By Leo Varadkar, Senior Fellow (2025-26)
The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to encourage debate on important public policy challenges.
The idea of individual rights goes back a long way in Europe. In the thirteenth century, rebellious English barons forced King John to agree to the Magna Carta, a charter limiting his power to tax them and establishing in law rights to a trial by jury, habeas corpus and protection against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. In 1789, amid the French Revolution, the National Assembly in Paris adopted the “Declaration on the Rights of Man and of the Citizen’’ establishing that rights were natural, universal and inalienable. Among the rights were liberty - the freedom to do anything that does not harm another, equality before the law and freedom of speech as well as religion. Of course, they were not fully or faithfully vindicated. Women were excluded from political rights and slavery, initially abolished was later re-instated. And rights were suspended in times of “emergency”. Nonetheless, they established a template for others to follow and develop.
In modern times, European-wide rights have been defined by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Charter on Fundamental Rights. The ECHR came into force and operates under auspices of the Council of Europe, not the European Union. Therefore, it applies to non-members of the European Union as well as members, 46 countries it total. It is adjudicated on by the European Court on Human Rights in Strasbourg. Among the rights protected are the right to life, liberty, security, a fair trial, private and family life, freedom of religion, expression and assembly. In my country, Ireland, the ban on homosexuality was challenged in the Court in 1988 by our first openly gay parliamentarian, Senator David Norris. He succeeded in establishing his right to a private life had been infringed and the Irish parliament was forced to change our national laws and decriminalised homosexuality in 1993 to bring Ireland into compliance with the Convention. It probably would have happened anyway but at a much later date. I was in high school at the time. In recent years, some countries have stalled or delayed acting on rulings of the court. And the Convention has been a target of anti-migration campaigners and politicians who have argued it has made deportations too hard to carry out. However, it remains unlikely any country will withdraw from the Convention. Amendments are possible.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union came into force in EU member states in 2009 following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. It applies when EU law is being implemented and is enforced by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg. It goes beyond the ECHR into areas such as workers rights, social security and access to healthcare. Crucially, it does not apply to everything a member state does rather to the institutions of the EU itself and when member states are implementing EU law. This boundary is often litigated.
The last quarter of a century has seen a revolution in LGBT+ rights in Europe. Despite all our troubles, there has never been a better time to be queer and there is no better place than Europe. Though, notably, more progress has been made Western and Northern European Countries than in Central and Eastern Europe.
Marriage equality is a good proxy for the extent to which equal rights are extended to gay and lesbian people. At the turn of the century, no EU country allowed same sex-couples to get married. The Netherlands became the first in 2001. By 2024, there were 16 with Greece being the most recent to do so and the first majority orthodox country. Since then progress stalled and it seems unlikely of any of the remaining 11 EU member states in the near future although, following a decision of the Court of Justice of the EU, European rules on freedom of movement will require more member states to recognise foreign partnerships. That will make reform more likely. Ireland recognised foreign divorces before providing for them domestically. It gave rise to an unusual situation in which people who could afford to, could get divorced overseas. Italy, Cyprus, Czechia and Latvia recognise civil unions but not marriage. Interestingly, opinion polls indicate majority public support for marriage equality in Italy, Poland, Czechia and Hungary. However, there is no majority in their parliaments to do so or in the case of Poland, it would face a Presidential veto.
Despite all our troubles, there has never been a better time to be queer and there is no better place than Europe.
When it comes to recognising trans-rights, 9 EU countries allow self-identification with Germany being the most recent to do so in 2024. Self-determination is a good proxy for the extent to which trans people are accepted and recognised for who they are. The other member states require medical or psychological assessments, waiting periods and court procedures. In 2020, Hungary effectively banned legal gender recognition by means of a constitutional amendment stating that sex at birth cannot be changed. This was a step backward. There followed ‘don’t say gay laws’ preventing children from being made aware of LGBT people and relationships.
