Greece has tied for 7th place in a ranking of human rights for lesbian, gay, trans, and intersex people across 49 European countries.
The ILGA-Europe’s 2025 Rainbow Map ranking places Greece alongside Germany and Norway, with an overall score reflecting legislative progress. But the high score obscures serious prejudice in public attitudes, instances of violence, and lacking implementation of said protections for lesbian, gay, trans, and intersex people (LGBTI).
ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map annually ranks countries reflecting the legal and policy situation for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people in Europe.
EU-Funded IGLA creates the yearly Rainbow Map by assessing countries across seven key categories: equality and non-discrimination, family rights, hate crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil society space, and asylum. Each of these categories, largely based on legal structures and regulations, then has a host of different criteria.
ILGA-Europe praised Greece’s legal protections for LGBTI people, particularly in anti-discrimination protections that fully cover sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics. Greece is one of only a handful of countries in Europe with full legislative coverage across all these areas. Greece additionally passed a law in 2022 which stipulates that intersex people (those born with one or more traits in their chromosomes, genitals, hormones, or reproductive organs) must consent before any sort of medical intervention.
And in a landmark moment, Greece also became the first Orthodox country to legalize same-sex marriage in February 2024. The law grants adoption rights and parental recognition to same-sex couples. However, there are still many gaps, such as lacking surrogacy access and legal recognition of trans parenthood.
ILGA-Europe rankings for Greece on a scale of 0% (gross violations of human rights, discrimination) and 100% (respect of human rights, full equality) on the basis of laws and policies that have a direct impact on LGBTI people’s human rights, as divided into seven categories.
Despite these ostensible legislative protections, the past year has seen a persistence in anti-LGBTI violence and rhetoric across the country. In March, a violent mob of approximately 150 people assaulted two trans individuals in Thessaloniki, followed by an attack on a protest denouncing the incident. No one was prosecuted. Public figures, including members of the Greek Orthodox Church, artists, and politicians, voiced opposition to the marriage equality law, with several engaging in openly discriminatory speech. In public schools religious opposition led to the removal of inclusive sex education material, and in one stark instance a teacher was suspended for distributing homophobic content in class.
The far-right particularly mobilized against recent gains. Protests dubbed “Family Pride” were held in Athens, Thessaloniki, and Chania to oppose LGBTI rights. While the Athens event was cancelled after significant public backlash, two LGBTI-phobic incidents still occurred at Athens Pride events in May. In March, Colour Youth, an LGBTI organization, was targeted by members of the youth wing of banned neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn. Far-right parties have vocally pushed for the repeal the marriage and gender recognition laws, railed against so-called “woke” culture, and submitted measures seeking to ban “gender ideologies.”
The government’s stance has been far from steadfast. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis admitted the marriage equality bill cost his party politically and announced there would be no further family law changes. Additionally, where Mitsotakis once called for more protection for trans people and those outside the sex binary, this year he caused a stir when announcing that he believes there are only two genders the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as U.S. president.
Public opinion of LGBT people remains fairly discriminatory. A survey by Eteron and King’s College London found that 60% of Greeks support same-sex marriage, but only 37% support adoption rights for same-sex couples.
In regards the Greek justice system, the laws that prohibit hate crimes and discrimination are not often applied. In July, two men were convicted in the 2018 killing of queer activist Zack Kostopoulos, though the police officers charged with deadly bodily harm were all acquitted, and hate crime charges were not accepted in the court. A separate conviction was issued in the 2023 murder of trans woman Anna Ivankova, with the perpetrator sentenced to life imprisonment, though again no hate crime charges were included in the trial.
Recommendations from ILGA-Europe to improve the situation in Greece include: Legal recognition of trans parenthood and gender identity in official documents, including birth certificates; implementation of a detailed national LGBTQ+ Equality Strategy with timelines and budgets; and reforms to allow legal gender recognition based on self-determination, free of medical requirements and age restrictions.
ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map annual score of of Greece on a scale between 0% (gross violations of human rights, discrimination) and 100% (respect of human rights, full equality) for LGBTI people.
On a broader scale, the 2025 Rainbow Map shows shows a backslide in LGBTQ rights across Europe, with countries like Hungary and Georgia enacting anti-LGBTI laws and the UK dropping six places due to restrictive legal definitions of gender.
Katrin Hugendubel, ILGA-Europe’s Advocacy Director, stated “moves in the UK, Hungary, Georgia and beyond signal not just isolated regressions, but a coordinated global backlash aimed at erasing LGBTI rights, cynically framed as the defense of tradition or public stability, but in reality designed to entrench discrimination and suppress dissent.”
While Greece ranked well due to its decent legislative protective structure, the country’s ongoing challenges in combating violence, discrimination, and far-right influence underscore a difficult reality.
