International

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Europe has a new best country for LGBTQ+ rights

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ILGA Europe has published its annual Rainbow Map and LGBTQ+ rights index, and Spain has now claimed the number one spot for the most LGBTQ+-positive laws and policies. Spain displaced Malta from the number one spot, a position that Malta had held for the last 10 years. ILGA explained in its report that, “Spain’s rise to the top reflects a combination of achievements, including a fully functioning depathologization 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 […]

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13-year-old Russian kid prosecuted for “LGBT propaganda” after he shared a video he found online

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Police in Russia charged a 13-year-old schoolboy for “LGBT propaganda” and displaying “extremist” symbols in May, after he shared an unidentified video with his classmates, and their parents complained, Mediazona reports. His identity was withheld to protect his privacy. Any number of symbols associated with LGBTQ+ identity are now classified as “extremist” in Russia, including rainbows. The designation came into effect with the Russian Supreme Court’s determination in 2023 that the so-called “international LGBT movement” is an “extremist” organization and now banned in the country. “He wasn’t trying to spread propaganda. He doesn’t even know what that is,” a lawyer representing the schoolboy told Mediazona. […]

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Iceland ranks top in 2026 map of most trans-friendly countries in Europe

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A new 2026 ranking of the most trans-friendly countries in Europe and Central Asia has been released, and Iceland has come out on top. The annual Trans Rights Index and Map, which comes from Transgender Europe, documents the protections and opportunities available for trans and non-binary people within each European and Central Asian country. It comes in partnership with ILGA Europe’s Rainbow Map and is co-funded by the European Union. The index scores countries in a number of different indicator categories, includingLegal Gender Recognition, Asylum, Hate Crime/Speech, Non-Discrimination, Health and Family. Iceland scored 30 out of 32, with full marks in all but two categories. […]

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Russian woman sentenced to forced labour for writing gay K-Pop fan-fiction

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A woman in Russia has been sentenced to 18 months of forced labour for “illegal production and distribution of pornographic materials”, after she admitted to writing gay fan-fiction about K-Pop group Stray Kids. Alexandra Kuzyk, a 36-year-old photographer and stylist, published fan-fiction depicting same-sex romance, which a mother subsequently found on her daughter’s device, according to KP-Yekaterinburg. The case was launched in 2025, with prosecutors initially seeking a four-year prison sentence, as people in Russia continue to live under the country’s extreme laws. Kuzyk admitted that she had written the fan-fiction. She told the court that it was a longtime hobby. She was sentenced to 18 months […]

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Japan takes major step to officially recognise non-binary identities

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Japan has taken a landmark step towards non-binary legal recognition. The Osaka High Court ruled on 8 May that the country’s family registration system, the koseki, a mandatory national record-keeping system tracking births, deaths and marriages, violates Japan’s constitutional equality protections by only offering “male” and “female” as gender options. The case was brought by a 50-year-old non-binary resident of Kyoto Prefecture, who petitioned to change their designation of “eldest daughter” to a gender-neutral term in the koseki. While the court stopped short of granting the individual request immediately, it ruled that the absence of a nonbinary gender marker option should be […]

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REPORT: Israel Sees Sharp Rise In Anti-LGBTQ Violence

Ynet Global reports: A report published Sunday by the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel presents an unusually severe picture of anti-LGBTQ hatred in 2025, warning that online abuse is increasingly spilling into public spaces and turning into physical attacks, some of them allegedly carried out by organized groups. According to the report, at least one physical assault against an LGBTQ person occurs in Israel every week. Physical attacks accounted for half of all reported public-space incidents this year, a sharp rise from 32% in the previous report. Cases of extortion and threats also climbed dramatically, from 3% of reports last […]

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School celebrates as SCOTUS rejects forced outing case: “The good guys win, and truth prevails”

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The Supreme Court rejected a couple’s appeal on Monday in a case seeking to limit trans students’ rights in schools.  January and Jeffrey Littlejohn sued Florida’s Leon County School District in 2021 after claiming that school officials met with their child and created a support plan for trans/nonbinary students — in accordance with district policy — essentially “forcing” her child to be “a trans boy” without first consulting her. Littlejohn claimed that school officials discussed restrooms and name-change requests with their child without parental consent.  Anti-LGBTQ+ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) invoked the Littlejohns’ story as inspiration for signing the state’s Don’t Say Gay […]

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Man in critical condition after suspected homophobic assault in Bristol city centre

A man is in critical condition after a suspected homophobic attack in Bristol city centre. Emergency services were called to St Nicholas Street in the early hours of 24 April, where a man in his 30s was found unconscious with serious facial injuries. He was taken to the hospital, but his condition later deteriorated. Police say he is now in a critical but stable condition. Avon and Somerset Police are treating the incident as a hate crime and are searching for a group of three or four men believed to be responsible. The suspects reportedly fled on foot before leaving the […]

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European Parliament adopts measure to ban conversion therapy

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The European Parliament voted in favor of a ban on conversion therapy this Wednesday. The demand is now being sent to the European Commission for a response. The move comes after the European Citizens’ Initiative successfully petitioned the European Parliament to take up the issue. Starting in 2024, the ECI gathered over 1.2 million signatures from EU citizens to ban conversion therapy. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) held a debate on the matter earlier this week, which resulted in the committee adopting two opinions, one calling for stronger enforcement of the EU’s LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026–2030 and the […]

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Under New Extremism Laws, LGBTQ Russians Must Fight to Survive

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Natalia Soloviova always knew she was putting herself at risk. As the chair of the Russian LGBT Network, the largest queer advocacy group in the country, she had spent years preparing detailed security protocols for what she would do if the government came after her.  But it was still a nasty shock when she had to use them. In November 2023, almost two weeks before Russia’s supreme court would designate the “international LGBT movement” as an extremist organization, Soloviova’s heart sank when she watched Channel One, a state-funded TV network, air a reportabout her organization. They flashed her and her colleagues’ […]

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