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With today’s publication of the 2026 Rainbow Map & Index by ILGA-Europe ahead of IDAHOBIT on 17 May, the European umbrella organisation once again assesses the legal and policy situation of LGBTIQ+ people across 49 European countries. While Spain takes the top spot for the first time and several countries have made progress particularly in the area of trans and intersex rights, ILGA-Europe simultaneously warns against increasing backsliding and political attacks on queer rights across Europe.
Luxembourg remains in 10th place in this year’s ranking. For Rosa Lëtzebuerg, however, this result does not reflect sustainable progress or stabilisation, but rather illustrates the ongoing political stagnation that has persisted for years. After ranking third in 2021, Luxembourg has continuously dropped in recent years and once again remains outside the leading group of European countries.
As the national representative organisation of the LGBTIQ+ community in Luxembourg and a member of ILGA-Europe, Rosa Lëtzebuerg once again contributed to the development of the Rainbow Index this year. By providing and verifying information on the legal situation in Luxembourg, the organisation helps ensure that developments in the Grand Duchy are accurately reflected within the European comparison.
Rosa Lëtzebuerg explicitly welcomes the work carried out by the Ministry for Gender Equality and Diversity and the responsible minister Yuriko Backes in the drafting of the new National LGBTIQ+ Action Plan (PAN). In particular, the stronger focus on cultural visibility, awareness-raising and the social participation of queer people sends an important signal and addresses many of the community’s concerns.
At the same time, however, Rosa Lëtzebuerg notes with concern that several key demands directly affecting the everyday lives of many LGBTIQ+ people are not, or are no longer, sufficiently reflected in the current PAN. At a time of growing attacks on queer rights across Europe, symbolic visibility alone is not enough — concrete legislative progress is equally necessary.
Rosa Lëtzebuerg therefore continues to stand by its longstanding demands and calls on the government to finally implement the measures already announced in the coalition agreement in a consistent and timely manner.
These include in particular:
- banning so-called conversion practices,
- ensuring automatic co-parent recognition regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation or gender identity,
- prohibiting medically unnecessary interventions on intersex children without their informed consent,
- fully depathologising trans identities and removing psychiatric assessment requirements from access to gender-affirming healthcare and transition-related procedures,
- as well as adopting a more determined political approach regarding access to family formation and reproductive rights for queer people, in light of the constitutional protection of these rights.
“Luxembourg still benefits from comparatively strong legal foundations in the European context. However, other countries continue to move forward while Luxembourg has postponed essential reforms for years. If Luxembourg truly wants to live up to its claim of being an open and inclusive country, it now needs political courage and concrete progress instead of further delays,” Rosa Lëtzebuerg states.
The full 2026 Rainbow Map by ILGA-Europe is published today and provides a detailed overview of the legal and policy situation of LGBTIQ+ people across Europe.