As the rules-based international order fractures and democracy is under pressure from east and west, Spain‘s top ranking in ILGA-Europe‘s Rainbow Map of 49 countries on LGBTI human rights laws and policies stands as proof that political courage remains the most powerful answer. Belgium retains its score of 85% but falls to forth in the ranking, due to Spain’s rise. This shift highlights Belgium’s stagnation and the government’s lack of action.

Published today, ILGA-Europe’s 18th annual Rainbow Map, ranking 49 European countries on laws and policies impacting LGBTI people, ends Malta’s ten year reign with Spain taking the top position. 

Spain’s rise to the top reflects a combination of achievements, including a fully functioning depathologisation of trans identities in healthcare, new legal protections, new national LGBTI and trans strategies, a new independent equal treatment and non-discrimination authority, and a determined fightback against far-right attempts to dismantle national trans protections.

Spain’s number 1 ranking is more than a measure of policy progress. At a moment when authoritarian forces are pressing in on European democracy from east and west, and when LGBTI rights are being heavily weaponised as a political tool, Spain’s forward momentum is a good example of what democratic leadership can look like.

Yet a top ranking on the Rainbow Map measures laws and policies, not lived reality. In Spain, as elsewhere, the gap between legal progress and daily experience remains stark. Assaults against LGBTI people in Spain have risen from 7% to 22% in just two years, driven by a climate of hate speech that emboldens violence against vulnerable groups.

According to Deputy Director of ILGA-Europe, Katrin Hugendubel: “Spain’s number one ranking is a strong example of what becomes possible when a government makes a deliberate choice to advance equality rather than retreat from it. We see this same spirit in leaders like Zohran Mamdani in New York, who are refusing to bow to the authoritarian pressure of this moment and choosing instead to stand with their communities. Of course more needs to be done

in Spain, but this is a reminder that political courage is a choice, and that governments who make it can effectively push back.”

Trans progress

While anti-trans hate is rising and many countries are undermining trans rights, this year’s Rainbow Map shows that courts are holding the line and eight countries are at least moving in the right direction even if the real legal reform is still missing. 

Albania (up two places to number 24), introduced new legislation saying discrimination based on gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation constitute gender based discrimination. 

In Czechia (up four places to  number 26), and Latvia (up two places to  number 32), legal gender markers can now be changed without sterilisation. Other countries are holding the line, while preparing the ground for necessary laws. 

Austria (remaining at  number 16) introduced alternative gender markers for non-binary people, while in Croatia (one place up to  number 19), and Poland (remaining at  number 39), the administrative measures for legal gender recognition have been improved. 

Sweden is the only country to have introduced new legislation on legal gender recognition. While the reform is welcome, it still falls short of a self-determination model and continues to pathologise trans identities.

The wider picture

Beyond the scope of the Rainbow Map, but also showing leadership, are institutional directives and judgements, including the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issuing key judgements on trans rights and recognition of same-sex marriage across European Union member states over the last year, and just last month ruling that Hungary’s 2021 ‘anti-LGBTI propaganda’ law breaches Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU), which enshrines the Union’s fundamental values, as well as multiple EU directives, and several provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

In October 2025 all 46 member states of the Council of Europe adopted the first comprehensive international legal instrument specifically dedicated to the human rights of intersex persons. 

But while some countries and courts show positive leadership, across the continent, a number of damaging developments are taking shape. 

In Albania, a referendum threatens to repeal the new gender equality law, its opponents framing it as an attack on traditional family values. 

In Belarus, a new anti-LGBTI propaganda law modelled on the Russian version carries criminal sanctions. 

Germany has declared its LGBT action plan complete despite significant implementation gaps.

Italy‘s new security law contains provisions that risk curtailing freedom of assembly, including Pride marches. 

Portugal has advanced legislative drafts that would severely roll back protections for trans and intersex people. 

Slovakia has introduced constitutional amendments defining sex as immutable and assigned at birth, making legal gender recognition impossible and restricting legal parenthood to a mother and father. 

In Turkey, there is an alarming escalation in attempts to roll back rights, with draft legislative amendments in process, an adopted rollback on access to trans-specific healthcare, the dissolution of an LGBTI youth organisation, and a sharp increase in criminal lawsuits against LGBTI activists. 

Russia remains last in the ranking, where attacks on LGBTI human rights continue to escalate. For the first time, LGBTI organisations are being designated “extremist”, exposing those who work for or engage with them to significant risks of criminal liability.  

Katrin Hugendubel concluded: “This year’s Rainbow Map tells two stories at once. One of genuine courage, in Spain, in courtrooms, and in leaders who are choosing to stand with their communities rather than scapegoat them. And one of real and growing danger that cannot be underestimated. The question every government in Europe must now answer is which story they want to be part of.” 

Executive Summary

The Rainbow Map, ILGA-Europe’s annual benchmarking tool, ranks European countries on their respective legal and policy practices for LGBTI people, from 0-100%.

