The annual Rainbow Map ranking has named Malta as the best nation for #LGBTQ+ rights in Europe for the eighth year in a row, while the UK’s score continues to fall. ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map and Index has ranked European countries on the basis of their “legal and policy situation” for LGBTQ+ people each year since 2009. The index ranks countries from zero to 100 per cent, with zero representing gross violations of human rights, and 100 representing full equality. Countries are marked in seven categories: #equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil society space, and #asylum. The 2023 list published on Thursday (11 May) placed #Malta top, with a score of 89 per cent. Rising in the ranks to fourth place was #Spain (74 per cent), which ILGA-Europe said was due to the country’s ground-breaking introduction of a #selfID law for #trans people. Until 2015, the UK consistently achieved the number-one spot in the rankings, but since then has slipped down the list. It was down in 10th in 2021 before falling to 14th in 2021. This year, the country dropped further still and now sits in 17th place. The worst countries for LGBTQ+ people in Europe are #Azerbaijan (two per cent), #Turkey (four per cent), and #Armenia (eight per cent). Those three countries have retained the bottom three places for the past three years. Previous reasons for the UK’s slide have been the government’s immigration reforms, including its plan to deport some asylum seekers to #Rwanda, which ILGA-Europe claimed “would expose LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to unprecedented risk of violence”. Other reasons cited for the UK’s fall were long wait times for gender-affirming care and anti-trans rhetoric in the media. Author #JKRowling has also been specifically mentioned in ILGA-Europe’s reports in previous years, with the organisation claiming in 2021 that “anti-trans rhetoric continues to cause serious damage in the UK”, and describing tweets by the #HarryPotter creator as “transphobic attacks”. #translivesmatter🏳️⚧️ #transrightsarehumanrights #queertok #queernews #uknews