Greece is among Europe’s top 10 countries for LGBTQ+ rights, climate and travel, ranking 7th among 49 European states, according to ILGA-Europe’s annual Rainbow Map for 2025.
With an overall score of 69 percent, Greece received high scores for equality and non-discrimination and civil society space.
Researchers note that in February 2024, “Greece became the first Orthodox-majority country to legalize same-sex marriage.”
Malta placed first on the Rainbow Map with a total percentage score of 89 percent, followed by Belgium, Iceland, Denmark and Spain. Russia is on the bottom of the list with a score of two percent and ranked the worst country for LGBTQ+ rights, followed by Azerbaijan, Turkey and Armenia.
Balkan and Eastern European countries like Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Moldova and Croatia received a score between 25-49 percent. The UK, which topped the Rainbow Map in 2015, for 2025 it has fallen again in the annual rankings and now has a score of 45 percent.
“The Rainbow Map 2025 offers a stark snapshot of where Europe stands on LGBTI human rights and highlights the pressing need to defend and advance these rights in the context of acute democratic erosion,” ILGA-Europe said, noting that while there were some positive signs in many countries, others ranked among the very worst climates for the LGBTQ+ community.
Researchers at ILGA-Europe, an advocacy group promoting the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people at the European level, used 76 criteria, which were broken down in thematic categories: equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil society space and asylum. Each country was then given a percentage score and ranked.
Greece becomes 16th country in Europe legalizing same-sex marriage, gives more rights to LGBTQ+ community
In February 2024, Greece approved a bill on same-sex marriage in a landmark reform promoted by the conservative government over the opposition of the country’s powerful Orthodox Church.
“The vote has passed: as of tonight, Greece is proud to become the 16th EU country to legislate marriage equality,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted on X. “This is a milestone for human rights, reflecting today’s Greece — a progressive, and democratic country, passionately committed to European values,” he added.
Mitsotakis, who personally spearheaded the bill, had urged lawmakers to “boldly abolish a serious inequality” in Greek democracy that had rendered same-sex families “invisible”.
The reform would “significantly improve the lives of quite a few of our fellow citizens, without taking away anything from the lives of the many”, he added.
The bill, “Equality in civil marriage, amendment of the Civil Code and Other Provisions” implements the constitutional principle of freedom and the constitutional principle of equality, Parliament’s Scientific Service said in its report on the bill.
Several members of the ruling New Democracy party legislators opposed the bill, but support from opposition parties made it pass, with a majority vote of 176 members in the 300-seat parliament.
