Homophobia and Discrimination on

<strong>Homophobia</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Discrimination</strong> on Grounds of Sexual Orientation <strong>and</strong> Gender Identity in the EU Member States
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• Criminal law (homophobic hate speech <strong>and</strong> hate crime): Data on the number of
police reports or court decisions are collected in Lithuania, United Kingdom <strong>and</strong>
Sweden. In the remaining 24 Member States no data is collected.
• Employment Directive: Data on the number of complaints of discrimination on
the ground of sexual orientation is collected in Austria, Czech Republic, Cyprus,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s, Romania <strong>and</strong> Sweden. In
the remaining 17 Member States no statistics are available.
• Granting of asylum: Data on the number of LGBT persons benefiting from
asylum/subsidiary protection due to persecution on the ground of sexual
orientation is provided in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Latvia <strong>and</strong> Estonia. In the
remaining 22 Member States no statistics are available.
It is clear that reporting systems for national collection of official data are either missing
or are insufficient in most Member States.
A significant data gap
There is a significant lack of both academic research <strong>and</strong> unofficial NGO data regarding
homophobia, transphobia <strong>and</strong> discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation <strong>and</strong>
gender identity in many Member States <strong>and</strong> at the EU level. Existing data from research
carried out in various national contexts rely on different methodologies making made it
difficult to develop a comparative analysis on the extent of discrimination on grounds of
sexual orientation <strong>and</strong> gender identity across the EU in all the areas relating to LGBT
persons.
The data gap analysis shows that there is a profound lack of quantitative <strong>and</strong> qualitative
research <strong>and</strong> statistics on all the thematic areas covered in this report. The area which
appears to be most commonly researched concerns attitudes towards LGBT persons.
The areas of hate crime <strong>and</strong> hate speech, access to health care, labour market <strong>and</strong>
education, have been afforded some research attention in some Member States.
However, transgender issues, multiple discrimination, religion, freedom of assembly,
asylum <strong>and</strong> sports appear to be profoundly under-researched in all EU Member States.