EU's New LGBTIQ+ Strategy: Challenging Gender Identity Equivalent to Terrorism

The strategy calls for the promotion of trans ideology and the criminalization of hate speech.

The European Commission’s new LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy for 2026-2030, published in October, aims to promote a fully self-determined gender identity, free of any age limit or medical assessment. This means imposing trans ideology in education, sports, economy, family law as well as other fields of life, criminalizing opinions that criticize the approach as “hate speech.”

The European Commission’s strategy lays its focus on a “recommendation” that Member States abandon any restrictive requirements in people’s ability to determine their gender identity. In other words, the aim is to encourage everyone to be able to identify themselves as a member of the opposite sex, for example, and to demand and obtain state recognition of this. This would give everybody – for example, a man who identifies as a woman – a right to demand to be treated as a woman and to be allowed to use, for example, women’s clothing and restroom facilities. Determining one’s gender identity based simply on one’s own perception comes with a demand to be treated not in accordance of one’s biological gender, but the chosen one. Failure to do so, i.e. continuing to refer to a man who identifies as a woman as a man, would be considered hate speech and discrimination. In fact, the issue of hate speech and discrimination features prominently in the EU’s recent LGBTIQ+ strategy. Hate speech, which in Europe is a label often attributed to social media posts expressing non-conforming opinions on trans ideology, or immigration-related issues, for example, is already a criminal offense in many parts of Europe. The new EU strategy adds healthcare, education, employment, housing, culture, and transportation as sites where discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people will not be tolerated. The European Commission is planning sizeable training programs, forums and working groups as means of prevention, and intends to allocate considerable funding for those ends.

The European Network of Women’s Organisations – Athena – has strongly criticized the strategy, arguing that it will silence women. According to the network, the strategy places gender identity and “self-identification” at the center of EU equality policy, but neglects the sex-based protection of women and girls. Although the strategy is not a legal act, it guides funding, legislation, and institutional trends throughout the EU, and sets conditions for candidate countries. “Adopted without democratic scrutiny, the strategy advances an agenda shaped by transactivist lobby groups in Brussels – many of them directly funded by the Commission and highly influential within EU institutions,” writes Athena Forum. “Despite protests from women’s rights organisations, lesbians and gays, parents and detransitioners, the Commission promotes self-ID laws without age restrictions and seeks to embed gender identity across virtually every policy area: civil society, housing, transport, economy, health, education, criminal law, family law, diplomacy, external action, asylum and, crucially, women’s rights. Yet there has been no evaluation of its consequences for women and girls, children and young people or lesbians and gays,” says Athena Forum.

According to the Athena Forum, the strategy is largely based on data from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the Eurobarometer surveys. Both have significant methodological shortcomings, such as confusing gender or gender identity with biological sexy, linking gender identity with sexual orientation, and arbitrarily extending the protected characteristics beyond those listed in the EU Charter. This leads to cross-dressers, i.e. men who occasionally wear stereotypically feminine clothing, being classified as transgender and therefore the vulnerable group of women, which illustrates the conceptual inconsistency of the data underlying the strategy.

Every Person Should Be Free To Choose Their Gender

According to the Commission, Member States currently apply overly divergent rules in situations where someone would wish to choose their own gender, with only nine Member States allowing individuals to self-determine their gender identity. The remaining Member States apply restrictions, with 12 Member States requiring medical procedures before legally recognizing a new gender identity. However, since the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that medical requirements violate human rights (A.P., Garçon and Nicot v. France, 2017), the Commission believes that Member States should completely abandon requirements for a legal recognition of one’s gender identity.

The strategy may even deem psychological counselling, so as to help someone gain clarity about their sexual orientation, as unacceptable. Screenshot from the European Commission’s strategy “LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-2030“.

The strategy also addresses conversion therapy, or so-called conversion practices, which seek to make LGBTIQ+ people change how they feel about themselves – for example, convince homosexuals that they are not strictly homosexual after all. The strategy assesses that such practices must be combated because they “are deeply harmful interventions that rely on the medically false idea that LGBT[IQ+] people are sick, inflicting severe pain and suffering, and resulting in long-lasting psychological and physical damage.” However, today the problem is increasingly not the so-called conversion of homosexuals, but rather the parents’ concerns that their children will at some point say that they are of a different gender. But dealing with these feelings by the help of a psychologist, for example, could also fall under the Commission’s strategy as reprehensible conversion therapy.

