LGBTQIA+

The European Commission released its new EU Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030, setting the course for EU gender policy over the next five years. While the previous strategy (2020–2025) brought progress in several areas, it struggled to effectively address the rise of anti-gender ideologies and integrate gender equality across broader EU policy frameworks. In recent years, the growth of far-right and anti-feminist movements across Europe has highlighted the urgent need for a more comprehensive and resilient approach to defending gender equality and democratic values. In this context, we discussed on 19 March 2026 the new EU Gender Equality Strategy and our newly published report 'Defending Equality in an Age of Democratic Decline – Reframing Europe’s Gender Equality Strategy for 2026–2030' with its author Rémy Bonny (Forbidden Colours) and MEP Alexandra Geese (Greens/EFA), moderated by Louise Mollenhauer (Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung EU | Global Dialogue).

The European Commission’s new LGBTIQ+ Equality strategy for 2026-2030 puts equality back on the agenda – but for Rémy Bonny, Executive Director at Forbidden Colours, it comes too little, too late. As Europe faces a coordinated anti-gender movement importing authoritarian narratives into the EU, he warns that “a few nice words won’t stop that.” Joan Lanfranco asked him where the EU needs to show real political courage, how it can counter disinformation and violence, and why defending LGBTIQ+ rights has become a test of Europe’s democracy itself.

Viktor Orbán scored a major “own goal” by banning Pride celebrations in Hungary, to summarize what happened in his political vocabulary, provoking Hungary’s biggest-ever Pride in Budapest, resulting in 200,000 participants and a strong sense of demanding political regime change in the country.

Katrin Köppert takes a new look at the explainability of AI systems, through a queer perspective. Queersplaining means not only explaining AI, but also revealing the inherent contradictions and power structures. An explainability that does not support the illusion of a universal solution, but recognises the complexity and context dependency of AI.

This year’s Rainbow Map by ILGA-Europe, published at a time when Europe is gearing up for 20-plus elections, including the EU elections next month, shows that while authoritarian leaders across the region continue to use the scapegoating of LGBTI people to divide and mobilise their electorates, others are conversely showing robust political will to honour commitments to advancing and protecting the human rights of LGBTI people. Joan Lanfranco asks 3 questions to Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director at ILGA-Europe.

The rise of Spain's far-right Vox party is exploiting fears of migrants and unaccompanied minors, but civil society is fighting back with pro-migrant legislation and efforts to preserve historical memory against Francoist nostalgia, as well as LGTBI rights.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Government, in power since 2010, has systematically curtailed LGBTIQ+ rights. Hundreds of such parents have adopted children with their same-sex spouses or partners, have given birth to children themselves or have availed themselves of surrogates to have their own genetically-related offspring. This article offers a glimpse into the lives of two such families in Hungary.

Since 2010, the Hungarian Government has been advocating for a conservative, restrictive notion of the family. The Ninth Amendment of the Fundamental Law led to the adoption of the so-called ‘child protection’ law (also referred to as the ‘anti-LGBT’ or propaganda law). This article tells the story of a successful advocacy campaign against these developments.

The EuroPride 2022 fiasco shows us one thing: Serbia will not become part of the EU under President Aleksandar Vučić. The EU must face the cultural war in the Western Balkans head on, tackle disinformation and take Serbia’s EU accession seriously.

Where do we want to go as a society? This question, but above all the answer to it, depends not least on our perspective on the world and on how we ourselves are affected by discrimination. In short: the answers we find are also identity politics. With this page we want to create a contribution to the introduction to the topic of identity politics: What does the term actually mean? What is currently being discussed? Where we want to head as a society?

More than 50 people were injured in attacks on journalists and civil society in Tbilisi in early July 2021 in connection with Pride Week. The German Federal Government and the EU should strongly urge their Georgian partners to address the violence through prompt and comprehensive legal and political action. 

2020 was expected to be the feminist super year - the anniversaries of the UN Resolution on "Women, Peace, and Security" and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action were supposed to be celebrated, and discussions about the lack of their implementation to be held. Instead, this became the year that, according to UN Women, would destroy 25 years of feminist achievements.

The Hungarian government has received international criticism over a new law that bans the depiction or promotion of homosexuality to those under the age of 18. Andrea Pető argues that the law may well prove to be a miscalculation by the country’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.

The increasing data-driven nature of societies raises concerns about how to prevent data misuse and abuse that may harm individuals and communities, particularly marginalized groups. A feminist critique of the model law on data protection of the Southern African Development Community and the EU’s GDPR, however highlights the dangerous gaps that place women and gender-diverse people at risk.

Hungary voted for a bill originally intended to enhance the protection of children and tighten sanctions against pedophile offenders, though introducing an explicit, harsh ban on the "portrayal and the promotion of gender identity different from sex at birth, the change of sex and homosexuality" for persons under the age of 18. What led to the scapegoating of the LGBTQI community?

The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union and Washington, DC offices hosted a transatlantic online discussion that addressed discrimination of LGBTIQA+ and racial groups through content moderation. Amid the EU discussion on the draft Digital Services Act (DSA) and of the US debate on reforming Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, the event presented the e-papers "The state of content moderation for the LGBTIQA+ community and the role of the EU Digital Services Act" by Christina Dinar, and "Algorithmic misogynoir in content moderation practice" by Brandeis Marshall.

Queer feminism allows us to understand that patriarchy harms all of us and only an intersectional approach enables collective liberation and working together in solidarity. Queer resistance can also be fun - and sometimes a dandy outfit is enough to make patriarchy shake. We talked to Yvee Oduor about activism and mobilization of genderqueer people in Kenya.

The queer community is not free from exclusions and the fight for resources.. Class plays as much a role as ideas about femininity and masculinity. Black trans*women from rural areas, who are often poor, face particularly strong discrimination. Therefore, the queer community itself must address its own internalised prejudices, distorted perceptions, and exclusions. A conversation with Seoketsi Mooketsi (Seopowerr).

Across Europe and beyond, actors on the nationalist right are instrumentalising the concept of gender for their own political gains. In Poland the incumbent right-wing Law and Justice party, backed by the Catholic Church, demonised LGBT organisations in its recent successful electoral campaign.