Leo Varadkar: LGBTQ+ rights in Europe face ‘chill wind’ from east and west

Leo Varadkar: 'I was very lucky to be born in the country I was, at the time I was.' File picture: Julien Behal

LGBTQ+ rights in Europe are caught in a “chill wind” from east and west as Vladimir Putin’s Russia exports its conservative agenda and the “Americans are off the pitch” under Donald Trump, former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar, who in 2017 became Ireland’s first out gay prime minister, said Europe needed to “step up” to avoid the continent becoming further squeezed by global forces seeking to chip away at recent progress.

“I’m afraid of where things are going,” he said. “Europe 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 —but it’s a flickering light.” 

Mr Varadkar, who unexpectedly stepped down in 2024, said his role as a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights had given him a frontline view of global efforts to reshape LGBTQ+ rights.

“It’s clear that Russia has decided that this is one of the issues that they’re taking an interest in. Putin has embraced… a particularly conservative form of Christianity, and they’re spreading that message into Europe,” he said.

Russia’s efforts 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, boosted by the introduction of more than 600 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights, Mr 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.

“So 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,” he said. 

There’s a chill wind coming in from the west as well as from the east — and that’s where Europe is now caught.

He said the shifting scenario meant the EU and Europe needed to increase vigilance. “In 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.” 

In 2015, Mr Varadkar made headlines after he came out, disclosing his sexuality on his 36th birthday. At the time, he was a minister and Ireland was four months away from becoming the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote.

'Enormous progress'

He said the landmark vote was part of a period of “enormous progress”, one that had started at the turn of the century but whose trajectory had sharply veered in the last couple of years.

“I 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,” he said. 

“But I think we were maybe a bit naive to think that progress was inevitable, because it isn’t. And it can be reversible as well.” 

Mr Varadkar 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.

“But where progress is happening, it’s slowing down,” he said. “And then in some cases it’s very clearly going backwards: In the US, where they pioneered the ‘don’t say gay’ law in places like Florida; you also see that in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Slovakia.” 

His view is backed by campaigners, who have warned in recent years that countries once at the forefront of advancing rights are rolling them back and, at times, introducing legislation aimed at marginalising communities.

Rights targeted

While Mr Varadkar’s work with Harvard was particularly focused on LGBTQ+ rights, he described it as a crucial piece of a much broader picture. “Often when the rights of one group are targeted, the rights of others are targeted later,” he said.

The hundreds of thousands who last year took to the streets of Budapest to defy the Hungarian government’s efforts to ban Pride were a potent example of this, he said. “There was a real understanding that if you ban marches and freedom of expression by gay people, it could be students next, it could be trade unionists after that,” he said. 

“So if one group is having their freedom attacked then it’s in everyone’s interest that they be defended.” 

For Mr Varadkar, however, there was also another, deeply personal, reason to explain why he had turned his attention to these issues after his career in politics.

“I was very lucky to be born in the country I was, at the time I was,” he said. “Not just to be able to be myself but also to be a leader of my country. I feel that then generates a certain responsibility to other people around the world who maybe have had similar experiences but didn’t with the birth lottery or the time lottery the way I did.”

Guardian