As June begins, Europe enters Pride month. It is a period that celebrates inclusion across the Union, but it also highlights that some of the most contested LGBTQIA+ rights debates at EU level remain unresolved.
Pressure is growing for a Union-wide ban on conversion practices targeting LGBTQ+ people. At the centre of this push is a European Citizens’ Initiative that has gathered more than 1.1 million signatures.
The initiative calls for a binding EU legal ban on practices aimed at changing or repressing sexual orientation or gender identity. These practices have been widely condemned by health and human rights organisations as harmful and discriminatory.
Liberals were among the first political voices in the European Parliament to back the initiative after its registration in January 2024 and have consistently pushed for it to be treated as a legislative priority.
European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib has previously signalled her intention to act on this topic, considering that combating conversion practices is one of the key objectives of the LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026–2030.
The European Commission gave its recommendation in May, encouraging Member States to ban conversion efforts. However, it did not propose binding EU-wide legislation due to a lack of legal unanimity among all nations and instead emphasised greater reliance on national action.
The urgency of the issue is underlined by the scale of experience reported across Europe. Nearly one in four LGBTQ+ people in the EU say they have been subjected to some form of conversion practice. Liberals are urging Member States to turn political commitments into binding national bans.
Commissioner Lahbib made this clear:
“We are calling on all EU Member States to ban conversion practices at national level, and we will support them. Because no one needs to be ‘fixed’. Everyone deserves to live freely, safely and with dignity.”
Liberals have repeatedly made clear that these practices have no place in a Union built on equality and non-discrimination. The current approach risks sending mixed signals at a time when hate is on the rise and we cannot compromise basic human rights.
A Union that celebrates equality cannot leave space for harmful practices to persist unevenly across its territory. As Pride month begins, European liberals are pushing for a Union that banishes discrimination from its arsenal.