEU), which has said that the reversal on trans rights in the UK outweighs its progress.
The ILGA spoke on the UK's shocking fall, saying that the recent UK Supreme Court judgement on the Equality Act 2010 in regards to sex specifically referring to sex assumed at birth, and the subsequent rollbacks on trans rights and push for segregation for trans people in multiple spaces across the country, was one of the key reasons for the fast fall. It is worth noting, however, that the UK has been falling on the chart each year even before this event, and that we've been becoming poorer on LGBTQ+ rights for a long while now.
A. Chaber, the Executive Director for ILGA, said 'If left unchallenged these tactics risk spreading further across Europe, undermining a human rights framework that has taken decades to build. 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. Political leaders must lead by example and turn their words into action.'
TGEU added that 'Previously a frontrunner on equality, the UK now has a Supreme Court, Prime Minister, and equality body singing from the same hymn sheet as anti-trans campaigners. The UK Supreme Court’s decision, which defined a ‘woman’ for the anti-discrimination law, has severely undermined legal certainty for trans people. Furthermore, it has reinforced privacy risks and exclusion from essential services such as hospital wards, public toilets, changing rooms, and refuges, as well as reception centres for asylum seekers.'
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| Kier Starmer at London Pride; all political parties have been banned from major Pride events thanks to his government's actions against LGBTQ+ rights. |
The Prime Minister mentioned in their statement is the Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who had previously said that he believed trans women were women, but has appeared to have either lied on those occasions, or has chosen to throw the trans population under the bus in order to advance his party's popularity with anti-trans campaigners after saying that the UK Supreme Court decision brought 'much needed clarity' in regards to trans rights. Following his decision not to challenge this ruling or alter legislation to provide much needed protection to trans people multiple Pride events have banned all political parties from attending them, citing Starmer's betrayal of the trans population as a reason. Starmer has also received sweeping condemnation in the UK this very week, after an anti-immigration speech that mirrored Enoch Powell's famous 'Rivers of Blood' speech from the 1960's.
Speaking about the UK government's refusal to support trans people, ILGA said 'Trans people may now be legally treated according to their sex assigned at birth in critical areas of life, including access to services and protections from discrimination. Legal gender recognition must ensure that trans people are recognised in all areas of life. That is no longer the case in the UK. As a result, we removed all points related to legal gender recognition from this year’s ranking. The law now fails to universally recognise trans people as who they are, with serious consequences for their safety, dignity and equality.’
As well as the reduction in trans rights and protections, the UK lost points for failing to ban conversion therapy, a form of torture that is used to attempt to 'cure' queer people of their sexualities and gender identities if they fail to alight with those of the cisgender heteronormative majority. The UK was also heavily criticised for its ban on puberty blockers for transgender youth. The Labour government banned the use of puberty blockers for trans people in 2024, claiming that it was a dangerous practice; despite this claim puberty blockers are still used to treat cisgender children with precocious puberty, which seems to indicate that they are in fact not actually dangerous to children. The UK's decision to remove trans healthcare from young people came following the Cass Report, a document that has been heavily criticised, and has been cited as 'riddled with flaws' following heavy peer review.
The UK's treatment of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers was also a key point of concern for ILGA. The index referenced media investigations into how the Home Office has a history of rejecting asylum applicants for not being 'truly gay', including cases where judges have claimed people are trying to fake being gay to escape persecution and claimed that applicants didn't act gay enough for the judges to believe them. Despite only making up 2% of asylum claims, queer asylum seekers having their claims rejected has risen to as high as 78%, an increase in previous years 58%.
The UK in 2015 feels like a different country to the one that we have now. As an openly queer trans woman I felt a lot of hope in 2015. My life had been through some massive changes that year, not all of them good. I lost my job through transphobic discrimination, I left my home town because I'd been repeatedly verbally and physically assaulted for being trans. But I moved to a nicer place, I found better, more accepting places to work, I started living as my true self full time, and I started a relationship that I've been in ever since. I was filled with hope because despite the darkness things seemed to be getting better. Trans people were making headlines for positive reasons, transphobes were treated as fringe bigots, and we were top of the Rainbow Index.
But I don't recognise my country now. In the last month I've been stripped of rights and protections, I've seen places call for trans people to be segregated, the government has refused to help, racists and transphobes are given airtime and treated as reasonable positions. We're living in a much darker world now, every marginalised group are suffering for it. All we can do is fight this every step of the way, and maybe then we'll prevent things from getting even worse.
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