Ireland has ranked 14th highest in Europe for its laws and policies affecting LGBTQ+ people. The ranking is a result of ILGA-Europe’s 18th annual Rainbow Map, which was published on Tuesday, May 12.
A total of 49 countries were analysed as part of the report, at a time of increased political uncertainty surrounding LGBTQ+ rights. Each nation is given a score between 0% to 100%, using data verified by over 250 experts across the region, including activists, legal professionals and policy specialists. However, it should be noted that laws and policies do not always reflect lived realities.
While Ireland’s ranking did not change from 2025, the nation did lose points overall, dropping to 61.34% from 63%. It performed highly in categories including Civil Society Space, Family and Legal Gender Recognition, but received 0% in the area of Intersex Bodily Integrity, as well as a low score in Equality and Non-Discrimination.
In order to improve the legal and policy situation for LGBTQ+ people in Ireland, ILGA-Europe specifically recommends depathologising trans identities and improving access to healthcare; ensuring legal gender recognition is accessible to all; and prohibiting medically unnecessary interventions on intersex minors.
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Speaking about this year’s Rainbow Map, CEO of Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre Oisín O’Reilly said that Ireland’s ranking within the top-15 in Europe “matters and reflects decades of hard-fought progress by campaigners, activists, communities, public servants, political leaders, and civil society organisations across the country.
“But I think this year’s Rainbow Map also points towards a more difficult and important conversation that we now need to have,” he continued.
“For much of the last decade, Ireland became internationally recognised as a symbol of rapid social progress on LGBTQ+ equality. That reputation continues to shape how Ireland presents itself globally, politically, culturally, and economically. Yet behind that reputation, there is growing frustration across many parts of the LGBTQ+ community about the slow pace of continued progress and the widening gap between legal recognition and lived reality.”
O’Reilly went on to note that the government’s National LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Strategy II is being implemented more slowly than desired. He also outlined how LGBTQ+ people in Ireland continue to experience serious barriers in housing, healthcare, poverty, safety, mental health, and community support.
“At Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre, we see these realities every day. We meet people struggling to access healthcare. We support people experiencing crisis, isolation, and exclusion. We see the impact of poverty, rising hate, and deep uncertainty among many trans, non-binary and racialised people in particular,” O’Reilly stated.
“None of this diminishes the importance of the progress Ireland has made. Those victories changed lives, and they matter deeply. But meaningful equality cannot be measured by reputation or laws passed alone.
“The next phase of LGBTQ+ equality in Ireland has to focus on sustained implementation, delivery, infrastructure, and investment in people’s everyday lives. Progress is not permanent. It requires ongoing political commitment, courage, and care, especially at a time when hostility towards LGBTQ+ communities is rising across many parts of the world.
“The challenge now is not whether Ireland can celebrate its past progress. It is whether we are willing to continue moving forward,” O’Reilly concluded.
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Elsewhere on the Rainbow Map, Malta was dethroned from the number one spot for the first time in 10 years. Taking its place is Spain, reflecting a combination of achievements, including a fully functioning depathologisation of trans identities in healthcare; new legal protections; new national LGBTQ+ 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.
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… 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.”
On the flip side, there were a number of damaging developments across the continent, including in Albania, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Turkey and Russia, which remains last on the ranking.
Speaking about this year’s Rainbow Map more broadly, Hugendubel explained it 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.”
To view ILGA-Europe’s 2026 Rainbow Map in full, click here.
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