Over the past five years, social acceptance of LGBTIQ+ people has grown across the European Union, with approximately 75% of people expressing comfort in having gay, lesbian, or bisexual colleagues. Despite this progress, LGBTIQ+ individuals continue to face high levels of hate, violence, and discrimination, with around one in three reporting experiences of discrimination in the past year. To address these ongoing challenges, the EU has launched its LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy for 2026–2030, building on the previous 2020–2025 strategy and aiming to mainstream LGBTIQ+ equality across all EU policies.
The strategy focuses on protecting LGBTIQ+ people from harm. It introduces measures to tackle hate-motivated harassment and violence, including a new action plan against cyberbullying and the creation of a knowledge hub to gather intelligence on illegal hate online. It also reinforces protections against discrimination by ensuring the enforcement of relevant EU laws and continued funding for civil society organizations defending LGBTIQ+ rights. Additionally, the strategy addresses conversion practices, which attempt to forcibly change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, by analyzing these practices and considering appropriate legislative measures, including potential European Citizens’ Initiative action to ban them.
Empowerment of LGBTIQ+ people is another key pillar. The strategy emphasizes strengthening equality bodies to effectively promote LGBTIQ+ rights, supporting rainbow families through the Recognition of Parenthood proposal, and enhancing workplace inclusion by collaborating with the EU Platform of Diversity Charters to support LGBTIQ+ employees.
The strategy also seeks to engage society to advance LGBTIQ+ equality. It calls on all EU countries to adopt national strategies or action plans for LGBTIQ+ equality, improves data collection and analysis to better understand real-life experiences of LGBTIQ+ people, and launches an “LGBTIQ+ Policy Forum” to provide a direct platform for civil society to exchange views with the European Commission. In addition, the Commission will publish a report on the implementation of employment equality rules in 2026 and provide new guidance on inclusive hiring practices to ensure continued progress.
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