LGBTQ+ rights in Europe are caught in a \u201cchill wind\u201d from east and west as Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia exports its conservative agenda and the \u201cAmericans are off the pitch\u201d under Donald Trump, Ireland\u2019s former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.<\/p>\n
Varadkar, who in 2017 became Ireland\u2019s first out gay prime minister, said Europe needed to \u201cstep up\u201d to avoid the continent becoming further squeezed by global forces seeking to chip away at recent progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m afraid of where things are going,\u201d he said. \u201cEurope is still the light when it comes to human rights and democracy and freedom of expression, given what else is going on in the world \u2013 but it\u2019s a flickering light.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varadkar, who unexpectedly stepped down in 2024<\/a>, said his role as a senior fellow at Harvard University\u2019s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights had given him a frontline view of global efforts to reshape LGBTQ+ rights.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clear that Russia<\/a> has decided that this is one of the issues that they\u2019re taking an interest in. Putin has embraced \u2026 a particularly conservative form of Christianity, and they\u2019re spreading that message into Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s efforts<\/a> had long been countered by the US, particularly in central and eastern Europe, he added. But now, as anti-diversity rhetoric surges across the US<\/a>, boosted by the introduction of more than 600 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights<\/a>, Varadkar said he had been told of US corporations pulling back from sponsoring events such as Pride, and US diplomats declining to attend events once a mainstay on their calendars.<\/p>\n \u201cSo in many ways they had a kind of liberal influence from America pushing one way and very conservative forces from Russia pushing the other way. And now the Americans are off the pitch,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a chill wind coming in from the west as well as from the east \u2013 and that\u2019s where Europe is now caught.\u201d<\/p>\n Varadkar at Belfast Pride in 2019. He has warned that progress in human rights is not guaranteed and can be reversed. Photograph: Paul Faith\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n He said the shifting scenario meant the EU and Europe needed to increase vigilance. \u201cIn the same way we have to be in charge of our own defence, we have to defend what are our European values and our charter of fundamental freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2015, Varadkar made headlines <\/a>after he came out on radio, disclosing his sexuality on his 36th birthday. At the time he was a government minister and Ireland was four months away from becoming the first country to legalise same-sex marriage<\/a> by popular vote.<\/p>\n He said the landmark vote was part of a period of \u201cenormous progress\u201d, one that had started at the turn of the century but whose trajectory had sharply veered in the last couple of years.<\/p>\n \u201cI think maybe 10 years ago we were a little bit naive. We just thought that the tide of history was going one way, and every year we would see more countries liberalising their laws or at least ending criminalisation,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think we were maybe a bit naive to think that progress was inevitable, because it isn\u2019t. And it can be reversible as well.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to marriage equality as an example of the steady progress that had been made. Since 2001, when the Netherlands became the first country in the world to recognise same-sex marriage, more than 30 others have followed.<\/p>\n Leo Varadkar has said rolling back LBGTQ+ rights could mean others, including students and trade unionists, are then targeted. Photograph: Linda Brownlee\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cBut where progress is happening, it\u2019s slowing down,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then in some cases it\u2019s very clearly going backwards: in the US, where they pioneered<\/a> the \u2018don\u2019t say gay\u2019 law in places like Florida; you also see that in Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia.\u201d<\/p>\n