Lithuania remains one of the worst-performing countries in Europe on transgender rights protection, according to an international index released last week.
Transgender Europe (TGEU), an international advocacy group, published its latest 2026 Trans Rights Map, which evaluates the legal status of transgender individuals across 49 European and five Central Asian countries.
"For many years, Lithuania has failed to adopt clear regulations for trans people that comply with human rights. Politicians constantly talk about respect for the individual, but in reality, some people are still forced to live in legal limbo," said Martynas Norbutas, editor of the GayLine portal.
Countries are assessed based on 32 criteria, with Lithuania meeting only five. Iceland topped the index by fulfilling 30 criteria, followed by Spain and Malta. These three countries are the only ones in Europe that TGEU considers to have fully depathologised trans identities within their healthcare systems.
In Europe, only Romania, Hungary and Turkey rank lower than Lithuania. Lithuania's score is on par with Belarus, while neighbouring countries performed better: Poland met 11.5 criteria, Latvia seven, and Estonia 15.
The Trans Rights Map assesses national laws and policies across various sectors, including legal gender recognition, protection against discrimination, hate crimes, asylum, health, and family rights.
According to TGEU data, 38 countries in Europe have legal gender recognition procedures, but 23 still require a mental health diagnosis, nine demand sterilisation, and 15 require a divorce before documents can be changed. Only 12 countries apply a self-identification model, which the organisation considers the human rights standard.
TGEU also said the prevention of hate crimes and discrimination remains insufficient in Europe: only 20 countries prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in employment, and 17 of the 27 European Union member states provide protection against such discrimination in access to goods and services.
The Trans Rights Map is compiled annually and is regarded as one of the most important human rights monitoring tools in Europe.
Lithuania also dropped one position in this year's ILGA-Europe LGBTIQ rights ranking, falling to 37th out of 49 European countries. Lithuania's position in this ranking has gradually declined since the beginning of the decade.
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