According to the Athena Forum, the Commission is therefore pushing laws based on self-perception rather than reality. Allowing individuals, including minors, to choose their gender identity undermines the protection of minors and puts pressure on Member States to remove parental and medical supervision. The Commission’s plan to ban conversion therapy therefore confuses therapeutic, parental or educational measures that do not affirm a person’s declared gender identity as attempts to coerce a change in their sexual orientation. According to the Athena Forum, the approach would even criminalize psychological conversations with one’s children and adolescents when they happen to experience stress over their gender-related or sexual orientation. By lumping all these categories together, the Commission operates on unreliable data that will only pave the way to ideology-based legislation, favoring not only the abolition of the notions of a woman and a man, but erasing lesbians and gays as distinguishable entities as well.

Challenging Gender Identity Equivalent To Terrorism

According to the European Commission, we are still lacking in legislation that would allow for the criminal punishment of crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. According to the Commission, its legislative proposal in 2021 was to add hate speech and hate crimes to the list of crimes set out in Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), but the proposal has not yet moved forward. It is worth noting that Article 83(1) TFEU currently lists terrorism, trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of women and children, illicit drug trafficking, illicit arms trafficking, money laundering, corruption, counterfeiting of means of payment, computer crime and organized crime as its constituents. The European Commission seeks to add hate crimes based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity to the same list at least in some measure of application.

In addition, the Commission has training programs for law enforcement and judicial officials, police officers and judges, to enable them identify LGBTIQ+ phobia in crimes that qualify as hate crimes. The Commission also teaches about LGBTIQ+ phobia and non-discrimination in the context of hate crimes and addresses LGBTIQ+ phobic extremism. The latter is also included in the EU Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism. In cooperation with Member States, work continues to improve the recording of hate crimes and offering of support for victims, and support is provided to organizations working to combat LGBTIQ+ phobia and discrimination so as to provide a safer environment for LGBTIQ+ victims to report the crimes.

The Commission considers social media and digital platforms important spaces for self-expression, identity and belonging, and offers tools for strengthening the voice of LGBTIQ+ people, creating support networks and mobilizing equality advocates, especially amongst the youth and those living in less tolerant environments. The Commission believes that hate speech and harassment online create a hostile digital environment for LGBTIQ+ people. Their safety, well-being, and freedom of expression are at risk, they say, and according to the strategy, LGBTIQ+ people and women are increasingly targeted by narratives that oppose gender equality on the internet. This often takes the form of foreign-influenced information manipulation and interference (FIMI) and disinformation campaigns.

The LGBTIQ+ strategy therefore, highlights the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online service providers to address illegal content, including that which incites hatred or discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people. Large online platforms and search engines are required to assess and mitigate risks, which include impact on human dignity and the right for non-discrimination, as well as the negative effects of gender-based violence and the negative consequences on one’s physical and mental well-being. The Commission assures it intends to vigorously enforce the Digital Services Act, and it is worth noting that this year the European Commission also integrated the Code of Conduct on Disinformation (Code of conduct+) into the Digital Services Act. While the code of conduct was initially voluntary and the option was seen as a lifeline for companies to avoid the forceful implementation of the DSA, the code is now essentially mandatory and the additional censorship requirements it imposes are significant. The LGBTIQ+ strategy emphasizes the code of conduct obliges platforms to improve, for example, the prevention of illegal hate speech, including hate speech directed at LGBTIQ+ people. The strategy warns the Commission will monitor whether the code of conduct is being implemented or not; it will facilitate regular review and adaptation, and support platforms through an online knowledge hub that collects relevant information on all illegal hate speech online. In addition to the DSA, the strategy requires Member States to implement the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which prohibits discriminatory audiovisual content, including discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, or sexual orientation, and the Commission will closely monitor Member States in this regard.

However, the Athena Forum considers it problematic that the European Commission intends to establish the open-ended concept of “gender identity” as a protected ground, equating it with sexual orientation and beyond. The approach assumes that “gender identity” is a tangible and measurable category, while ignoring the inherent contradiction between sexual orientation based on gender and the notion that heterosexual persons of the opposite sex can also identify as homosexual. In other words, the European Commission’s desire to add gender identity motivated hatred and hate speech to the list of crimes in Article 83 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU represents an attempt to enshrine a concept that has no clear or legally defined meaning into the EU law. The said forum finds such vague basis unsuitable for holding anyone criminally liable. Moreover, the concept of “gender identity” itself contradicts gender-based measures provided in the EU legislation, as it replaces gender affiliation with individual self-declaration. The inclusion of such an undefined and subjective category in the criminal law undermines legal clarity, erodes the protection of other groups, and weakens freedom of expression. However, extensive LGBTIQ+ phobia training for the police and judges reinforces a predetermined ideological interpretation unto the decisions of law enforcement agencies and courts.

