The Frontline: Behind The Rainbow Map: Activism in the Lowest Ranking Countries
In this episode of our Frontline Podcast, we ask the question, if a country stays at the bottom of the Rainbow Map ranking, where advocacy is not possible, and daily life for LGBTI people is often extremely challenging, what’s happening in the work towards LGBTI rights and equality?
Every year since 2009, ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map has been ranking the 49 countries that make up Europe based on the legal and policy situations of LGBTI people.
While during this time there has been much movement at the top of the map, with Spain, Finland, Greece and Moldova making big jumps this year, the countries at the bottom have largely been the same since the very first map, namely Russia, Armenia, Turkey, and at the very bottom Azerbaijan.
In this episode of our podcast, The Frontline, we ask the question, if a country stays at the bottom of the Rainbow Map ranking, does it mean there’s no queer activism happening there? In countries where advocacy is not possible, and where daily life for LGBTI people is often extremely challenging, what’s happening in the work towards LGBTI rights and equality? And is this mostly invisible activism bringing about change for LGBTI people in the countries where it seems life is getting worse rather than better?
