Looking Beyond the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Index: Investigating the Everyday Life Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people in Hungary and Poland

The non-government organization ILGA-Europe annually assigns countries a Rainbow Index score based on how respectful of human rights and equality their LGBT legislation is. Since 2013, the Index suggests Hungary has greater LGBT legal protections than Poland. However, contextualized socio-political similarities between the two including democratic erosion which questions their ability to implement, enforce, and execute protections effectively provide the impetus to examine the impact of these anti-discrimination legal protections in practice by inquiring into and comparing the everyday life experiences of LGBT people in both countries. It explores if despite legal differences, everyday LGBT experiences of anti-discrimination and equality are similar. Semi-structured online interviews with 8 Hungarian and Polish LGBT activists explore how LGBT people perceive the impact of their country’s legal protections on everyday experiences and whether discrepancies between the law and experiences of anti discrimination and equality exist. It questions whether legal frameworks, the Rainbow Index’s approach, is appropriate for understanding the situation of LGBT people through an examination of various social and cultural factors which characterize everyday experiences, not considered by the Index, to enhance a more holistic and accurate understanding of Hungarian and Polish LGBT life.