How did LGBTQ take over the EU? How the EU used LGBTQ advocacy to demonise the East

Over the past 20 years, sexual identity has become core to the way in which the European Union defines its sense of self. The championing of LGBTQ rights is perhaps the cornerstone of the EU's claim to the progressive mantle of history. From education to transport policy, mainstreaming LGBTQ identities is a key focus of EU policymaking. 

How did LGBTQ rights become so central to the EU? Who has been involved in this transformation of policy? And what role does LGBTQ advocacy really serve?

This report provides a fresh perspective to answer these three questions. The report argues that the EU has developed a dangerously symbiotic relationship with a cluster of LGBTQ advocacy NGOs. The chief amongst these, ILGA-Europe, has become something of an unofficial EU body. These groups, supported by significant EU funding, have successfully pushed the EU to advocate ever more extreme positions about identity, gender and sex. 

This report argues that the reason for the EU's effective transformation into a supranational LGBTQ advocacy group is that it provides the EU with a unique source of moral authority. This new authority - as the champion of "disadvantaged people" - has been crucial in allowing the EU to manage, supervise, and ultimately push around the new Member States of Eastern and Central Europe. These Member States, such as Poland or Hungary, have been cast as "backward" or "norm-violators" for not getting with the programme of the latest developments of LGBTQ ideology. 

This, ultimately, has been the real reason for the EU's increasing focus on LGBTQ rights - not any concern for disadvantaged people. This report illustrates this tranformation in engaging detail.