The decision to ban Pride in Budapest and that of a quarter of a million people to defy it made international news last summer. I was present for the human rights conference in the days leading up the Pride march. It felt like a turning point in that LGBT allies showed up to support the community in huge numbers for the first time. Indeed, many travelled from other parts of Europe determined to demonstrate that Hungarians as EU citizens had treaty rights and freedoms their national government could not extinguish. If a government can ban Pride after thirty years, people believed students, trade unions, women, the opposition might be next. Queer Hungarians were supported by their families. Others felt it had echoes of restrictions on freedom in communist times. While the Pride parades went ahead in Budapest and other cities, the organisers now face prosecution including a number of mayors.
There have been other backward moves. In 2024, Bulgaria passed a law banning the portrayal of LGBT identities in educational institutions. Having visited Bulgaria in the summer of 2025, I know that it is not expected that there will be many or any prosecutions but there is a real chilling effect. Teachers in same-sex relationships are afraid to talk about their personal or family life in schools, gay and lesbian students are afraid to come out. Some of the politicians I spoke to were reluctant to vote for it but felt under pressure to do so for fear of being misrepresented and demonised by right wing nationalist parties aligned with Russia. The influence of Russia is keenly felt in this region and it is clear that President Putin’s co-option of so-called traditional family values and his affinity to the Russian Orthodox church is part of a wider political play to sow division in European societies and between Eastern and Western Europe. The decision of the U.S. administration to pull back from DEI and basic LGBT+ rights is very much felt on the ground in Eastern Europe and has resulted in U.S. companies and employers dialling down their interest and commitment. In these countries, signalling from Washington DC and corporate board rooms of America really matters. Up until now, American ideas of freedom and democracy counter-balanced Russian ideas of tradition and control. Not so anymore. I wonder how many people voting in swing states in U.S. elections realise the extent to which their vote impacts on the lives and future prospects of young LGBT people in other countries. I wonder do they care or even if they should.
I wonder how many people voting in swing states in U.S. elections realise the extent to which their vote impacts on the lives and future prospects of young LGBT people in other countries. I wonder do they care or even if they should.
Last September, following elections which returned a right-wing nationalist Government to office, the Slovakian parliament narrowly passed a constitutional amendment limiting legal recognition two only two sexes and restricting adoption to straight married couples. The government only succeeded in getting it through with help of some pro-EU centre-right members of parliament who crossed the floor to vote for it in a pattern similar to that of Bulgaria.
Visting Brussels in my capacity as a Harvard Fellow, I was able to discuss many of these issues with activists working on a European level and also with the European Commission. The European Commission’s LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-30 reinforces that discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited under EU law. The strategy disappointed activists but the fact there is one and that it is part of the Commission’s work plan is welcome. I do not think we will see such strategies from the United States or China anytime soon.
There is some cause for hope. The Hungarian Government is likely to have to deal with an imminent CJEU ruling on its ‘anti-LGBT propaganda law’. The Court’s advocate-general has already found it infringes the EU’s fundamental values and it is expected the Court will concur. Parliamentary elections in Hungary in April could be very significant should it result in a defeat for right-wing nationalist Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party at the hands of Peter Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party. It will move Hungary out of alignment with Russia and back towards the European centre. While it would be unrealistic to expect any rapid leap forward in LGBT+ rights in Hungary, bans on Pride are likely to be lifted, ‘don’t say gay’ laws softened or repealed and freedom of assembly and expression restored. Bulgaria’s law could also be challenged on similar grounds.
In February, the European Parliament passed a landmark resolution that, while non-binding, formally declared that ‘trans women are women’. What’s striking was the margin with 340 votes in favour to 141 against. While some of the toxicity around the trans debate has spread from the U.S. and UK into mainland Europe, it is not as divisive or charged in non-anglophone countries. Indeed, Belgium recently had a trans Deputy Prime Minister which caused little concern or controversy.
Progress is not inevitable and history tells us that it is not irreversible.
With clear majorities in opinion polls for marriage equality in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic we should not believe that Greece will be the last EU country to recognise sex-marriages. There will be more in time.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr famously said that the arc of the moral universe may be long but it bends towards justice. I believe that to be true. But someone needs to bend it. It won’t do so on its own. Progress is not inevitable and history tells us that it is not irreversible. The Irish orator, politician and lawyer John Philpot Curran is credited with saying that ‘the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’, the battle will never be fully won and so the fight must go on and so it does in Europe.
lenaivanova2311 | Adobe Stock
