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President Seguro sent Portugal's ban on 'ideological' flags back to parliament in June. Now parliament has passed a rewrite that spells out exactly which flags are allowed — with a PSD carve-out that may or may not leave room for the rainbow flag.
As Belgrade Pride Week runs through September 6, here's where Serbian law actually stands on same-sex couples, gender recognition, and hate crimes — and why campaigners say none of it goes far enough.
Skopje has never had a dedicated government strategy on LGBTIQA+ rights. ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Map 2026 confirms one is now being drafted, against a backdrop of stalled EU accession chapters and a country stuck at 29%.
The 2026 SAWEI report scored South African employers on 110 measures of LGBTQ+ inclusion. Only a handful finished the process — and even top performers still leave queer staff closeted.
From our base in Tirana, here's an honest mid-2026 read on where Albania's LGBTQ+ rights actually stand — the real progress, the missing pieces, and how EU accession keeps nudging both.
Thirty-two years after Serbia decriminalized gay sex, activists are asking the state to formally apologize to the men prosecuted under the old law — and to back the apology with concrete reforms.
The High Court has begun sorting who gets to argue in the case that could make Botswana only the second African country with marriage equality. The constitutional showdown is now scheduled for late October.
A push to force schools to notify parents — and to bar teachers from using a student's chosen name or pronouns without consent — has moved from a handful of statehouses to the center of national politics in 2026.
France was an early mover on marriage equality and has solid legal protections on paper. But trans recognition still runs through the courts, hate crimes are rising, and a resurgent far right has made LGBTQ+ rights a live political target.
Montenegro was the first EU-accession country in the Balkans to recognize same-sex partnerships. Six years on, the law is on the books but unevenly enforced, gender recognition is still missing, and the gap between paper rights and daily life remains wide.
As Sofia Pride struggles with collapsing corporate funding, Bulgaria's governing party has thrown its weight behind a competing 'March of the Family' on the same day — a state-aligned counter-mobilization that says a lot about where the country is heading.
Twenty-six diplomatic missions have urged Cyprus to finally adopt a national LGBT strategy while it holds the EU Council presidency. The island ranks near the bottom of Europe's Rainbow Map — and the timing is pointed.
Nepal was the first country in South Asia to recognize same-sex marriage. Two years on, only a few dozen couples have registered, and the legal benefits of marriage remain out of reach. The Supreme Court heard arguments this spring on whether to finally close the gap.
As Sarajevo Pride Week opens, Bosnia's queer community is marking real legal firsts and absorbing real setbacks in the same year. A look at where rights actually stand across the country's divided institutions — the progress, the rollbacks, and the gap between Sarajevo and Banja Luka.
Same-sex activity has been legal since 1996, but North Macedonia still recognises no partnerships, has no working gender-recognition procedure, and is ignoring a binding European court ruling. With Skopje Pride set for June 20 and EU accession in play, here is where things actually stand.