Everything Must Be “Inclusive” of LGBTIQ+ People, Including Sports

The European Commission’s LGBTIQ+ equality strategy considers it important to develop an inclusive environment for LGBTIQ+ people since early childhood. Safe education is promoted through the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and the New European Bauhaus, which promotes inclusive design in schools and public spaces. In healthcare, the strategy calls for combating discrimination by raising awareness and supporting inclusive vaccination campaigns (e.g. against HPV/HBV) through the European Plan to Combat Cancer. The strategy also addresses mental health issues, which may be exacerbated by additional risk factors for LGBTIQ+ people.

It also highlights the need to promote diversity in sports and to ensure equal access, for example through the #BeActive EU sports awards, European Week of Sports and the annual EU Sports Forum. In addition, the EU has set up a group to combat hate speech in sport, whose task is to educate Member States on how to create an inclusive sports environment. In the field of culture, LGBTIQ+ rights are to be promoted, for example, through the Creative Europe programme and the proposed AgoraEU 2028-2034 programme, which is set to support LGBTIQ+ initiatives and allocate €3.6 billion in the field of citizenship, equality, legal rights and values.

The field of transport has not been omitted either, with diversity, equality and inclusion being promoted through the network of Ambassadors for #DiversityInTransport, nor has the field of artificial intelligence, where the strategy emphasizes the AI Act to prohibit AI systems from classifying people based on their “biometric data” and to require them to avoid prejudice and stereotypes.

Commission Promises To Address Poverty Among LGBTIQ+ People

The strategy emphasizes the importance of diversity and inclusion in promoting innovation and competitiveness. The Employment Equality Directive establishes the right to work without discrimination and harassment, and the Commission intends to enforce the directive with diligence. The European Commission states: “As ‘guardian of the Treaties’, the Commission will monitor Member States’ compliance with EU law, will use all the instruments at its disposal to protect EU values and will not hesitate to take the actions, where appropriate, as it has done in the past.” One example is the 2022 court case (Commission v. Hungary, C-769/22), in which the Commission referred Hungary to the European Court of Justice for discriminating against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Commission also intends to consider tougher sanctions next year to ensure that Member States apply effective, proportionate and dissuasive measures, and confirms that the Commission is firmly committed to diversity and inclusion in employment. To this end, the Commission will continue its LGBTIQ+ focused activities, working with the LGBTIQ+ Equality Expert Group to facilitate dialogue and provide guidance on inclusive recruitment. The Commission’s Diversity and Inclusion Office will also promote LGBTIQ+ rights and work towards the recognition of rainbow families in all institutions, both within the EU and globally. The Commission pledges that the EU will not fund those who incite discrimination, hatred or violence, be it on the basis of one’s gender and sexual orientation, or otherwise.

Furthermore, the strategy finds that discrimination has led to high levels of poverty and homelessness among LGBTIQ+ people. The European Commission therefore believes that this issue must be addressed separately, and in early 2027, the Commission will publish a study on housing inequality and discrimination. The results of the study will help the Commission implement the European affordable housing plan and the 2026 EU anti-poverty strategy, and provide required measures to promote “safe, accessible and non-discriminatory housing.” The Commission also supports socio-economic integration through financial instruments such as the European Social Fund Plus (European Social Fund Plus), national and regional partnership plans (NRPPs) and the European Platform against Homelessness.

Member States Must Establish National LGBTIQ+ Action Plan

The European Commission emphasizes that Member States must establish a national LGBTIQ+ equality action plan by 2027. It also intends to create an LGBTIQ+ policy forum next year, tasking it with the strengthening of cooperation between organizations in the field and offering young LGBTIQ+ people a greater voice in policy-making. There are also plans to launch several equality awareness campaigns by the next year at the latest, so as to improve “non-discrimination” and participation in events such as Pride Month and the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

Commenting on these plans, the Athena Forum has noted that by creating an LGBTIQ+ policy forum consisting of trans activist organizations, the European Commission is further institutionalizing the unilateral influence of special interest groups. For if this platform were truly intended to represent lesbians, gays and bisexuals, it would also include organizations that defend the gender rights of women and girls, such as the Athena Forum, and those defending the rights of lesbians, gays and bisexuals, such as LGB Alliance International, which has noted (on X) how the European Commission fails to consider the association’s proposals, including the one for “separating” LGB issues from those of TQ+.

The LGB Alliance has announced through its Swiss branch that LGB people want “separation” from TQ+. Screenshot.

The Athena Forum concludes that the plan to multiply LGBTIQ+ funding reinforces a one-sided funding system and diverts public sector money away from balanced equality initiatives. The Commission’s active enforcement of the gender identity rulings of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights centralizes their legal interpretation at the EU level and reflects an attempt to use the Union’s judicial institutions to advance political goals that exceed the original scope of those rulings. The measures outlined in the strategy point to a broad institutional takeover, where the contested and unscientific concept of “gender identity” is treated as a valid legal norm and integrated into the EU policy mechanism without democratic debate, evidence or impact assessment.