European council names UK alongside Russia and Poland as unsafe areas for LGBT+ people

The UK has been named as a country notable for “extensive and often virulent attacks on the rights of LGBT+ people” over the past several years. The unfortunate accolade put the nation alongside such places as Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey as an area of concern regarding the safety of LGBT+ rights.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the overarching human rights body of Europe. They condemned the attacks on LGBT+ people and said that advances made in equal rights were under threat, most visibly in these five countries.
Council members approved the conclusions at a meeting held on Tuesday 25 January even though a group of Labour MPs proposed an amendment to remove the UK from the list).
The UK was included on the unsafe for LGBT+ people area list because of the rise of anti-trans rhetoric in the country. Authors found the “baseless and concerning credibility” these views had been given was “at the expense of both trans people’s civil liberties and women’s and children’s rights” in the country.
In its report, the council referred to Kemi Badenoch MP, then minister for equalities, stating in 2021: “We do not believe in self-identification.”
Authors said such rhetoric “denies trans identities” and, in doing so, “is being used to roll back the rights of trans and non-binary people and is contributing to growing human rights problems.”
They pointed to UK hate crime statistics which show a sharp increase in transphobic crimes since 2015 – though only one in seven victims report them to an authority.
The report also noted that in countries where governments had in the past acted to protect the rights of LGBT+ people, “legislative progress has in many cases stalled”. The council also said: “Trans rights organisations have faced vitriolic media campaigns, in which trans women especially are vilified and misrepresented”.
In conversations about trans people, and trans rights, it wrote: “Arguments defending freedom of expression have been – and are still being – used as a tool to justify transphobic rhetoric, further penalising and harming already marginalised trans people and communities.”
The members called on politicians to reframe debates “to correspond to complex realities rather than catchy but simplistic slogans” to help progress the rights of LGBT+ people in the UK.
The report has passed a vote in the European Assembly by 72 to 12, with members agreeing to a series of recommendations to try and combat “rising hate against LGBT+ people in Europe”.
These include calling on member states “to tackle hatred and discrimination against LGBT+ people with renewed energy and urgency.”
Member states have been told to “redouble their efforts in this field” and the council pledged to “strengthen its own activities to protect and promote the rights of LGBT+ persons in Europe”.
It added that “adequate resources are allocated” to work on equal rights for LGBT+ people, “combating hate speech and hate crime”.
Responding to the approval of the resolution, a spokesperson for the government’s Equality Hub spokesperson said:
“This government is fully committed to advancing LGBT rights and championing equality and the UK continues to be recognised as one of the top ten most progressive countries in Europe for LGBT rights by ILGA-Europe.
“In recent years we have taken great strides, including extending same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland, passing the Turing Law and announcing an inquiry into the treatment of LGBT veterans. This year the UK Government will host its first international LGBT conference ‘Safe To Be Me’.”

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