Produced since 2009, the Rainbow Map sets standards for laws and policies that have direct impact on the human rights of LGBTI people. 

ILGA-Europe examine laws and policies in 49 countries using 76 criteria, divided between seven thematic categories: equality and non-discrimination; family; hate crime and hate speech; legal gender recognition; intersex bodily integrity; civil society space; and asylum. 

The 76 criteria under seven categories make up 100 points in total and they are attributed different weights based on international human rights standards and the LGBTI movement’s priorities.

ILGA-Europe collect and verify a complex set of legal data, through a consultation process involving our member organisations and more than 200 country experts across 49 countries. You can go ‘behind’ the points and see original information sources, download data sets and visuals, and compare countries on our interactive website.

This year’s results

• The top five countries on the 2026 ranking: 1. Spain, 2. Malta, 3. Iceland, 4. Belgium, 5. Denmark.
• The bottom five countries on the 2026 ranking (in descending order): 45. Armenia, 46. Belarus, 47. Turkey, 48. Azerbaijan, and 49. Russia.

Further data

• Spain reaches the top of the ranking for the first time, replacing Malta after 10 years in the lead. 
• Sweden moves up three places and takes the 9th spot in the ranking.
• The average score for Europe is 43%, while the average EU score is 52%.
• Belarus drops one place in the ranking and is now 46th out of 49 countries.
• Russia has been at the bottom of the ranking since 2024.
• Romania drops one place and is now 42th out of 49 countries, making it the EU country with the lowest score. 

LGBTQIA+ and travel

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• RAINBOW EUROPE MAP AND INDEX 2024 | These are the LGBTQIA+ friendly and LGBTQIA+ unfriendly countries in Europe.
• Belarus adopts sweeping anti-LGBTQIA+ information law, joining global crackdown on queer rights, criminalises “promotion” of homosexuality, gender transition, and childlessness.
• EU Court rules Hungary has to strike down its anti-gay propaganda law.
• ILGA-Europe: Criminalisation of LGBTI people returns to Europe’s doorstep.
• Alarming escalation in repression of LGBTI+ activists in Turkey: court rulings and prosecutions raise serious concerns.
• SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2026 | Belgium among the world’s safest destinations.
• Senegal doubles prison sentences for gay sex amid rising homophobia.
• Malaysia, which outlaws gay sex, blocks access to Grindr and Blued.
• BELGIUM | Safer in theory, harsher in reality: violence and polarisation mark 2025 for LGBTQIA+ people.
• Europe reaches new low as LGBTQIA+ people face renewed criminalisation.
• SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2024 | Malta, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal the most gay friendly destinations; Belgium now 21st.
• SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2025 | USA and Eastern Europe under observation.
• 2025 | 65 countries where gay sex is illegal.
• ILGA-EUROPE | New era of coordinated attacks on foundations of Fundamental Rights, as EU bins Equal Treatment Directive.
• West of Ireland to host EuroPride 2028.
• GRINDR UNWRAPPED 2025 | Belgium and the Netherlands still love twinks, Taipei’s popularity rises.
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• The best cities to visit as a gay solo traveller.
• EUROPEAN UNION | Pride events do raise awareness for LGBTQIA+.
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• Mr Gay Europe 2026 contest to cruise with VACAYA at summer’s end.
• How gay friendly are trending travel destinations Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina with Republika Srpska, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine?.
• ILGA WORLD | Despite more legal protections for LGBTI people, stark opposition has been a recurring theme in debates in every UN member State.
• Spartacus Travel Awards pinpoint Brussels and Taiwan as top LGBTQIA+ destinations.
• Pride movement in Europe expecting increased hostility.
• QUEER ANDORRA | Entre Nous, the only gay bar in the village.
• Europeans more accepting of LGBTQIA+ people than their political leaders.
• Queer Iceland & Rainbow(baiting) Reykjavík.
• Heading for the sun in gay destination Torremolinos.
• Manchester’s gaybourhood around Canal Street.
• 13 US states still officially punish gay sex.
• Sang Young Park, an insight on queer life in South Korea.
• Pride in Valladolid, Yucatán and queer encounters in Mexico.
• FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | Eye-opening encounters in Miami.
• FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | Key West.
• FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | Fort Lauderdale.
• FLORIDA SOLO ROAD TRIP | National Pulse Memorial and Museum in Orlando.
• Queer in a hostile world: more likely to be arrested for looking gay than for actual homosexual acts.
• Travel guide for people with HIV.
• LGBTQ+ get-together on Majestic Princess.
• HOW TO | Travel to the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Gays failing at being gay? ‘LGBTQ Mix & Mingle’ on Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas lacked enthusiasm.
• Gay Tel Aviv: pinkwashing or genuine?.
• To be or not to be out and proud LGBTQ when travelling?.
• A plea for LGBTQ travel in post-communist Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
• Gay Taipei with misterb&b.
• VIDEO | Looking for intimacy in a crowd of strangers in Japan and South Korea.
• Are you travelling to a hostile destination?.